Her trophy cabinet did not lie. Over the course of a career that has spannedover seventy years, Angela Lansbury has been awarded many times. As a filmactress, with an honorary Oscar as the final piece, as the shining centerpiecein theater musicals and as the versatile voice in all kinds of animationfilms. But international audiences mostly knew her as the astute JessicaFletcher, who spent 12 years solving one crime after another in the AmericanTV series. Murder, She Wrote. “There’s not a crime I haven’t solved,” shesaid, when she retired from that role in 1996.
But she continued to work after that, into old age. She was not ready to stopyet, she already said a few years ago: “I will probably die with a script inmy hands.” She passed away on October 11, five days before her 97th birthday.
Angela Lansbury was born in London in 1925. Her grandfather was a Labor Partyleader in the 1930s, her father was also a Labor politician and her mother wasan Irish actress. In 1940 she and her parents evacuated to America to escapethe German bombing of London. She studied theater in New York and ended up inHollywood through her mother’s contacts.
In 1944, at the age of nineteen, she made her film debut in the thriller_gaslight_ , starring Ingrid Bergman. Lansbury played a maid who was notnearly as innocent as her poppy little face suggested. She was promptlynominated for Best Supporting Actress – as a result of which film company MGMlanded her a seven-year contract. Also for her performance in The Picture ofDorian Gray (1945) and The Manchurian Candidate (1962) she was able toreceive such a supporting role nomination.
But despite that rapid success, the glamor of stardom was not yet for her. Sheusually got to play character roles, who often faced the protagonists withvillainous intentions. Icy, dominating ladies, or snippy types. And all thosecharacters were usually older than Angela Lansbury herself. That only changedwhen she started to combine her film career from the 1950s with stage andmusical roles.
After a number of small-scale theater productions, her breakthrough followedin 1966 as the extravagant aunt who was the main character in the musical_Mame_. That colorful role made her a star, at least in America. But then_Mame_ was made into a film in 1974, the producers preferred to have LucilleBall in the lead role – who was more famous. “That was one of the bitterestdisappointments of my life,” Lansbury said later. There was, however, littleconsolation: the film was a resounding flop. And then Lansbury’s greatestBroadway triumph was yet to come: the morbid, yet sensitive role of thenineteenth-century pastry chef in the horror musical. Sweeney Todd (1979) byStephen Sondheim.
The TV series began in 1984 Murder, She Wrote who made her world famous asthe retired school teacher Jessica Fletcher, who started writing detectivebooks after her husband’s death and was also confronted with real-lifemurders. Lansbury was committed to playing an authentic, aging woman whom manyviewers would identify with – rather than the somewhat caricatured Miss Marplewho solved the murders in much of Agatha Christie’s work. Gradually, the leadactress also attracted more and more power. But after twelve years, the seriesstopped because, according to the advertisers, it attracted too few youngerviewers.
Meanwhile, Angela Lansbury also found new ground as a voice actress inanimated films, such as the maternal teapot Mrs. Potts in the Disney movie_Beauty and the Beast_ (1991). In that role she also sang the charming titlesong. She also remained active in films and TV series. And in addition, shewas increasingly honored – for a career that was exceptionally versatile.