Angela Lansbury is 95 today!

Treguna mequoides trecorum satis dee!

I never got the thing about her.

She will spend the day dining at Malibu Seafood, outside next to the trash receptacle.

Still so young. DL Legend! Happy Birthday!

Here's a fun pic I recently came across: DL's most beloved female celeb right next to the most despised one! I wonder what these two talked about?

Played the meanest villain ever in the history of cinema.

R6, At the 1988 Tony Awards.

After she spoons, does she fork?

Dame Angela with that dame, Joan.

Beautiful picture, OP. I don't think I've ever seen her look young before. It's like she's only had 3 looks her entire career:

Ingenue

Ages 25.7 - 77

The rest...

R7 should have won Oscar

As a child of the 80's, I was shocked when I saw her in Gaslight and The Manchurian Candidate as an adult. I thought of her as a sweet grandmotherly type because of Murder, She Wrote and Beauty and the Beast). However, she was soooooooo good playing total bitches.

Beautiful woman

She was willing to really stretch herself...

^^^That bitch could also really suck a dick back in her heyday.

R7 and she was only 3 years older than Lawrence Harvey when she played his mother.

She played my momma.

Happy Birthday, Kid!

Wow! How times flies.

Happy Birthday, Miss Lansbury.

We always knew she was a good witch!

Nice lady, but was cursed to always look 10-15 years older than she actually was.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

It turned out to be a blessing, r22....

So - she played the mother of Elvis (mentioned above), Carroll Baker R23 mentioned, Laurence Harvey, Elvis Presley, Warren Beatty & Brandon de Wilde among others.

Can you imagine THOSE folks as siblings? I would like to see that movie.....

I saw her trending and had to check, it is only her birthday

"It was a very cuntlike thing to do!"

Got to hand it to her, she’s had one of the most diverse careers and excelled in each area.

She should have done "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" and won the Oscar that snotterbox Patty Duke stole from her.

She's flicking her bean in the bathtub to celebrate!

She should have had another Tony and an Emmy

She also played Orson Welles' mistress in " The Long, Hot Summer"-1958 and bested his ham of performance. And she has been a classy person and actress all her life. Few actors can say the same. And I love to hear her sing. One of my favorite voices.

I wonder if she regret passing on "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest." I bet she passed on the role because she didn't want to play another villain in a film.

She said she found the character wicked and didn't like playing someone with no redeeming features. What exactly did she think Mrs Islen was?

Cute clip.

Well, she never played MY mother.

What's great about her is that she always looked so much more mature than her age, so by the time she got to her 50's, she almost stopped aging altogether. Even now, she looks and moves about more youthfully than many other people in her age range. Turned out to be a blessing.

And what a career. She's conquered both TV and stage and given some of the greatest performances ever. It's a shame that the movies never really knew what to do with her and I'd still love for her to have one last great film role.

Lansbury is only 6 months older than QEII, They both have aged very well.

Happy Birthday!

R36, No, but I did.

In the only Broadway revival of "Mame"

Lucy wanted to do it on Broadway in '87, but Gary....

1966

Beautiful big eyes!

Jane Fonda is an amateur.

I want to see a remake of Murder She Wrote where Jessica Fletcher replays each episode, but shows us how she committed the murder and framed someone else for it.

R32 your post reminded me that she played Robert Preston's mistress in The Dark at the Top of the Stairs in 1960.

Mavis Pruitt - she was terrific!

John Simon was not a fan of her 1970 "Something for Everyone" performance:

[quote] God only knows where the notion that Miss Lansbury has class originated; perhaps her vestigial lower-middle-class English accent passes for that in our informed showbiz circles. She is, in fact, common; and her mugging, rattling-off or steam-rollering across her lines, and camping around merely make her into that most degraded thing an outre actress can decline into: a fag hag. Typically, though this Countess von Orenstein spouts the most arrogant drivel, we are to take it as Wildean wit; though she behaves like a snobbish cow, we are supposed to see her a high-strung thoroughbred.

John Simon had that Barbara Bush variety of pure meanness that is funny more than it is offensive.

I saw her in the national tour of Blithe Spirit six years ago, which she toured North America with several years after she performed it on Broadway. And, god, she was a comedic marvel -- and still -- boundless energy. I mean she had more energy than everyone else on stage, some of them almost 1/4 her age. It was my first time seeing her live. I wish I'd been old enough to have seen her Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd, though I'm grateful we have it recorded for posterity.

