Angela Lansbury is DEAD to me

Not on news sites yet but someone from MSNBC reporting it

NBC News just picked it up too.

Who will have mein fuhrer privileges—OP 1, 2, or 3?

So young.

Thank you for using the correct format, OP.

So young...

She had a hot ass but she couldn’t live forever.

I was JUST thinking about her yesterday and that she would probably be the next major actress to pass away.

Dammit. I mean, I know she had a good long life and well-celebrated career. it's just...

NO!!!! I loved her!!

Would you like to play a game of solitaire?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

No, I’m crying as I type. I knew it was coming but I’m at a loss for words.

I admit I was never a big fan but after I saw her be , well, dismissive at best of Judy Garland's 'issues', I never watched her again. Her own kids are addicts and she certainly made sure THEY got help but it when it came to a professional colleague, she didn't seem to give a shit. Oh well, they're all worm food now. So 'Open a New Window...It's Today!'

I fucking hate 2022.

RIP Angela Lansbury 😭

Will she finally be awarded that Emmy posthumously? Will she then be an EGOT, if a dead one?

R14 Oh fuck off. Terence McNally talked about how when he was a drunk mess at Lauren Bacalls' house, she took him aside and counselled him to seek help. So, she helped a DL ICON. As she will always be a DL ICON.

r17 oh bite me, ya big ol' queen.

R7 - Henry Kissinger, 99, or Jimmy Carter, 98.

R18 Angela is pissing on you from a swing.

r20. I see you couldn't wait to show her at her peek. From there, we all no it was all VERY downhill....

R21 We know, do we.....

You know all those people who dropped by the Queen threads to share that they didn't care?

Today I understand them. Nice lady, I gather, but I never got the fuss. Couldn't really sing, she was no Streep in the acting department. I always felt she was sort of Florence Henderson hits the big time.

Off to the cupboard with you now, Ange, it's past your bedtime.

Her acting in The Manchurian Candidate, in fact that whole film, was epic.

I thought she was just wonderful.

Finally, some really GOOD news in 2022!

The Manchurian Candidate (1962) for which she was Oscar nominated is probably her best film performance.

Did Bea shit in her wig?

Another ancient white woman croaks how can we go on!!!!

So many great scenes of Angela in the Manchurian Candidate

FUCK!

I hope Barbara Walters is right behind her. The cunt promised Lansbury she wouldn’t mention her kid and her struggle with drug addiction in a TV interview and she did. And that made Angie cry. And for that alone Baba Wawa deserves to roast in Hell.

How did she die?

The Manchurian Candidate was her moment because she was cast against type. Otherwise she's caught up 'cause she's been acting dead more of her career. Oh, and RIP.

R34, you've Beetlejuiced DL's other Susan Foster Kanian talent: at home pathologist!

Here we go!

Her portrayal of Tina Turner in was tremendous!

Was it from blunt trauma with a bed knob and broomstick?

Literally everyone else who's played Mrs. Lovett was better than her.

R34, I'm guessing heroin overdose or shot by a rival gang lord

R39 Oh Carrie, we're all laughing at you.

[quote]R34: How did she die?

She was pushed into an oversized oven in a basement.

She was so dear to me. My mother’s favorite actress. I adore her for Manchurian Candidate and Murder She Wrote. Omg I know she was like 100 years old, but this hurts.

RIP

I will be crying the rest of the night.

Nathan Lane, is it true you were going to take over from Dom DeLuise in her cookie company commercials?

Five days before her 97th birthday, jeesh. RIP.

Predictions for the next two celebrity deaths-Norman Lear and Kanye West.

Damn, now she'll never be in FOLLIES.

I think 'The Lady Vanishes' (1979) is quite underrated. It's possibly the first film where I took notice of her, 'tho 'Sweeney Todd' (1982) soon followed. That will aways be my favorite version of 'Todd.'

A long, wonderful life well lived.

nah, it's going to be Jimmy Carter most likely. I hope not, but he's older than her.

*sob*

She and Queen Elizabeth II were born the same year.

2022 hasn't been kind to those born in 1926.

I was convinced Ang would be in one last B'way production!

Didn’t Manson put a curse on her??

Angela age 19 in Gaslight (1944) which garnered her the first of 3 Oscar nominations

Time for a ‘Murder, She Wrote’ marathon

[quote]Was it from blunt trauma with a bed knob and broomstick?

It's time for me to re-watch this movie.

Has Susan Dey commented?

I may even watch this one.

Susan Dey's ignorance is not needed.

We are in the presence of royalty!

A very dark day for her many fans. RIP X

I saw her in Mame and in Sweeney Todd on Broadway. Sometimes being old is a plus.

Some fucker in the Beauty And The Beast thread said she sounded like Chip's granny!

Ann Blyth now becomes the living actress with the earliest nomination with Mildred Pierce

#68, I just told everyone on the train that and they stared at me blankly.

R65 please tell us how she was. Jealous you got to see those iconic performances.

I saw her in "Blithe Spirit" in 2014 and she stole the whole show!

R61 Shit, that made me cry.

Why are those fat whores in the audience at R64 not ON THEIR FEET??!??

I know SO's are given out at the sound of a fart these days, but that actually deserved one.

