Angela Lansbury

Dame Angela Brigid Lansbury, DBE (born October 16, 1925) is an English actress and singer who has appeared in theatre, television, and film. Her career has spanned seven decades, much of it based in the United States, and her work has attracted international attention. Lansbury was born to an upper middle-class family in central London, the daughter of Irish actress Moyna Macgill and English politician Edgar Lansbury. To escape The Blitz, in 1940 she moved to the United States, there studying acting in New York City. Proceeding to Hollywood, Los Angeles in 1942, she signed to MGM and obtained her first film roles, in Gaslight (1944) and The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), earning her two Oscar nominations and a Golden Globe Award. She appeared in eleven further MGM films, mostly in minor roles, and after her contract ended in 1952 she began supplementing her cinematic work with theatrical appearances. Although largely seen as a B-list star during this period, her appearance in the film The Manchurian Candidate (1962) received widespread acclaim and is cited as being one of her finest performances. Moving into musical theater, Lansbury finally gained stardom for her starring role in the Broadway musical Mame (1966), which earned her a range of awards and established her as a gay icon. Amid difficulties in her personal life, Lansbury relocated from California to County Cork, Ireland in 1970, and continued with a variety of theatrical and cinematic appearances throughout that decade. Moving into television in 1984, Lansbury achieved widespread fame as the fictional writer and sleuth Jessica Fletcher in the American murder mystery series Murder, She Wrote, which ran for twelve seasons until 1996, becoming one of the longest-running detective drama series in television history. She assumed ownership of the series and was executive producer for the final four seasons. She also moved into voice work, thereby contributing to animated films like Disney's Beauty and the Beast (1991). Since then, she has toured in a variety of international productions and continued to make occasional film appearances. Lansbury has won an Honorary Oscar, five Tony Awards, six Golden Globes and an Olivier Award. She has also been nominated for numerous other industry awards, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress on three occasions, and various Primetime Emmy Awards on eighteen occasions. She has been the subject of three biographies.