It was a treat seeing her win her fifth Tony for the Broadway production of Blithe Spirit back in 2009. Only legends get that kind of reaction.

And a very warm welcome back home in London where she won the Olivier in 2015 for the same role.

Has Angie's character ever cussed in any of her movies, shows or plays?

Why? Would you like her to, r51?

It just seems out of character for her, r52.

R47, ironic that Simon called Lansbury common when his own background was murky and Lansbury's most decidedly was not. But that's who he was.

R51, Angela uttered the word "cunt" in the play Deuce on Broadway.

I certainly hope they gave a pre-show warning to the audience.

[quote] I saw her in the national tour of Blithe Spirit six years ago, which she toured North America with several years after she performed it on Broadway.

I had no idea she toured with the show after New York, which is where I saw it, and yes, she was extraordinary.

They changed the advertising for the tour, featuring only Lansbury's photo, whereas the NY show showed the ensemble cast. I guess they knew what was going to sell tickets (and venues like the Ahmanson in LA and the Golden Gate in SF are huge). It is also a testament to her stamina that the producers were confident she wouldn't be missing shows.

Three months, four cities at age 89. Amazing

Stamina...it's all about stamina. Look at all of the dancing she had to do in MAME at r42.

R57 - and that tour followed the mounting of that same production in the West End. In fact, most of her N. American tour cast were from the West End production.

I was lucky enough to see Angela in Sweeney Todd. One of my all-time-great theatre experiences. A very happy birthday to her -and many happy returns!

Attending a performance of Gypsy at the Colonial Theatre in Boston, the play had just begun when I suddenly realized someone was standing next to my aisle seat holding a small dog.

It was Angela, about to make her entrance. I looked up at her and she smiled and winked at me. A few minutes later, she was on stage.

A real class act, brilliant in all.

Who can forget her Salome Otterbourne?

I'd appreciate her a lot more if she wasn't so fucking full of herself.

If I were 95 and had accomplished what she has, I'd be quite fucking full of myself.

Wish she'd done another Murder She Wrote before William Windom died.

I can’t picture her in a sexual way.

R66 how about now?

R64, I'd be proud, but not so unbelievably conceited. Humility can go a long way.

I’d fondle her titties!

The curtain call...

I’ve had conversations on multiple occasions with Dame Lansbury in a variety of contexts and she has never been less than pure class; totally humble. You cunts saying she’s full of herself are full of shit. The closest thing to that she could even appear to be is filled with a sense of “Oh, my God, I’m so lucky to still be doing what I love and working with people I adore.” She’s the real deal and more. I hope she does one last movie, even if it’s a MSW coda. If the Follies movie happens, she’d be a fantastic choice for Hattie.

Just ignore the silly twats, r71. They come to these threads only to troll and denigrate. They have nothing better to do, which is rather...

R72 Because of the compliment or the casting?

She’s still a horny broad.

Dear World

the Tea Party

An 11:00 number classic...

Reunited with Danny...

It's just one twit on here going on about Dame Lansbury being anything less than humble.

The new film version of Blithe Spirit looks flat and unfunny, or at least the trailer does. Serves them right for using Dench (clearly miscast) instead of Angela.

With Danny...

I’d watch her diddle her snatch.

Just saw the 1945 "The Picture of Dorian Gray" where she plays the tragic Sibyl Vane and sings "Goodbye Little Yellow Bird". Although she is only in the first part of the movie, Dorian is constantly reminded of her throughout the movie. Hurd Hatfield who played the lead appeared 3 times on "Murder She Wrote".

R71, Angela's comment in an interview a few years ago that "Ethel Merman couldn't act her way out of a paper bag" was unkind.

And before some bitch corrects me, I know it’s Dame Angela, not Dame Lansbury. I was so enraged by the insults lobbed at her that I rushed to defend before proofreading.

As a mea culpa, check her out here at 90 (!) sublimely performing perhaps her most famous song, live with the composer himself, to an ecstatic audience. I was there and it was spectacular.

She played a dreadful mother in [italic]the World of Henry Orient[/italic]. This is the most glamorous I've seen her on screen.

Wasn’t there some story of her singing songs from Beauty and the Beast as Ashman lay dying? I can’t find it anywhere?

r83, unkind but not untrue.

