Cherchez La Femme: Angela Lansbury

You can keep your Morgan Freeman, Jack Nicholson and Laurence Olivier. None casts a greater shadow than Angela Lansbury. There are those who adored her from her 1940s films, such as Gaslight, National Velvet (she was the one with the face longer than the horse), and The Picture of Dorian Gray. There was her blistering turn in The Manchurian Candidate (1962). And others gawped at her sequinned prowess in Broadway productions of Mame, Gypsy, Sweeney Todd, and The King and I. Then there were the Disney collabs. In 1971 she charmed her way through Bedknobs and Broomsticks, then returned two decades later to voice the role of Mrs. Potts in 1991’s Beauty and the Beast.

Which brings us to the trophy cabinet: six Tonys, half a dozen Golden Globes, a Laurence Olivier gong, an Academy honorary award, three Academy nominations, a Grammy (if you don’t mind), and 18 primetime Emmys. Why be a GOAT when you can be an EGOT?

Her versatility was nothing short of astounding, and even as recently as 2022 she was popping up alongside Daniel Craig’s not-Bond detective in Glass Onion. Not to mention the fact that Paul McCartney seems to be slowly morphing into her.

We haven’t even really explored Jessica Fletcher, the master sleuth of Cabot Cove and the protagonist of Murder, She Wrote, which ran for 12 seasons from 1984. That’s more than Mash, Happy Days, Modern Family and Frasier.

Almost 30 years after the keys of Fletcher’s black Royal typewriter fell silent, she is still with us. And not merely in re-runs. Currently touring the U.K., United States and Australia is a camp-as-Christmas live show called Solve-Along-A-Murder-She-Wrote. Having received special permission from NBC Universal, superfan Tim Benzie has brought the ol’ gal back to life with a nod, a wink and a whole lot of love. Mark our words, it’s a Titanique in the making.

This is all due to Lansbury’s unique ability to bridge the gap between being a gay icon and someone your nan would shush the room for whenever her face appeared on the Trinitron. Although her talent was formidable, there was a touch — and herein is the rub — of the everywoman about Lansbury. She was the kind of woman you could make a life with, want as a grandma, or spirit away for a dirty weekend in the Cotswolds. She contained multitudes.

The daughter of Belfast-born actress Moyna Macgill and Edgar Lansbury — who was both a wealthy lumber merchant and, go figure, a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain — Lansbury and her family moved to the U.S. in 1940 to escape the Blitz.

When her mum secured a gig in a Canadian touring production of Tonight at 8.30, Angela tagged along and made her stage debut singing Noël Coward ditties at the Samovar club in Montreal — where her employers believed her to be 19. She was not.

draconian conditions of the studio system, however, she was viewed as a B-list player, and according to Gaslight director George Cukor she was “consistently miscast” by the studio. Incidentally, this film is where the modern term ‘gaslighting’ originated. According to Lansbury, “[Studio head] Mr. Mayer kept casting me as a series of venal bitches.” After a 1945 starter marriage to the actor Richard Cromwell, who believed their nuptials would forever bury his homosexuality, Lansbury found the love of her life in the English actor and producer Peter Shaw. They were married from 1949 to 2003.

TerminatingherMGMcontractin1952, shestruggledwithbeing a mum in Hollywood (where she felt she was “a stranger in the strange land”). She could be salty about it, too: “Things got so bad for me, I had to make a movie with Tony Curtis.” It was a barb that stung so much, Curtis included it in his autobiography. What roles came to her usually took the form of disapproving or cold and judgmental mumsy folk. “Hollywood made me old before my time,” she said. It was a fair point, considering she played Elvis’s mum in Blue Hawaii despite being only 10 years older than him. “I was never going to get to play the girl next door. I was never going to be groomed to be a glamorous movie star. So I had to make peace with myself on that score.”

Her saving graces were the stage and genetics. “I’m eternally grateful for the Irish side of me,” she said. “That’s where I got my sense of comedy and whimsy. As for the English half, that’s my reserved side... But put me on stage, and the Irish comes out. The combination makes a good mix for acting.”

Her Tony-award-winning portrayal of the titular character in Mame made her a bona-fide stage star on both sides of the Atlantic and prompted renewed interest from movie casting directors. This time, however, it was on her own terms.

Describing the lead character of Murder, She Wrote as “an American Miss Marple”, Lansbury refused suggestions from network executives that Jessica Fletcher find love, or at least a partner. Absolutely not, Lansbury said: she was an older single woman and happy with all those adjectives, thanks. Eventually, Lansbury’s own production company began creating the series alongside CBS.

In 2013 she said: “I absolutely do not have a retirement age, I’m only 87.” Powered by new hips and knees, and referring to herself as “the bionic woman”, she powered on. And on. And on. But with the years came reflection: “I’d like to be remembered as somebody who entertained, who took one out of oneself for a few minutes, a few hours, transported you into a different venue, gave you relief, gave you joy and laughter and tears — all those things.”

This year would have been Lansbury’s 100th birthday. What a fitting inclusion in The Rake’s 100th edition. She not only achieved everything she desired but in doing so attained a status that few ever reach: she was universally beloved.