Michael Douglas Und Catherine Zeta Jones

Accolade-winning actress Angela Lansbury has entertained audiences for decades on stage and screen, including her 12-year stint equally Jessica Fletcher on the 1984 series 'Murder, She Wrote.'

Who Is Angela Lansbury?

Known for taking on various roles in film, television and on stage, Angela Lansbury was nominated for an Academy Honour after actualization in her first moving-picture show, Gaslight (1944). She connected her movie work during the '60s and '70s while also starring in television projects. In 1984, she debuted as Jessica Fletcher in the popular series Murder, She Wrote, which would meet the next decade. Lansbury has also won several Tony Awards for her work in projects similar Mame, Gypsy and Sweeney Todd.

Early Life

Angela Brigid Lansbury was born on October xvi, 1925, in the neighborhood of Poplar, located in the East End of London, England. Her female parent, Belfast-born Moyna MacGill, was a stage actress as well, having worked with contemporaries like John Gielgud and Basil Rathbone. Her father, Edward Lansbury, was a noted political leader whose male parent George was the founder of his land's Labour Political party.

Lansbury'south father died when she was ix years old, which would impact her for the rest of her life. For a time she lived in Ireland during her preadolescence, where both she and her sister attended interim school. In the midst of German air attacks during the London Blitz, Lansbury, her mother and 2 younger brothers fled the war and immigrated to the The states in 1940, settling in New York.

Multiple Oscar Nominations

In New York City, Lansbury received a scholarship to report drama at the Lucy Fagan school. Her mother took a job with a Canadian production and instructed Lansbury to motion to Los Angeles, where the fledgling actress worked in a department shop before landing her debut picture show office. She appeared in 1944's Gaslight reverse Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer. Playing the housemaid Nancy, Lansbury held her ain confronting established stars and earned an Academy Award nomination for Actress in a Supporting Office.

She was nominated again the next yr and won a Golden Globe for playing trip the light fantastic toe hall lady Sibyl Vane in The Moving picture of Dorian Gray, which followed the story of a man who makes a supernatural pact to remain young at a high price. Lansbury landed other major roles early in her career, including that of Elizabeth Taylor's older sister in National Velvet (1944) and opposite Judy Garland and Cyd Charisse in The Harvey Girls (1946). Lansbury was often bandage as supporting characters and in fact, would be known for roles where she played figures considerably older than her real historic period.

Lansbury connected making films into the next decade, including The Manchurian Candidate (1963), which brought her a third University Award nomination for supporting actress. Other motion picture appearances during the '60s included Bluish Hawaii (1961) with Elvis Presley, The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965) and the biblicalThe Greatest Story Ever Told, with the latter co-starring Charlton Heston and Max von Sydow. After appearing inMister Buddwing (1966), she starred as a countess in the comedy Something for Everyone, opposite Michael York, and then in the partially-blithe Disney movie musical Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), playing the witch Miss Cost.

Angela Lansbury in 1950

Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

'Murder, She Wrote'

Lansbury alternated between pic, television and the stage for years, finding success on the modest screen by the mid-1980s. Beginning in 1984, she played sleuth Jessica Fletcher in the pop Television set mystery serial Murder, She Wrote. As the diplomatic, kind and clever Fletcher, Lansbury earned Emmy Award nominations in the Outstanding Pb Actress in a Drama Series category every year from 1985 to 1996, eventually taking over product duties for the show likewise.

Later the show ended, Lansbury appeared in television movies, including some Murder, She Wrote specials, and feature films. She has also fabricated Tv guest appearances. She made a notable appearance on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit of measurement in 2005, which earned her an Emmy Accolade nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. She has voiced several animated characters as well for films includingDazzler and the Beast (1991), in which she voiced Mrs. Potts and sang the title track "Beauty and the Beast" and "Be Our Guest" with Jerry Orbach, and Anastasia (1997).

In 2014, Lansbury received an honorary Academy Award for her cinematic achievements.

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Angela Lansbury every bit Jessica Fletcher in "Murder, She Wrote"

Photo: Randy Marcus/NBC/NBCU Photograph Depository financial institution via Getty Images

Tony-Winning Star of Stage

In addition to her screen work, Lansbury is regarded as one of the nigh iconic phase performers of all time on both sides of the pond. She made her Broadway debut in 1957 with the play Hotel Paradiso. A role in the drama A Taste of Honey (1961) and the Stephen Sondheim musical Anyone Tin can Whistle (1964) followed.

A powerhouse singer, Lansbury landed the lead function equally the titular character in the musical production Mame (1966), playing a grand free spirit who attempts to guide her nephew downward a true-to-self path. This was followed by her function as the mad Countess Aurelia in Honey World (1969) then every bit the famed Mama Rose in Gypsy (1974). Lansbury later portrayed special pie preparer, Mrs. Lovett, in Sondheim'south Sweeney Todd (1979). Lansbury won Tony Awards for Actress in a Musical for all iv of these productions.

In 2007, she returned to Broadway afterwards more than two decades, performing in the show Deuce. Lansbury played a one-time tennis pro who reunites with her doubles partner for an honors ceremony at the U.S. Open. In 2009, she appeared again on stage for Blithe Spirit, the revival of a Noel Coward play virtually a human being who is haunted by the ghost of his ex-married woman. In reference to her role of Madame Arcati, Ben Brantley wrote for The New York Times, "for pure originality and expressiveness, it'south hard to imagine any Broadway chorus line topping the solo dances performed here by an 83-year-old woman with a superfluity of bad jewelry, the gait of a gazelle and a repertory of poses that bring to mind Egyptian hieroglyphs."

The lauded operation earned Lansbury another Tony award in 2009 for Featured Extra. This tied Lansbury with performer Julie Harris for a record 5 Tony Award wins, with merely Audra McDonald having surpassed this number as of 2014. Lansbury has thankfully continued her phase work, playing Madame Armfeldt in the 2009 revival of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music, opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones, and in 2012 taking on a lead office in the Gore Vidal satire The All-time Homo.

Angela Lansbury in 1989

Photo: Ron Galella/WireImage

'Mary Poppins Returns'

Lansbury played the "Balloon Lady" in the 2018 movie Mary Poppins Returns. Despite rumors that she also had a office in 1964's Mary Poppins, she was not in the original picture.

Personal Life

When she was 19, Lansbury was midweek for a short time to boyfriend actor Richard Cromwell. He left the marriage several months after their wedding and information technology was later revealed that he was gay. Then in 1949, she married British actor Peter Shaw, who would go on to become her managing director and launch a production company that would be heavily involved in Murder, She Wrote. The couple was together for more five decades and had 2 children, Anthony and Deirdre.

Upon Shaw'southward decease in 2003, Lansbury entered a period of low. She eventually recovered, in part crediting her theatrical work and extra Emma Thompson, who provided Lansbury with the part of evil Aunt Adelaide in 2005's Nanny McPhee.

In November 2017, the extra was back in the news afterwards beingness asked for her take on the recent sexual harassment scandals that had ensnared the industry. She drew fire for her response, which included her view that women "must sometimes take arraign."

Lansbury later insisted that she had been misunderstood. "Those who have known the quality of my work and the many public statements I accept made over the class of my life, must know, that I am a stiff supporter of women's rights," she said. "I would like to add together that I am troubled by how quickly and brutishly some have taken my comments out of context and attempted to blame my generation, my age, or my mindset, without having read the entirety of what I said."

Source: https://www.biography.com/actor/angela-lansbury

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