33 Amazing Photos of Dame Angela Lansbury When She Was Young in the 1940s

Dame Angela Brigid Lansbury (October 16, 1925 – October 11, 2022) was a British actress and singer. In a career spanning 80 years, she played various roles across film, stage, and television. Although based for much of her life in the United States, her work attracted international attention.

In the 1940s, Lansbury launched one of Hollywood’s most spectacular breakout careers. After fleeing the Blitz in London to move to the United States, she went from wrapping Christmas parcels as a department store cashier to a two-time Academy Award nominee before she even turned 21. Signing a seven-year contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in 1942, Lansbury bypassed traditional “B-movie“ paths and was immediately cast in prestigious, high-profile features.

Making her film debut at age 18, Lansbury played Nancy Oliver, the cheeky, conniving Cockney housemaid opposite Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer in Gaslight (1944). Her performance earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She also portrayed the snobbish older sister to an adolescent Elizabeth Taylor in this beloved Technicolor sports classic in National Velvet (1944).

Cast as the tragic music hall singer Sibyl Vane in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), Lansbury delivered a performance that earned her a Golden Globe Award and her second Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Her rendition of the ballad “Goodbye, Little Yellow Bird” became a memorable early musical moment. She closed out the decade by playing Delilah’s ill-fated sister in Cecil B. DeMille’s massive Samson and Delilah (1949), top-grossing biblical epic.

Despite her doe-eyed appearance and meteoric rise, major studios frequently typecast her in mature, supporting roles. Casting directors often claimed she did not fit the narrow, traditional standard of a leading lady, frequently assigning her characters who were decades older, sharp-tongued, or antagonistic. Lansbury’s immense versatility and poise allowed her to excel in these roles, laying a powerful foundation for her legendary seven-decade career on screen and Broadway.

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Achille Mauzan: Master of Art Deco Poster Design

Born in Gap, France, French artist and graphic designer Achille Mauzan (1883–1952) studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Lyon before moving to Italy in 1905, where he built a successful career and celebrated for his vibrant and imaginative Art Deco posters.

Mauzan designed more than 2,000 posters and over 1,000 postcards, working in Milan, Paris, and later Buenos Aires. His style was marked by bold colors, playful humor, and dynamic compositions, often used for film, advertising, and commercial promotions. Influenced by Cubism and the energy of the interwar years, he became one of the most distinctive voices in early 20th-century poster art.

His work remains admired for its wit, visual strength, and lasting contribution to the Art Deco movement. These striking posters showcase the bold imagination, humor, and colorful brilliance of Achille Mauzan, a true master of Art Deco graphic design.

Caffè Sais, 1920

Savon à barbe Ramsgate, Paris, 1920

Burri artificiali misti Ditta Conti, circa 1921

Champagne Victor Clicquot, Reims, 1921

Copertoni Impermeabili, Ettore Moretti, Milano, 1921

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Hanni Weisse, One of the Great Film Divas of the Early German Silent Film

Hanni Weisse (October 16, 1892 – December 13, 1967) was a German stage and film actress. She appeared in 146 films between 1912 and 1942. During the 1910s, Weisse transitioned from a classical musician into one of the earliest great divas of German silent cinema. She rose from performing minor stage and choral roles in Berlin to starring in what critics consider the first true German “art films.”

Weisse began the decade training as a cellist. In 1910, she shifted toward theater, securing an apprenticeship and performing in choral and minor acting roles at the Berlin Thalia Theater and the Luisentheater. By 1912, she joined the ensemble of the Royal Belvedere Dresden, embarking on a national tour across Germany. During this time, film director Max Mack discovered her in Berlin and signed her to a contract with the Vitascope production company.

Weisse made her on-screen debut in Max Mack’s short films in 1912, quickly climbing to leading-lady status. She achieved breakout success starring alongside Albert Bassermann in Der Andere (The Other, 1913). The project is widely recognized by historians as one of the first artistically demanding German films. She remained highly prolific through the mid-1910s, starring in prominent pictures such as Richard Oswald’s wartime drama Das eiserne Kreuz (The Iron Cross, 1914) and Lache Bajazzo (Laugh Bajazzo, 1915).

Weisse closed out the decade establishing her status as a dramatic powerhouse. Notable late-1910s projects included Zwischen zwei Welten (1919) alongside fellow silent film icon Bruno Kastner, the thriller The Spies (1919), and her critically praised performance as an alcoholic mother in E.A. Dupont’s Alcohol (1919). By the end of the 1910s, Weisse was a household name, paving the way for her continued success as a major cinematic star throughout the 1920s.