Makes me furious those Emmy fuckers humiliated her with 18 nominations and no wins! They could have easily given her one for "Special Guest Star" (her last nomination, for SUV no less)

I hope she is reunited with her bosom buddy, Bea. Right before I learned of Angela's death, I thought of her. I thought of the interview she gave Larry King where she struggled to remember Bea's name and I said to myself, "I hope she remembers her when she dies." Premonition does exist.

R53, Angela was born in 1925.

I would’ve loved to seen her on Broadway. 5 Tony wins out of 7 noms which is incredible. I had a feeling it would’nt be long since she didn’t show up for her honorary Tony in June. 18 Emmy nominations but no wins. Most were for MSW, but it kind of surprises me she didn’t pick up one for something. Angela should’ve ticked every box as an Emmy winner you would think. Her performance in Manchurian is masterful and she was robbed but Patty Duke won the Oscar that year over her. I love Patty, at least they gave Angela an honorary one. Wonderful warm hearted and charismatic performer. Hardly anyone left from that era of film which is sad. Rest In Peace Angela you did splendidly.

Where’s the funeral? Will Major Johnny play a big part? Where do we start queueing for The Queue?

I always wished she had got one last great movie role, TV appearance and Broadway run, she was still do "with it" til before COVID.

I saw her in "Blithe Spirit" and she was not "with it."

R64 your clip reminded me of this one:

Then you must have seen a different performance from me R79 because she stole the show in London.

R76 couldn't agree more. She was nominated for live TV performance of "Sweendy Todd" in 1983, should have been a slam dunk, but they awarded her less-impressive co-star instead.

I always thought she was Irish ☘️

RIP. I remember watching Murder she wrote as a kid

will they dim the lights on B'way for her?

R82 her mother was Irish. Angela bought a holiday home in Ireland and spent most summers there, very well thought of by the locals

^^They should.

R84 if not someone should slap that old cunt who makes those decisions.

I'd say I'm heartbroken but I'm more happy for her instead. She lived an awesome life and 96 is an incredibly long time to walk this earth. Good for her, she lived a fulfilling life. We all have to go some day.

George Takei always writes the nicest tributes.

R84 Definitely.

Roe v Wade

QEII

Iran

Angela Lansbury

I believe the rumor that one of her lovers in the 1980s was Stella Stevens’ son Andrew.

Both her husbands were gay so Angie had to have sexy time elsewhere.

where in ireland did she live?

Lovely shot

We were looking for her that night in the Hollywood Hills

She was excellent in whatever she was in. Absolutely excellent

R68-“You think just because you made a little money you can get a new hairdo and some expensive clothes and turn yourself into a lady. But you can't, because you'll never be anything but a common frump whose father lived over a grocery store and whose mother took in washing.”

The only time I ever saw her live was in Bway's Deuce, a two woman play about lezzy tennis players. She was great

She was Olde Hollywood

R93, her husband Peter Shaw was gay?

RIP

Angela Lansbury McCartney.

Hopefully we'll eventually find out what happened on location for this movie.

Twenty minutes of the film had to be scrapped. Neither of them have been willing to talk about the ugliness that happened.

Perhaps now?

r93 if that's true, that's quite an accomplishment. Andrew Stevens was quite the fox.

I said no comment, R104!

All the good ones are dead or dying and being replaced by TRASH. The elegance, class and glamour of Old Hollywood is gone.

[quote]at her peek.

Oh, dear.

Mick loved ♥️ her so much, but he hated that sadness in her eyes

Awww I never watched Murder She Wrote but she was a beloved figure from my childhood. My grandma loved her show.

R100, And she got to say the word "cunt".

R104, Jane Fonda has said that is her least favorite film.

Her first husband Richard Cromwell who knew a little something about tea bagging said of Angela, “All over the house, tea bags. In the middle of the night she would get up and start drinking tea. It nearly drove me crazy”.

"That was a pretty cunt thing to say"

Angela actually became friends with her gay first husband and cared for him in his last years.

any kids? how much is she worth?

To the idiot who said she had her affair with Andrew Stevens, you are either trolling or getting confused with his character trying to seduce Jessica in the s1 episode "Lovers And Other Killers".

Trivia: it was the episode where she got pushed down the stairs and fired the toy "bang" gun, both immortalised in the opening credits.

She was my imaginary Grandma. 💔🎭😔

R114 Teabags are revolting.

I shun them!

TCM Remembers...

R104, R113 I bet Fonda was the cause of the drama. She was young and very badly miscast.

Angela was lucky in that the film-makers had to pad out the missing 20 minutes with footage of Angela walking up and down stairs and along corridors wearing a figure-hugging gown and chiffon scarf.

From Joanna Gleason

Goodbye, little yellow bird . . .

R94 here's an architectural spread on her Irish home in Co. Cork from a few years ago. Don't know if she gave it to family or sold it as she hasn't been able to visit these last few years

RIP Miss Ellie.. Falcon Crest will never be the same without you.

Popped a boner for her as Miss Price in Bedknobs and Broomsticks that never let up. She died a stone fox even at 96!

R69 well obviously no one on your train was a member of the cupcake buying public!

"The Final Cabot Cove Curse."

Co-starring Monte Markham, Donny Most, Elizabeth Ashley, and Charo as "Housekeeper With a Secret."

Anybody have any Angela stories? Anybody met her?

I am devastated. Seriously.

She was predictable in Murder, She Wrote, but not really award winning.

