Angela Lansbury, 96, ist eine britisch-amerikanische Schauspielerin, die für ihre vielen Theater-, Film- und Fernsehrollen bekannt ist. Ihre Karriere im Showgeschäft erstreckte sich über fast 80 Jahre und sie gilt als einer der letzten verbliebenen Stars aus dem Goldenen Zeitalter von Hollywood.
Am bekanntesten ist sie für ihre Rollen in "Botschafter der Angst", "Mame", "Die tollkühne Hexe in ihrem fliegenden Bett" und "Mord ist ihr Hobby". Lansbury lieh außerdem ihre Stimme für beliebte Animationsfilme wie "Die Schöne und das Biest" und "Anastasia".
Im Laufe ihrer langen Karriere wurde sie mit vielen Preisen ausgezeichnet, darunter ein Ehren-Oscar und ein Lifetime Achievement Award der BAFTA. Außerdem hat sie unglaubliche fünf Tony Awards, sechs Golden Globes und einen Olivier Award gewonnen, neben vielen anderen Nominierungen.
Doch neben ihrer steilen Karriere hat Lansbury auch ein bewegtes Privatleben hinter sich. Im Alter von 19 Jahren heiratete Lansbury einen anderen Schauspieler namens Richard Cromwell, der damals 35 Jahre alt war. Weniger als ein Jahr später ließ sich das Paar scheiden, aber nicht wegen des Altersunterschieds. Obwohl die Gründe für die Trennung damals nicht bekannt gegeben wurden, wurde später bekannt, dass Cromwell schwul war. Trotzdem blieben die beiden bis zu seinem Tod im Jahr 1960 eng befreundet.
Im Jahr 1949, als Lansbury etwa 24 Jahre alt war, heiratete sie die Liebe ihres Lebens, Peter Shaw. Gemeinsam hatten sie zwei Kinder – einen Sohn namens Anthony und eine Tochter namens Deirdre. Ihre Liebe war ungebrochen und das Paar blieb bis zu Shaws Tod im Jahr 2003 zusammen, woraufhin Lansbury eine depressive Phase der Trauer durchlebte.
Lies weiter, um mehr über ihr Liebesleben im Laufe der Jahre zu erfahren.
Early Life
Angela was born to an upper-middle-class family in central London on Oct. 16, 1925. Her mother was actress Moyna Macgill and her father was a timber merchant and politician named Edgar Lansbury. Angela’s father passed away from stomach cancer when she was 9 and the actress has said that playing characters helped her cope with her grief.
Her mother struggled financially, and when she became engaged to another man, Angela and her mother moved in with him in Hampstead. Angela continued to educate herself with the help of books, movies and the theater. The young girl also learned how to play the piano and studied music at the Ritman School of Dancing. In 1940, she studied acting at the Webber Douglas School of Singing and Dramatic Art.
With the onset of the London Blitz, Angela's mother decided to move her family to the United States in 1940. Once there, Angela earned a scholarship from the American Theatre Wing, which granted her access to study at the Feagin School of Dramatic Radio and Arts. After graduating from the school in March of 1942, her family once again moved, this time to Greenwich Village.
A natural-born actor all of her life, Angela has said:
“I did want people to notice me as a child. At the age of 11 or 12, I remember sitting on buses and trying to look interesting. Or I would get people’s attention by saying something kind of outlandish that simply sounded as if I knew something they didn’t know.”
She added:
“I had no adolescence. And I was too busy preparing to become an actress. It never occurred to me not to go on, not for one second. Nor did I think I was missing anything.”
Start In Hollywood
Angela began her professional acting career at the young age of 17 when she went from working the cosmetic counter at a small department store to suddenly signing a contract with MGM Studios. MGM had been looking for young British actresses to fill their roster, and Angela fit the bill perfectly.
Shortly after she signed with MGM, she had her first major role in the 1944 movie "Gaslight," in which she starred alongside such Hollywood greats as Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer. Astoundingly, this first landmark role garnered the then-rookie actress an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and sent her career rocketing to the top seemingly overnight.
Angela's first Oscar nod was followed very shortly thereafter by a second Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for the film "The Picture of Dorian Gray." However, during this time, most of her roles were supporting characters, as Angela was under contract with MGM, which made her steadily grow unsatisfied with the way she was cast. She voiced her unhappiness in a 2017 Vanity Fair interview where she said:
"I was a utility actress, as far as MGM was concerned. They could put me into almost any role, and I would act it."
