Angela Lansbury recently reflected that, despite her early success, she was never given the opportunity to play the parts she wished for when she was younger.
Lansbury, who passed away on Tuesday at the age of 96, said in an interview that she had conducted in 1984 that she believed she did not have the precise face of a classic romantic leading woman.
She said at the time, “I kept wishing to play the Jean Arthur characters, and film producer Mr. Louis B. Mayer kept casting me as a succession of venal bitches.” Lansbury had previously performed the role of a snobbish 45-year-old publisher in State of the Union when she was just 22 years old. In the film If Winter Comes, she portrayed the bitter wife of Walter Pidgeon, who was 35 years old at the time.
“I played so many hags 20 years older than myself in those early films that today everyone believes I’m 80 years old!” she remarked to the audience. “I portrayed so many hags 20 years older than myself in those early films.” “I never had the chocolate-box features that were desired for romantic leads in those days,” she said. “They never got it from me.”
When Lansbury looked back on her work at the time, she realized that it would be beneficial for her to schedule employees based on her talents rather than her attractiveness.
She stated this by saying, “As a character actress, I accomplished two things.” “First, a balanced understanding of my off-screen persona and the aspects of my personal life that I’ve worked hard to keep apart from the personas I play on television. And second, a career that has lasted longer than that of many of the leading females who depended on their appearances to further their careers.”
Lansbury wed Peter Shaw in 1949, and he went on to have a successful career as an agent and executive at MGM. She and Shaw were also the parents of two more children: Anthony, who is now 70, and Deirdre, who is now 69. She was responsible for the upbringing of David, who was Shaw’s son.
During that time, she expressed her regret, saying that she wished she had “spent more time with my family and less time doing lousy movies.”
At that point in time, she had already played the role of a mother to Elvis Presley in the 1961 film Blue Hawaii, Warren Beatty in the 1962 film All Fall Down, and even Laurence Harvey in the film The Manchurian Candidate (1962).
Lansbury was presented with the Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre in June of this year, making it the sixth Tony Award that she has won altogether.
The icon of Broadway earned four Tony Awards between the time she played Mame Dennis in 1966’s Mame and Mrs. Lovett in 1979’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Her most recent Tony came for her performance in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The Tony Award she received for her performance in the play Blithe Spirit in 2009 was her first ever for a role in a play as opposed to a musical. She has been honored with many Tony Awards, an honorary Oscar in 2013, and a staggering 12 Emmy nominations for her performance as Jessica Fletcher in the television series Murder, She Wrote; nevertheless, she has never taken home the trophy for either award.
In a statement that was received on Tuesday, Lansbury’s family broke the news that she had passed away.
“The children of Dame Angela Lansbury are heartbroken to report that their mother passed away quietly in her sleep at home in Los Angeles at 1:30 a.m. today, Tuesday, October 11, 2022,” they stated in a statement. “She passed away only five days away from her 97th birthday.”
In addition to her three children, Anthony, Deirdre, and David, she is survived by five great-grandkids, three grandchildren, Peter, Katherine, and Ian, and her brother, producer Edgar Lansbury, according to the statement. “Peter Shaw, her spouse of 53 years, passed away before she did. He was her predecessor. At a time that has not yet been decided, there will be a private ceremony for the family.”