Back in 1980, I was an actor, working as a waiter, in NYC when Angela came into our small boutique restaurant on Lexington Avenue. She was very sweet and ordered frozen yogurt with fresh fruit. She was very pleasant, like Jessica, and wished me luck on my career. She made me smile and made my day. I love people like that.

[quote]Five days before her 97th birthday, jeesh. RIP.

So young

Dimming the lights on Broadway should only be people of Angela’s level. The true greats. Not Robin Williams and Marin Mazzie as talented as they are.

This is why I can't watch "Beauty and the Beast". That damn teapot starts to sing and I lose it.

Yes, I'll MARY myself on the way out, thank you.

"I think femininity and sexuality go hand-in-hand..."

"Just once I had no idea I was marrying a straight man!"

Okay, gurls!! Time to check out Ebay for any autographed items. She ain't signing none no more.

I knew DL would be dripping in black crepe when I read.

Vale

Was she murdered?

Rose: "How did she die?"

Sophia: "She helping Ukranians fight off the Russians. She was 96!!!"

Rose: "Well, that's good she was still able to fight right up until the end."

If there's an old bag heaven then ya know they got a hell of a band.

Where are those pics of drunk Angela again ?

No need for a burial, dear.

So young…

Catherine Zeta-Jones

2h ·

Dearest, Darling, Dame Angela Lansbury. May you Rest In Peace. Our Broadway double act will forever be one of the joys of my life. As the lights dim for you on ‘The Great White Way’ you shall glow forever in our heart. Love you Angela, Catherine. 🙏🏻

Oh, was this the thread that won? I guess I hitched my follow to the wrong one.

R132 I heard something about when they were filing Death On The Nile she somehow, when not being the biggest star in the film, grabbed the best cabin on the boat. Seemingly, the rest of the cast were very pissed off with her....

Did she get the best train car on the Orient Express as well?

No, I did.

She also got the best tiki hut on the set of Blue Hawaii.

I am ready to step into the role of “Legend”.

Her family was illustrious.

Her last words were, “go see Bros”

It's a running joke amongst my family that both Angela and Don Knotts helped win ww2. Loved both of those films (BK&BS and Mr Limpet) as a kid. Maybe I'll put them on tonight.

She was a distant relative of Australia’s ex Prime Minister

She was the grandmother of a young man dying of AIDS in the movie The Blackwater Lightship and played mother to the raging cunt of a daughter Dianne Wiest. I don’t know why the hell Hallmark calls it a Family Romance, that’s quite perverse for the premise.

You'd think she would have picked up one Emmy for Murder she Wrote. I could understand she was up against some heavy hitters, but towards the end of the run you think they would have given her one for longevity.

I thought she would have won for the SVU performance. Ann Margret (another one they snubbed repeatedly) finally won one for a similar guest appearance on the show.

Well, I hope hope King Charles III isn’t stingy with medals for the pallbearers at Angela’s state funeral this time, that will not be a great look for him.

What song will Elton John rework for her funeral?

Has there been any release of video of a couple of queens sitting around the breakfast table, getting the news and screaming?

She was my favorite Hello Dolly! I miss her!!! I have the dvd collection of Murder, She Said, I watch every weekend! Sad now!!!!!

Will the lights of Broadway be dimmed for her tonight?

I met her many times. Once I had to go her apartment on 58th street and she answered the door in her bath robe. We talked for awhile about business and as I was leaving she bowed and curtsied to me in the hallway as I was leaving. I'll never forget that. It was one of those moments just between us .

R171 Did you see her boobs?

R167 'Bedknobs on Broomsticks and mittens on kittens...'

Awww, we were just talking about her in the Beauty and the Beast thread and now she's gone.

After she played the villain in Judy Garland's The Harvey Girls, she used to get hate mail and death threats from all the Judy fans who couldn't stand her being mean to their fav.

It was Joan Crawford who introduced Angela to her first gay husband. Angela said she was enamored by him because he was a close friend of Joan's.

Friend of Joan = Friend of Dorothy

R152, I'm glad DL's favorite 34-year-old actress paid tribute!

Aww. A wonderful actress and really nice person. Age 96 is a pretty good run though. We should all be so fortunate.

RIP Angela.

The family is only saying she died in her sleep, but wasn't there also a long-term illness?

96 is actually a great age and it can also be said that in her final public appearances (I believe, less than just couple of years ago), Ms Lansbury still looked fabulous and gracious and full of natural energy. Very much like the beloved Betty White. What a way to go!

There are celebrities half their age that can't claim that.

My favorite performance is her turn as boozy Salome Otterbourne in Death on the Nile.....she even upstaged Bette Davis in that film

She deserved at least an Oscar nod for Salome. They gave Ingrid Bergman an Oscar for her hammy performance in Murder on the Orient Express so no idea why they snubbed Angela.

Which female celeb will be welcoming her in heaven first? Judy, Joan, Bette, Liz, or Olivia?

"this crocodile has lost its crock!"

Is the film version of Angela's Sweeney Todd available online anywhere?

[quote]They gave Ingrid Bergman an Oscar for her hammy performance in Murder on the Orient Express so no idea why they snubbed Angela.

Ingrid herself wondered why she won the Oscar. Although I watched it again recently, and you notice when you see her in small snippets where she is not with Poirot, some subtle differences in the character, so the hammy performance is at least partially the character putting on an act for the detective. Probably should not have won the Oscar, but not the worst win out there. I do wonder if it prevented her from winning for Autumn Sonata a few years later.