This often had the young actress playing the role of middle-aged women despite the fact that she was a good 20 years younger than the characters she represented. MGM's way of handling her left her feeling underappreciated and stifled in her career and skills. As she explained in the same interview:
“MGM did not have a clue as to how to use me. And eventually, I couldn’t wait to leave because I wasn’t getting anywhere.”
She finally canceled her contract with MGM in 1952 and left acting for a while and instead chose to focus on her growing family.
Her Notable Roles
When she returned to acting, Angela's career continued to rise. However, once again she was typecast in roles as older women who were often villainous or antagonistic characters. She went so far as to complain that "Hollywood made me old before my time." During the '50s and '60s, she portrayed a number of middle-aged women, even though she was only in her 30s.
In the 1961 movie “Blue Hawaii,” 36-year-old Angela portrayed the mother of Elvis Presley’s character Chad Gates, even though Presley was 26 at the time. The year after, she portrayed Laurence Harvey’s scary mother in “The Manchurian Candidate,” while Harvey was three years her junior. Nevertheless, the role landed Angela her third Academy Award nomination.
Arguably her most famous character, however, is Jessica Fletcher, the author-turned-sleuth from the long-running television drama series “Murder, She Wrote.” The show debuted in 1984 and remained on the air until 1996. Angela's wit, warmth and integrity made the show a smash hit. Her turn in the series is widely considered to be her most popular, but this signature role of hers almost didn't happen, as she went against her agent's recommendations, who had instead favored the main role in a sitcom that she was offered at the same time.
But Angela went with the role she wanted to play the most, and aren't we all lucky she did! It brought her a great deal of recognition and cemented her icon status in the minds of a new generation of TV viewers while reviving interest among her longtime fans. Furthermore, she also received numerous award nominations for the role, including the Primetime Emmy Awards, Golden Globe Awards and SAG Awards.
What's more, Angela took on the role in "Murder, She Wrote" in her 60s, an age many in Hollywood would consider past an actor's prime. Instead, it made her a powerhouse in the entertainment industry, and many touted her to be the most powerful woman on television at the time. She wished to make sure her character's personality remained strong, so Angela pushed for changes to the script if the character wasn't to the right standard. Several of Angela's family members, including her husband and son, also worked on the show. She would continue to play that part with her signature passion and charisma past her 70th birthday.
During an interview with Studio 10 in Sep. 2018, Angela opened up about the iconic show and her role in reshaping Fletcher's character. While the writers originally wanted the character to be a bit sillier, Angela wanted to portray her as a smart woman who was more dynamic.
“By the time we were finished, she had gotten back her sense of purpose as a woman, she was attractive, she had boyfriends, she had a nice wardrobe,” Angela said. “She became much more of an ‘every woman’ rather than a kook.”
One of her most iconic on-stage moments that she will always be remembered for is the 1966 production of the musical comedy smash hit "Mame" through which she managed to conquer Broadway when she played the titular character. The list of her Broadway triumphs is long and varied. From Mama Rose in “Gypsy” to the murderous widow Mrs. Lovett in “Sweeney Todd,” Angela always gave her Broadway audiences something remarkably special. She has continued to remain faithful to the stage to this day, while she appeared in a London West End revival of “Blithe Spirit” in 2015.
Career Recognitions
Forbes reported that the incredible actress was initially offered the role of Nurse Ratchet in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” in 1975, but she turned it down because she didn’t know if she would be able to handle it. Instead, Louise Fletcher was cast and went on to win the Oscar for Outstanding Actress in a Lead Role for her portrayal of the character.
Nevertheless, the list of awards and nominations that Angela has received in the course of her incredibly long career is nothing short of remarkable. In addition to her three Academy Award nominations, she also managed to earn seven Tony Award nominations, five of which she's won. Even if an Oscar for a particular performance eluded her, she was finally given an honorary Academy Award in 2014. In addition, she earned an amazing 18 Emmy nominations and 15 Golden Globe nominations.
With such a long career behind her, it’s no surprise that Angela is one of the most awarded actresses of all time and has been honored multiple times for her hard work and dedication to the entertainment industry. In 2010, Angela passed Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson and Alan Alda for the most Golden Globe Award wins. While each of the other actors has six wins, Angela won her seventh that year. She also received the John F. Kennedy Center Honors in 2000 for all of her incredible work and dedication to the arts.
