Several decades ago (!) I was sitting in the auditorium of the National Film Theatrein London. On stage was one of my favorite actresses who was discussing her career which started off aged 17 playing a maid in her first Hollywood film in 1944. 
It was called GASLIGHT and the young Angela Lansbury and for her performance sheb received her first-ever Oscar Nomination. A year late she would receive her second Oscar nomination (and her first Golden Globe Award) for The Picture of Dorian Grey
The star of Gaslight was the legendary Ingrid Bergman who won the Oscar for her performance. She also happened to be sitting right behind me on that Sunday afternoon in London …..but that’s another story.
That’s not the main reason that this event sticks so clearly in my mind, it was how Miss Lansbury (the Damehood was still to come) talked about how good Hollywood had been to her. She 
explained that in the 50s and 60s when roles for women were not exactly plentiful, unlike many of her fellow actresses, she never ever stopped working.
It was refreshing how she admitted that some of the output were ‘B’ movies and not always ‘ideal’ but she never disparaged any of it. In fact, she relished telling us how in that period she played quite a few mothers to actors who were actually younger. When she played Elvis’s mother in Blue Hawaii in 1961 he was a mere 9 years older than her. A year later she played 37 year Laurence Harvey’s somewhat evil mother in The Manchurian Candidate picking up her 3rd Oscar Nomination amd winning anothet Golden Globe,
One of her films from this period that deserved greater recognition was Something For Everyone directed by Hal Prince which became something of a cult gay movie It also starred a very young and extremely good-looking Michael York, with Angela played a destitute grand Countess which gave her plenty of opportunities to be very campy.
Angela, a very consummate actor, was also a natural for musicals …… especially those penned by Sondheim. So my second favorite clip is her creating the role of Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd which earned her another Tony Award. We had the pleasure of seeing this production which was a sheer joy deservedly collecting 8 Tony Awards in total
In 1966 Angela starred in Jerry Herman’s new musical MAME after Mary Martin foolishly turned the part down Her co-star in this original production was Bea Arthur …. and both of them won Tony Awards for their performances. Here are the two of them at the Tony Awards ceremony having fun with one of the numbers from the show.
In 2007 I had the great good fortune to see Miss Lansbury on Broadway once again with co-star Marion Seldes in Deuce a Terrence McNally play for which she received yet another Tony Nomination. 7 years later HM The Queen made her a Dame: a well-deserved honor, and although she has conquered the whole world, Dame Angela was very much an Englishwoman. And one we are all very proud of and wil miss dearly
Labels: 2022, Dame Angela Lansbury, obituary