I think we get from Angela her opinion pretty unvarnished. I bet she knows she was robbed for The Manchurian Candidate, but she also knows Patty Duke gave a perfectly great performance that would have deserved to win most years, so she is classy about it. She only ever seems to express regret about Mame because she knows how dreadful Lucille Ball was.

She isn't mean-spirited, so saying Merman couldn't act is not about cutting down someone we hold up as a great actor, but saying something obvious while she praises something else (which is Merman's voice and star quality).

There's a TV Guide article from early in MSW's run which she praises guest stars who can be effective in the MSW format (which is to say play their characters "honestly" while also leaving room in the performance for the possibility they are the killer). She singled out Robert Culp and Jayne Meadows for their good work in the cosmetics episode, but openly dismissed the work of Priscilla Barnes in a horse track-themed episode, saying that Barnes didn't know how to play subtext, and so (35 year old spoiler alert) she always seems like the murderer because she couldn't play any subtlety. I can't imagine actors being so bold today, but for then, it was stating the obvious (and it was obvious Barnes was the killer).

I don't view it as unkind so much as willing to state something critical when she perceives it's already obvious.

R87, Angela publicly criticized Barbara Walters after she made her cry on camera by bringing up her children's drug issues.

Could Ethel Merman do this?

r71 - remember those rumors that she was going to be on the final season of Game of Thrones. I think something like that, a small, but pivotal part on a prestige cable drama (possibly playing a villain) would have been a nice coda for her career. At this stage, I think we're past that point, though. I imagine that The Importance of Being Earnest benefit she did last year was probably her last professional engagement. Here she was waving goodbye to the audience. 💖

[quote]One can only wish for a world where 82% of Americans were making over 400k a year.

[quote]Also, do you have no shame whatsoever? What we can't afford is liers like you in power.

[quote]Vote them out https : //iwillvote . com -- Dame Angela Lansbury News

I assume everyone realizes that's a Twitter fan account and that Dame Angela doesn't tweet herself. That said, she comes from good, progressive stock. Her grandfather, George Lansbury, led the Labour party in the 1930s and was a big proponent of social justice and women's lib. Her father, was British socialist politician Edgar Lansbury. Anyway, it's safe to say she's not voting for Trump.

I had no idea Angela Lansbury was originally cast in The Grand Budapest Hotel. She apparently had to drop out when production delays conflicted with the Australian tour of Driving Miss Daisy in which she starred with James Early Jones.

"in which she starred with James Early Jones."

Oh, dear.

Driving Miss Daisy seems like an odd choice to tour in Australia, it’s such an American play and the context would seem to be lost outside the US.

R95, we understood The Dingo Ate My Baby in the U.S.

R95 - I don't know about that. Driving Miss Daisy is hardly some massively complex work that only those "who were there" could understand. Not to mention, the film was a big international hit.

It’s a play about racial and religious politics in the Deep South at a particular historical period, hardly the stuff of mass appeal.

R95/R98 - have you been diagnosed yet?

(do we have a higher rate of aspies than other forums?)

R98, Go tell that to the Aborigines.

She is a bitch who knows nothing about acting, obviously.

Both she and James Earl Jones were utterly magnificent in Driving Miss Daisy. It’s not my type of play, but their performances were simply unforgettable. Thank goodness it was filmed (and filmed well) because it is much superior to the film. It’s a shame they never brought it to Broadway because Angela would certainly have gotten Tony #6 for it.

She couldn’t win an Emmy as the nosy old bitch on MSW?

R103, She lost repeatedly to Tyne Daly and Sharon Gless.

R104, she was called the Susan Lucci of nighttime til Susan won.

Happy Birthday bitch!

Happy Birthday bitch!

1975

Is it wrong to want to eat out her clit?

It's wrong not to, r109!

R108, Was that before or after Mayor John Lindsay slept with Florence Henderson and gave her crabs?

I agree with R12. She should have won the Supporting Actress Oscar for "The Manchurian Candidate" -- a much more memorable performance than Patty Duke's.

There's an audio bootleg of Merman in GYPSY that proves she absolutely could act. The show played like gangbusters with the Merm.

I loved her in The World of Henry Orient and The Manchurian Candidate. I never saw her on Broadway. My loss.

[quote]It was Angela, about to make her entrance. I looked up at her and she smiled and winked at me. A few minutes later, she was on stage.

R61 What a great memory! Thank you.

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