Angela has gone above and beyond in her professional life multiple times, and she has brought that same attitude toward more personal endeavors. The actress has been a strong supporter of certain charities, including Abused Wives in Crisis, an organization that helps victims of domestic abuse, as well as a number of charities aimed at fighting against the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Personal Life
Als Mädchen studierte Lansbury Musik, bevor sie 1940 an der Webber Douglas School of Singing and Dramatic Art in London mit dem Schauspielstudium begann. Nachdem ihre Familie während des Zweiten Weltkriegs in die USA umgesiedelt war, begann die angehende Schauspielerin im Alter von 17 Jahren in Hollywood zu arbeiten, wo sie zunächst in einem kleinen Kaufhaus am Kosmetiktresen arbeitete und dann von den MGM Studios unter Vertrag genommen wurde. MGM war auf der Suche nach jungen britischen Schauspielerinnen, die den Kader verstärken sollten, und Lansbury war die perfekte Besetzung.
Der Erfolg stellte sich für Lansbury schnell ein: Für ihre erste große Rolle in dem Film "Das Haus der Lady Alquist" wurde sie 1944 für den Oscar nominiert. Nur kurze Zeit später folgte eine zweite Oscar-Nominierung als beste Nebendarstellerin für "Das Bildnis des Dorian Gray".
Während sie in Hollywood Erfolg hatte, heiratete Lansbury 1945 den Schauspielerkollegen Cromwell, als sie gerade 19 und er 35 Jahre alt war. Die Beziehung war jedoch nicht von Dauer und 1946 ließen sie sich scheiden. Die beiden haben damals nicht darüber gesprochen, warum ihre Beziehung nicht funktioniert hat, aber Jahre später verriet Lansbury, dass nicht nur der Altersunterschied ein Hindernis war, sondern auch die Tatsache, dass Cromwell schwul war. Lansbury sagte der Radio Times, wie von Attitude berichtet:
"Ich hatte keine Ahnung, dass ich einen schwulen Mann heiraten würde ... Ich fand ihn so attraktiv. Er wollte heiraten, er war von mir fasziniert, aber nur wegen dem, was er auf dem Bildschirm gesehen hatte."
Sie fügte hinzu
"Es hat mich in keiner Weise verletzt oder geschädigt, denn er pflegte eine Freundschaft mit mir und meinem zukünftigen Ehemann (Peter Shaw) ... Es war einfach ein schrecklicher Fehler, den ich als sehr junge Frau gemacht habe. Aber ich bedaure es nicht."
Cromwell starb 1960 an Leberkrebs.
Die wahre Liebe fand Lansbury jedoch bald darauf mit Shaw, einem Schauspieler und Produzenten, den sie 1949 heiratete. Ihre Ehe mit Shaw erwies sich als die große Liebe. Shaw hatte bereits einen Sohn aus seiner ersten Ehe, David, und Lansbury nahm ihn als ihren Sohn auf. David sagte einmal:
"Sie ist eine großartige Frau. Ich kam zu ihr und sie brauchte mich nicht zu haben. Es war eine unglaubliche Sache, das zu tun. Für sie steht die Familie immer an erster Stelle."
Aber das Paar hatte Pläne für weitere Kinder, und so brachte Lansbury 1952 – etwa zur gleichen Zeit, als sie MGM verließ – ihren Sohn Anthony zur Welt, und ein Jahr später bekam das Paar eine Tochter namens Deirdre. Lansburys Familie war dem Star schon immer unglaublich wichtig und auch wenn sie gerade als Schauspielerin arbeitete, wusste sie ihre Kinder bei Shaw in guten Händen. Lansbury sagte 2012 in einem Interview:
"Ich verdanke Peter so viel, was ich wahrscheinlich nicht getan hätte, wenn ich auf mich allein gestellt gewesen wäre. Er sagte immer: 'Geh und tu es, ich kümmere mich um die Dinge hier. Geh!' Und ich war immer dankbar, dass er das tat.
Die Liebe des Paares war so stark, dass der Tod von Shaw im Jahr 2003, nach 53 gemeinsamen Jahren, Lansbury schwer traf. Sie sagte in demselben Interview 2012:
"Das ist nicht der Lebensplan, den man hat. Und es fällt dir nie ein, bis es plötzlich passiert und dieser besondere Mensch weg ist."
In einem Interview mit CNN sprach Lansbury über die depressive Phase, in die sie nach Shaws Tod geriet, und darüber, dass sie sich nicht dazu zwingen wollte, vorzeitig darüber hinwegzukommen:
"Ich wusste einfach, dass ich warten musste und dass der Moment kommen würde, an dem ich wieder an die Oberfläche schauen und einen Weg finden musste, den Riss in meiner Seele zu kitten."
Wusstest Du von Angela Lansburys zwei Ehen, darunter die mit ihrer großen Liebe Peter Shaw? Wenn Dir dieser Artikel gefallen hat, dann teile ihn mit Deinen Freunden, damit auch sie davon erfahren!