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Angela Lansbury Biography

(1925–)

Related Works

Films
1944 Gaslight
1944 National Velvet
1945 The Picture of Dorian Gray

1946 The Harvey Girls
1946 The Hoodlum Saint
1946 The Private Affairs of Bel Ami
1948 If Winter Comes
1948 Tenth Avenue Angel
1948 State of the Union
1948 The Three Musketeers
1949 Samson and Delilah
1950 The Red Danube
1952 Mutiny
1953 Remains to be Seen
1955 The Purple Mask
1955 The Court Jester
1955 A Lawless Street
1956 Please Murder Me
1958 The Long Hot Summer
1958 The Reluctant Débutante
1959 Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (US Season of Passion)
1960 A Breath of Scandal
1960 The Dark at the Top of the Stairs
1961 Blue Hawaii
1962 All Fall Down
1962 The Manchurian Candidate
1962 In the Cool of the Day
1964 The World of Henry Orient
1964 Dear Heart
1965 The Greatest Story Ever Told
1965 Harlow
1966 Mister Buddwing
1970 Something for Everyone (UK Black Flowers for the Bride)
1971 Bedknobs and Broomsticks
1978 Death on the Nile
1979 The Lady Vanishes
1980 The Mirror Crack'd
1982 The Pirates of Penzance
1984 The Company of Wolves
1991 Beauty and the Beast (voiceover)
1997 Anastasia (voiceover)
Theater Roles
1964 Anyone Can Whistle
1966 Mame
1969 Dear World
1973 Gypsy
1978 The King and I
1979 Sweeney Todd
2007 Deuce
2009 Blithe Spirit

» More

Related People

Actress. Born on October 16, 1925, in London, England. Angela Lansbury is an accomplished film, theater, and television actress who has been nominated for nearly every acting honor imaginable. She has been (at least) nominated for an Academy Award, a Tony Award and an Emmy Award. This beloved actress is known by many for her role as the crime-solving mystery writer Jessica Fletcher on the long-running television series Murder, She Wrote.

Not long after arriving in the United States in 1940, Lansbury scored an important film role. She appeared in 1944's Gaslight opposite Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer. Playing the house maid Nancy, Lansbury held her own against such established stars and earned an Academy Award nomination for Actress in a Supporting Role. She was nominated again the next year for playing Sibyl Vane in The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Angela Lansbury continued making films, including The Manchurian Candidate (1963), which brought her a third Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. A versatile performer, she appeared in the movie musical Bedknobs and Broomsticks in 1971 and on stage in such musical productions, such as Mame (1966), Dear World (1969), Gypsy (1974), and Sweeney Todd (1979). Lansbury won the Best Actress in a Musical for all four of these plays.

In 1980s, Angela Lansbury found success on the small screen. In beginning in 1984, she played the role of Jessica Fletcher in the popular TV mystery series Murder, She Wrote. As the diplomatic, kind, and clever Mrs. Fletcher, she earned Emmy Award nominations in the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series category every year from 1985 to 1996.

After the show ended, Lansbury has appeared in television movies including some Murder, She Wrote specials and in feature films, such as Nanny McPhee (2005). She has also made television guest appearances. The most notable one was on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in 2005, which earned her an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. During her career, she has voiced several animated characters for such films as Beauty and the Beast (1991) and Anastasia (1997).

In 2007 she returned to Broadway, performing in the show Deuce. Lansbury played a former tennis pro who reunites with her doubles partner for an honors ceremony at the US Open. In 2009, she appeared again on stage for Blithe Spirit, a play about a man who is haunted by the ghost of his ex-wife. The performance earned Lansbury a Tony award for Best Supporting Actress in 2009. The recent win ties Lansbury with performer Julie Harris for the record number of Tony wins.