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Andy Warhol Shooting Margaret Hamilton for His “Myths” Series (1981)

In 1980, Andy Warhol famously photographed Margaret Hamilton using his Polaroid Big Shot camera to create “The Witch,” one of the ten screenprints in his renowned 1981 Myths portfolio.

Instead of hiring a younger model, Warhol invited the 78-year-old Hamilton, who immortalized the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz, to his studio, The Factory. Hamilton brought along her original costume from the 1939 film to reprise the legendary role more than 40 years later.

“I saw Margaret Hamilton, the witch in The Wizard of Oz, and got so excited and went over to her and told her how wonderful she was,” he said. “She does the Maxwell House commercials now. She’s really small.”

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Charlotte Rampling: The Enigmatic Icon of European Cinema

Charlotte Rampling (born 1946) is an English actress celebrated for her enigmatic beauty, emotional depth, and daring choice of roles.

Emerging in the mid-1960s as a symbol of Swinging London, Rampling first gained attention in films such as Georgy Girl (1966). She soon became a distinctive presence in European cinema, starring in Luchino Visconti’s The Damned (1969) and Liliana Cavani’s controversial The Night Porter (1974).

Over a career spanning more than six decades, Rampling has worked with major directors across British, French, Italian, and American cinema, earning critical acclaim for performances in 45 Years (2015) and beyond. Known for her cool intensity and fearless screen presence, she remains one of the most compelling and enduring figures of international film.

These striking photos capture the timeless elegance, intensity, and magnetic presence of Charlotte Rampling, an enduring icon of European and world cinema.

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Britt Ekland and Marianne Faithfull Rehearsing for August Strindberg’s Play “The Stronger” in April 1971

Britt Ekland and Marianne Faithfull starred together in a 1971 television adaptation of August Strindberg’s famous 1889 one-act play, The Stronger. Directed by Patrick Garland for the BBC, this psychological drama was broadcast on May 1, 1971, as part of London Weekend Television’s (LWT) arts magazine series, Aquarius.

The play is a famous, short battle of wills that explores themes of love, betrayal, and psychological dominance between two women who are entangled with the same man. The pairing of Ekland and Faithfull, two defining beauty and cultural icons of the 1960s and 1970s, offered a highly compelling and stylish dynamic for the production.

Britt Ekland portrays Woman 1 (Mrs. X) – The talkative, married wife who slowly unpacks her deep-seated insecurities, eventually realizing that the other woman has a psychological hold over her marriage. Marianne Faithfull plays Woman 2 (Miss Y / Amelia) – The mistress, who remains entirely silent throughout the entire confrontation, reacting only through facial expressions, cynical laughter, and quiet amusement.

Before filming, the two actresses generated significant media attention while rehearsing the tense confrontation in Ekland’s London flat. The production remains a notable intersection of late-1960s pop culture icons testing their dramatic chops against a classic piece of avant-garde Scandinavian theater.

30 Stunning Photographs of a Young and Beautiful Jean Peters in the 1940s

Jean Peters (October 15, 1926 – October 13, 2000) was an American film actress. In the 1940s, she experienced a rapid, accidental rise from an Ohio college student to a prominent Hollywood leading lady signed with 20th Century Fox. Unlike the typical glamorous starlets of the era, Peters was widely recognized for her down-to-earth persona, intelligence, and tomboyish nature off-screen.

In 1945, while studying educational psychology at Ohio State University with plans to become a teacher, her roommate secretly entered her picture into the Miss Ohio State pageant. Peters won the contest. Her pageant grand prize included a screen test with 20th Century Fox. Executives were immediately taken by her photogenic looks, leading to a seven-year studio contract.

Peters bypassed minor roles entirely, debuting as the female lead opposite Tyrone Power in the lavish Technicolor epic Captain from Castile (1947). Following her debut, Photoplay magazine readers voted her the actress “most likely to become a star” in 1948. She closed out the decade starring in the successful baseball comedy It Happens Every Spring (1949).

Uniquely for a rising Hollywood star, Peters briefly paused her momentum in the late 1940s to return to college between filming blocks to finish her coursework and earn her degree.

Throughout the late 1940s, Peters fought back against Fox’s attempts to typecast her as a conventional, glamorous sex symbol. She regularly expressed disdain for heavily manicured roles, pulling out of the movie I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now (1947) when the studio tried to style her with artificial freckles and horn-rimmed glasses. Her preference for unglamorous, complex, and rugged characters laid the groundwork for her acclaimed work in the early 1950s. It was also during the late 1940s that she first caught the attention of eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, whom she would eventually marry in 1957.

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