ANGELA LANSBURY
Angela Lansbury
- (Angela Lansbury, 1943)
Biography
BIO
Angela Lansbury was born Angela Brigid Lansbury in London, in 1925. Her father, Edgar Lansbury, was a prominent politician and businessman. Her mother, the actress Moyna MacGill, was married to another man when she became pregnant with Lansbury. Her father died a few years later from stomach cancer and her mother moved in with a former colonel in the British Army. The union was an unhappy one and her mother fled with Lansbury to New York City just prior to the World War II German bombing campaign of London. They finally settled in Hollywood.
Lansbury was working at a department store in Los Angeles when she won a casting audition for a co-starring role in Gaslight (1944). She was nominated for an Academy Award for her film debut and, the following year, garnered another for her performance in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945). She received her third Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for The Manchurian Candidate (1962).
In the early 1950s, Lansbury turned to television roles. She starred in the long-running series Murder, She Wrote (1984-1996).
Lansbury made her Broadway stage debut in 1957 and went on to win many accolades. She won four Best Actress in a Musical Tony Awards for her performances in:
- Mame (1966-1970),
- Dear World (1969),
- Gypsy (1974-1975) and
- Sweeney Todd (1979-1980).
For her dramatic stage work in Blithe Spirit (2009), Lansbury received the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play.
She also received a Best Actress Tony nomination for Deuce (2007) and a Best Featured Actress Tony nomination for A Little Night Music (2009-2010).
In 1994, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom appointed her a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
In 1945, Lansbury married the actor Richard Cromwell when she was 19 and he was 35. Unbeknownst to her, Cromwell was bi-sexual and the marriage dissolved after a year, but the two remained friends.
In 1949, she married the actor and businessman Peter Shaw. Shaw was instrumental in guiding and managing Lansbury's career. They raised three children, two of whom entered the film business. Anthony Pullen Shaw is a film director and David Shaw a producer. Her husband died in 2003.
Additional English stage history is available at: 
Additional Broadway stage history is available at: 
Additional biographical information is available at: 