She and Maggie Smith were both nominated for BAFTAs for "Death on the Nile," but they lost to Geraldine Page in "Interiors." It's shocking to me that Nino Rota's wonderful score wasn't even nominated.

r184, love that film, she's so much fun in it

She was hammy in "Death on the Nile". The part called for it, but she chewed the scenery in big bites. Her high point in film was "Manchurian Candidate." Many actors fail to reach that level even once. Give her other stuff a rest.

Her last Broadway performance was in "The Best Man" ten years ago. Great costume.

RIP

Rosie, the ultimate fangurl.

I can’t believe this doesn’t even have 200 replies 6 hours later.

1981 - I was a messenger for a publishing company and frequented a deli in the lower east 50s for lunch. One random summer day I ordered my standard turkey and Swiss on a roll with lettuce, tomato, salt and pepper. A voice to my left said, "that sounds good, I'll have the same." It was AL and when we got to the register she paid for my lunch.

I think I'm starting to cry.

Treguna Mekoides Tracorum Satis Dee

With Lucie Arnaz, Dorothy Loudon, and Len Cariou (1979)

Where is the Bedknobs and Broomsticks troll? He'll populate this thread all by himself.

Fuck off, R119/The-MSW-Troll, I’m not confusing the story I’ve heard about Angie and Andrew with the plot of a MSW episode. It apparently really happened. Angie had to get her pipes cleaned somehow because she was married to someone who only enjoyed the homosex.

At 96, she was past her expiration date. She is now home with the Lord.

A class act. What a long and accomplished life.

She played Elizabeth Taylor’s older sister in National Velvet and Aunt March in the recent Little Women (Maya Hawke played Jo). That’s a long career.

Her Harvey Girls villainess actually showed a little depth and understanding at the end and was probably a better fit for the male lead who will probably be ready to strangle Judy's character after about a year together.

I honestly think if there are a lack of responses here, it's because she was so beloved, so respected and had very little controversy surrounding her long life and career. How many posters can say: " I loved her" ???

I loved her ...

Bufferin ads!

A great actress and lady . You can’t beat 96 ( if mind is there ).

I’m sorry, but like QE2, I have a hard time being devastated when someone that old dies. She was a great actress though. Her performances in Gaslight and the Manchurian Candidate were perfect in ever way.

She was murdered by Wilford Brimley. So sad.

Loved her in Bedknobs and Broomsticks

I loved her in Mary Poppins, her only Oscar win. RIP Angels.

Not so tight, Joan...

She was angry that Barbara Walters made her cry during an interview by bringing up her children's drug problems.

Long excellent career. Should have won Oscar for Manchurian. Rip.

PLEASE MURDER ME!

Patty Duke should have won a Juvenile Oscar so that Angela Lansbury could have won the Oscar for Manchurian Candidate.

Angela Lansbury was a trailblazer for the rights of black, communist women everywhere. She will be remembered always. She also made great snack cakes under her show business name of Sarah Leigh.

Honestly, I thought she died years ago. As in...the late 90s.

Angela Lansbury and Raymond Burr in “Please Murder Me.”

R196, ANYTHING for attention.

R213: Too bad. She put her career before her kids -- almost until it was too late -- and hated being reminded of that fact.

Yes, she was a good actress, with a long career -- but she wouldn't be known today if it weren't for two very lucky breaks: Mary Martin and a half dozen others turned down the role in Mame before they offered it to her, and both Jean Stapleton and Doris Day turned down "Murder She Wrote".

The eternal old hag.

Even in National Velvet she looked pushing 50.

R34 - "She was fighting an oil rig fire in the Gulf of Mexico."

R186 - My guess would be her dear friend Beatrice Arthur welcomed Angela into the spirit realm.

R34 - "She was fighting an oil rig fire in the Gulf of Mexico."

R186 - My guess is her dear friend Beatrice Arthur welcomed Angela into the spirit realm.

Fucking phone/ site cause me to post twice. My apologies darlings.

But since I'm posting again, I'll add I loved how Ms. Lansbury made the Dowager Empress Marie in the animated "Anastasia" (1997) a loving, gentle grandmother when she was actually a cold-hearted murdering cunt.

"On the wind, across the sea, hear this song and remember: Soon you'll be home with me Once Upon a December. "

This one hurts. Angela Lansbury was a constant presence in our lives for such a long time. 2022 has been a hard year. It sucks that she just missed out on 97 by 5 days.

A Gay Fanboi, and his Spirit Animal, mourn

It sounds mean, but she was eternally matronly throughout her entire career. Even as an 18-year-old in Gaslight she gave off 37-year-old divorcee vibes.

R216, Fuck that "juvenile" shit.

I watched daily reruns of Murder, She Wrote during a slump in my life. And she seemed like a thoroughly good egg. I just realized that one of her former homes was not too far from mine, which is a pleasing little thing to know. Rest in peace, Dame Angela.

Hi R132 I used to work as an extra/background artist back in the day. Earlier this year there was a thread asking for juicy diva behaviour witnessed by extras, I posted this which was the opposite of what the OP wanted, but I posted it anyway…

Can I just mention even though it’s not what OP asked for, the nicest celeb/actor by a clear mile was Angela Lansbury. She was shooting a film called Mrs Harris Goes To Paris in London in about 1991, this was in a break from Murder She Wrote. She was absolutely lovely, introduced herself to even the minor actors who maybe only had a one word scene. One of the days we were filming in an olde worlde part of residential inner London that is still intact, it was a period film. There was loads of really young ragamuffin kids living in the locality who obviously were curious and watching the filming and being kids were full of energy etc. When we broke for lunch I was the first one back on the set, and there was Angela sat on a chair on the side of the street and all of the kids sat on the floor around her in silence. She was reading stories to them from a book. She had obviously made an agreement with them that if they behaved she would read to them during her lunch break.

