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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