Very classy lady.

Sorry to derail the thread OP…

R171 Thank you Meghan Markle for sharing that deeply private and personal story…

R231, I remember your post from that thread; I think I even read it out to my boyfriend as it was so sweet. What a lovely woman she seems to have been!

I always wanted to wait back stage and ask her if she could sign my playbill, Jessica Felcher. That it would just mean the world to me 😃

was it her or doris day with the manson family connections

they both had strong ties to The Family

scary marys

[...]

she waxed her gash like no body's business

She was so many people.

Don't know if this had been posted yet:

Lansbury gave an interview to the NY Times in 2010 with the understanding that it would only be published after her death.

See video below-within the NY Times obituary

R225 no don’t i was such an ‘Anastasia’ bitch growing up😖😭

I didn't know that her (second) husband, who's pictured in the video at R241, was so handsome.

This one feels like a gut punch. RIP Legend.

WONDERFUL interview, r241, thank you for linking it!

Sadly the NYT is blocking access, even if you clear history (my usual workaround).

Watching various interviews of Angela last night, I was shocked to see how bitter she seemed. CBS snubbed her by moving MSW from Sunday night which led to a drop in viewership and cancellation (bringing it up was enough to make her cry). She never received top billing in films because she didn't play the game and considered herself a "well kept secret". I knew these facts, but to see her get so riled up was a surprise. I thought she was a "water off a duck's back" kind of gal, and rather than be grateful for her place in the firmament (the TCM tribute shows this, one beautifully shot close-up after another, in b&w and technicolor) she thought she deserved more. Doesn't make me think less of her, gives her more depth actually, but not something I was expecting.

I saw her talk about not being cast in the movie version of Mame once and you would have thought she lost the part of Scarlett in GWTW

This is the first thread in which I used all my entire daily allotment of W&Ws, ever! DL can show a lot of love and gracious thanks to a person who truly deserved it.

Deirdre will follow the horse drawn carriage in full battle dress

through the streets of Malibu? Or Killarney??

She had 🎶 Princess Beatrice eyes. 🎶

I hope the whole Family will be represented and respected

I encountered her in my job, circa 1998. She would've had reason to be annoyed with me, and the whole situation, but she was as gracious and kind as her public persona would suggest she'd be.

Another time, I saw her and John Frankenheimer at a LACMA screening of Manchurian Candidate. She was funny- "After all, not many women ever got to kiss Laurence Harvey!" and deferential to Frankenheimer "Well, he's the director!"

Also, saw her sing Beauty and the Beast at an APLA benefit in 1994.

I adored the woman. Just a brilliant performer. And as kind as she was talented.

It’s always interesting when the Bway star doesn’t get the movie roll. I would think that most didn’t so no one should expect it.

She was upset about the way CBS ended MSW because

1. It was so calculated and they did it behind everyone's back after Les Moonves took over. He was very cruel to her during their interactions

2. The axing left over 200 people out of work and Angela felt personally responsible for them

She was also quite territorial about Mame as it gave her everything she craved for 20 years, a glamour role that let her sing, dance and act. It was like "See what I can do if you'd ever given me the chance!" Of course she'd be upset Mame's legacy was spoiled by that awful Lucy caricature.

Angela proved in Gaslight, Dorian Gray and some other early movies that she was a great talent but was understandably frustrated she was never given the opportunities other less-talented, committed or hard-working actors received on account of their looks. Like a turbo engine forced to pootle along in the background.

That being said, she never let herself be nasty or unkind to people she felt held her back and was still enormously grateful for all her experiences and the great stars she got to work with.

[quote] Bway star doesn’t get the movie roll.

Or even the movie role.

[quote] It was so calculated and they did it behind everyone's back after Les Moonves took over. He was very cruel to her during their interactions

Apparently she or another member of her team heard Moonves say he didn't want the withered old hag to be the face of CBS.

R258 after he'd got rid of MSW and brought in lots of younger content he joked "When I took over, the sexiest thing CBS had Angela Lansbury". What a cunt

I'm sure Candice Bergen appreciated that insult

Funny, I seem to remember Lansbury was ready to be done with MSW. Hadn't they filmed a final episode, and then she changed her mind, and agreed to do one more year? I could be misremembering.

Didn’t Les literally call her unfuckable to her face?

I'm listening to the original Broadway cast recording of Mame right now (for the first time ever) and Lansbury just doesn't have a very pleasant-sounding singing voice. It did seem to get a bit softer as she aged (because I loved the way she sounded in Beauty and the Beast) but these tracks are kind of hard to get through.

R261 she was almost done a few times, starting with season 1 were she was 60 years old abd exhausted. They gave her an extra day to shoot each episode in.

They shot the ending of season 5 open as she had not signed up to return when it was written (the Jean Simmons episode). Angela was very candid that what got her to return was them giving more money, plus she didn't want to put the team behind MSW out if work.

From season 8 she became a Producer, had much more control of the show, and employed her brother and son to write/direct. By season 12 she was very happy to continue as it was effectively her own show by that point and she called the shots.

Her workload was also likely reduced in later seasons as Jessica didn't appear in almost every scene, as she had down in the early years.

Forgot to mention part of the reason she returned for s6 and s7 was reduced workload by introducing "bookend episodes" where she barely appeared, thus giving her a break. She agreed to end these from s8 as they caused the ratings to go down

[quote] I'm listening to the original Broadway cast recording of Mame right now (for the first time ever) and Lansbury just doesn't have a very pleasant-sounding singing voice.

Voices like hers play really well in the theatre. They cut right through and reach the audience. It's a harder sell in movies or TV

[quote]but these tracks are kind of hard to get through.

How you suffer, r263.

R256/R258/R259/R262 in a way, you could say Moonves got his karma in the end, because he's ended up sinking and losing so much money to prop up the rather humble and now flagging kid/teen network Nickelodeon! under the Paramount/Viacom umbrella. Apparently, he has called the network among other things 'an albatross' behind the scenes, and bemoaned bitterly the fact that his coffers have been drained by a cohort of nobody teencom theatre kids.

R264 thanks for clearing that up.

22 episodes a year is no joke. For year 12 she did 24!

While I agree Les Moonves is scum, I think 12 years is a pretty extraordinary run.

She got to be a tiresome bitch after she drank

Who would have thought that Olivia Newton-John's death would get more coverage?

R272 She was the one that they want.

Me. She was more talented

This footage of her watching herself in Gypsy is fascinating. Watch her eyes. She's evaluating herself. I think she was always divinely dissatisfied.

Some people!

The Visit

I had many big Hollywood rolls!

I dont think Lansbury every did Hello, Dolly!, right?

Wonder what her take would have been

This is as close as you'll get, r279...

Angie was going to star in the musical "The Visit" around 2000 but dropped out to be with her sick husband. Chita took over but I don't think the tickets sold well.

R270 I agree MSW wasn't nearly as good in the last seasons (too "90s" for my liking, not as cosy) but it was still top 10 in the ratings til Moonves sabotaged it. She earned the right to bow out at her will, not because some chauvinist asshole decided the show wasn't cool enough.

Oh, goodness. That clip from Rose's Turn

😭 😭 😭 😭 😭

Full reel of Angela in "Gypsy"

Big pussy hound. Voted for Bush.

Good riddance!

R284 I really doubt it

I haven't seen Dark at the Top of the Stairs in a *very* long time.

Dark at the Top of the Stairs is really good

She was spooky

She wasn’t much of a mother. Both of her children were heroin addicts.

Have you talked to them personally and got their side of the story, r290?

"Mame" easily could have failed as a film with Lansbury. The story and setting were old fashioned and movies changed rapidly during the late 60s and early 70s. If it was one of those rare films that brought out the blue rinse crowd, it might have made money, but even without Lucy's croaking and vaseline on the lens photography it would have been a tough sell.

[quote]it would have been a tough sell

It would have, r292. So it ends up being a good thing for Angie's resume that she didn't get the movie.

Dear World

I'm surprised threads haven't been filling up here. It's hard to imagine a more beloved figure of the American theatre. I'm jealous of the eldergays who got to see her in her major musical theatre roles in the 60s and 70s, but am so grateful to have seen her twice during her late career renaissance. It's kind of wild how many different plays she did in her 80s.

Here is her final curtain call in a reading of the Importance of Being Earnest in 2019. Lovely moment. I was almost certain then it was her final public performance and... I think she probably realized the same thing.

R247, thanks for expressing what I've noticed for probably 25 years. She was ALWAYS bitching, even after the initial success of 'Murder She Wrote'. She actually dismissed the show, claiming it didn't require any acting ability -- at least not the kind she enjoyed on BROADWAY -- etc., etc..

That, combined with her complete lack of humility is why this ISN'T a "gut-punch" for me, like it apparently is for many of you queens.

R296 is so full of shit, it’s not even funny.

R296 I find your takes to be so odd. Regarding her comments on the acting challenge of MSW, she was being honest. She was always a person who was honest in interviews, and wore her heart on her sleeve. By the way, I've never watched a second of that show, yet I'm a massive fan.

As for your earlier comment about her lack of talent- I guess I can't really dispute a subjective opinion, but it makes me think you must have lousy taste. In The Manchurian Candidate she turns in one of the great film performances of all time. Completely out doing Meryl Streep in the remake.

As for theater, the woman turned out half a dozen iconic performances, and has an armful to Tonys to prove it.

If you don't get it, fine. But it's sad for you.

I didn't say she had a 'lack of talent'. I just suggested she was overrated. And how you can say you're a massive fan of a show you never watched, yet call my take 'odd', is well...odd.

R284 must be new.to DL.

R299 I meant to say I was a massive fan of her, not the show, which I've never seen.

Earlier in the thread someone said she was ugly, and had no talent. I assumed it was you.

Why didn’t Jessica Fletcher sing more on the show? Even that little town must have had a piano bar where the Gays and broads hung out?

Liaisons

[quote]In The Manchurian Candidate she turns in one of the great film performances of all time. Completely out doing Meryl Streep in the remake.

Agreed. Meryl was okay in the 2004 remake, but Angela was striking as the pure evil Eleanor Iselin in the 1962 original and that's reflected in the fact that she got an Oscar nomination and Meryl didn't.

Every single facial expression, every single word. This is a masterclass in realistic stylized acting. "I wanted a killer from a world FILLED with killers..." Makes your blood run cold.

R303, thank you for posting the "Liaisons" performance. I try to stay away from these threads on DL - there's just too much ignorance, stupidity and unnecessary nastiness casually thrown out for others to read.

But for all of the posters who do not think Dame Lansbury was talented or could not sing, what we see in that clip is a masterclass.

In 2011, at the age of 85 in 2011, she hosts a tribute to Sondheim. And we see her hold the audience's attention without moving. Watch carefully - at 1:05, she transforms in Madame Armfeldt. Angela goes away and the character appears. What a face and expression and understanding of the lyrics. All of it seemingly effortless. And it is not. It is talent and years of work.

And then, at the end, the character has fallen asleep - Lansbury holds as the orchestra finishes. There's a brief pause in the hall. The audience erupts in applause and Angela smiles and returns, no longer performing.

Here is the New York Times article.

Pay wall

This was Angela's favorite song. R.I.P sweet Dame.

Been watching all the news report memorials, so odd that they all include the exact same clips. Something very funny about seeing Angela in The Manchurian Candidate say "You are to shoot the presidential candidate in the head," and then a sharp cut to Mame and a Gayle King voiceover. What are these editors thinking? The age of the thoughtful clip package is over.

She was often the best thing in the "B" movies they stuck her in back in the studio days.

She didn't quite get one more great movie before she passed along the way (her words in the article).

But she'll be remembered for Manchurian Candidate, for sure.

[quote]The age of the thoughtful clip package is over.

Age of the thoughtful clip package, we hardly knew ye!

Angela’s 1985 Barbara Walters interview that was dubbed disastrous. Angela breaks down in tears.

Angela crying over Murder, She Wrote cancellation.

Angela crying over her deceased husband.

[quote]It was so calculated and they did it behind everyone's back after Les Moonves took over. He was very cruel to her during their interactions

Les Moonves hated women's shows, which was odd because what kept CBS afloat in the 80's and early 90's was mainly women centered shows. He's the reason why CBS turned into some testosterone love fest of a network in the 2000's.

I've heard that he deliberately sabotaged Murder She Wrote to get it off the air as well. Cybill Shepherd and Linda Bloodworth Thomason have talked about him pulling similar stunts with their shows.

Where the hell was Lansbury? She was letting Charles Manson pick up her kids from school and steal for him? It sounds like she left her kids to fend for themselves. No wonder they had so many problems.

Helicopter parenting didn’t exist back then, kids did there own thing and maybe came home for dinner. This was even before the latch key generation, which was probably one of results of the Mason Murders as well. Come home, lock yourself inside and call mom to let her know you made it.

R318 Something else Angela cried about: when her career thrived, her family suffered, and vice versa. She wasn't up to much in the late 60s, however. But I do respect the course correction of getting everyone out of California.

She did a fun B-movie noir with Ray Burr called Please Murder Me

In the book and in the original movie of THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE her character was known only as Mrs. Iselin. She was never addressed by her first name.

"Hillary" was a conceit added by the writers of the unnecessary remake. Angela Lansbury was Mrs. Iselin....

R320 she did a national tour of Mame is 1968 and Dear World in 1969 plus shot a movie. Another reason they left for Ireland was their family home was destroyed in a bush fire.

Angela was very open that she had to go out to work as they didn't have much money, she was never earning big bucks until MSW

Was Barbara Walters ever considered a good interviewer? I can only assume that she was, given the list of interviewees she has. I was not around during that period of her career but when I see old clips, she seems terribly rude.

Barbara was known for getting guests to cry or make them uncomfortable during interviews. That being said, I never thought she came off as rude to them, but just nosy and sometime tactless.

A stark contrast to The View, where she could get very cunty to guests.

Ruby Romaine is happy.

Did she ever win an Emmy? I know some of her musical soundtracks from Broadway won and they often credit the main vocalist, but can't see it in her awards

[quote]her musical soundtracks from Broadway

No such thing

Sorry I meant Grammy at R327 I just woke from a nap discombobulated!

OK R328 Original Broadway Recording

The comment from her first gay husband about their marriage is hilarious. He said that there was nothing but used teabags all over the house. She drank tea morning, noon, and night.

Although she never won an Emmy for "Murder She Wrote," John Addison won one for his catchy music for the show.

Her early number “how’d ya like to spoon with me” from Till the Clouds Roll By (1946) interesting to watch . I am not sure if that was her actual voice .

Broadway will honor the legendary Angela Lansbury with the traditional dimming of marquee lights this Saturday evening.

Where's her husband buried? No doubt she will go there

R333, she sang it in Murder, She Wrote, and that was her. She did it as Jessica’s twin cousin, Emma.

To me, she was absolutely in the upper echelon of the business. Earning the very rare permanent A-list status. The woman had grand successes in at least 6 decades. A brilliant performance in an all-time film classic. She was the toast of Broadway two times, twenty years apart. She was a diva for both Jerry Herman and Stephen Sondheim. And, even though as I've mentioned, I never cared about Murder She Wrote, she had 30 million plus people watching her on a weekly basis for years on end.

It seems that, she didn't quite see herself (or at least her success) the way many of us do. I do hope as the years went on, she realized just how many people she'd entertained and made happy in her lifetime.

She achieved the enviable status of *beloved*, r337.

R337: She was, at most, in the first row of the second raters (Somerset Maugham supposedly said this about himself). She had a long career--one real movie triumph and a couple long lived Broadway successes, and a tv show that ran for years even though it was a guilty pleasure, at best. On the whole, better than most people in show business ever experience. Her kids were fuckedup for awhile, but a lot of people do worse.

[quote] A brilliant performance in an all-time film classic

[quote] one real movie triumph

Which one, R337 and R339?

You better say "Bedknobs & Broomsticks" or the shit will hit the fan...

R339 There's nothing second rate about her Mrs. Lovett. That was an epic performance, 8 shows a week two matinees. Or her Eleanor Iselin. Or Mame Dennis. I can't believe I have to argue this. She was a top tier Broadway performer. And she should've got the Oscar for Candidate.

Before the don't rain on my parade passes by...in town.

R342: You don't read well do you. Like the entire thread.

OMG. This is hilarious. I never knew about this. I LOVE the pettiness of this. Guess Jennifer Anniston isn't in mourning with us.

Screenshots

What was her work on the West End like?

If you're going to have a flop on your resume, make it a lulu!

I wonder if she thought appearing in this (rather painful) number on the Academy Awards would help her land the lead in the movie version of 'Mame'?

r347 - well her Gypsy originated in London before coming to Broadway and that's obviously considered one of her triumphs. And, she took her Broadway production of Blithe Spirit to the West End with a new British cast and was a big critical and commercial hit when she was almost 90, also winning her an Olivier Award.

But, obviously, Broadway was where she made her home in the theatre.

How did the West End get ahead of Broadway in dimming the lights? Some one fucked up big time there.

This 20-minute clip shows off her friendship with Bea who would pass away about a year later...

Some people!

She's scissoring the Queen in heaven now....

They told me I should cast her as the lead in my 1974 movie "Mame".

Thank God, Gary talked me out of it.

I was born to play that role...and sing those songs.

The gals at Loretta's beauty shop are saying...

well, she and Seth Hazlitt picked up some drugs and went to party at the Hyatt in Portland...

Still can't believe she's gone. The world has lost a true treasure.

R344 Seems like you're the one with the reading comprehension problem, scumfuck. I was responding to the person in this thread who said she wasn't very good.

It is a shame that Angela didn't star in a couple of hag horror films.

[quote]And she should've got the Oscar for Candidate.

True. But what's interesting is that Lansbury is still remembered for Manchurian Candidate whereas Patty Duke's performance has largely been forgotten.

You're saying that doesn't make it true, R363. Patty Duke first played her role on Broadway before making the movie and is remembered for doing both. Neither Duke nor the film has been forgotten. I would say Duke and Lansbury are remembered equally for their roles.

Angie never touched the pills or dope unlike Patty (real name Nealy) who tried to crawl her way back to Broadway without any success.

Dame Angie was a legend just like myself.

Angela knew Broadway didn’t go for dope and booze, she got her kicks above the waistline sunshine!

R337- Not "permanent A list". That is not really a thing and despite her several triumphs, she had long stretches that were not so successful. The closest thing to permanent A List is the freakish Tom Cruise. Of course was she was more talented and more sympathetic as a person, but that's showbiz.

R335, her mother's ashes are scattered in County Cork (Ireland) but I don't know about the husband.

I think we can honor Angela Lansbury for her staggering performance in Manchurian Candidate and her other work without dismissing Patty Duke's scrambled-egg-flinging perfection in Miracle Worker. Both are beloved DL icons!

Duke's sit com and wacky life crowded out her work in the Miracle Worker a long time ago. Nothing comparable happened to Lansbury. Like a lot of people A-list or otherwise, she's remembered by most people for a tiresome tv show.

Patty was a bright flaming comet that burned out to quickly, Angela was more like the great thoroughbred work horse who marched forward continually pulling her weight and more.

Once again the ugly rivalry of Patty Duke versus Angela Lansbury for the supporting Oscar win and of course always brought up too, the ugly rivalry between Anne Bancroft and Bette Davis for the best Oscar win. Look the bottom line is Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft deserve their win and got their win 👍👍

R322 The character in the remake was named "Eleanor" not "Hillary."

Can someone explain the brilliance of her characterization of Miss Lovett to me? Try as I might, I don't get it. I think she sounds and looks awful, all over the place, not funny, not menacing, and not grounded in reality whatsoever.

I will be watching Bedknobs & Broomsticks this weekend in her memory.

[quote]Can someone explain the brilliance of her characterization of Miss Lovett to me?

It's the little pigtails.

[quote]It is a shame that Angela didn't star in a couple of hag horror films.

She was ready to do psycho-biddy films even in her 20s, if they'd invented them then.

Thanks R373 - I oh deared myself late last night and came here to correct it.

I guess every time someone in the movie said Eleanor - I heard Hillary - because Miss Streep was wearing Hillary Clinton's hair and clothes.....

Darn. I find I'm still hurting over losing Angela Lansbury.

Lansbury worked with Manchurian Candidate director John Frankenheimer in another 1962 release All Fall Down. Pictured with Eva Marie Saint who is one year older than Lansbury.

The best part of this highly inaccurate movie.....

Angela in the entertaining Death on the Nile

Just to add to R350 she also starred as Gertrude in Hamlet in the West End during the 70s.

I was lucky enough to see her in Blithe Spirit when it came to London, you couldn't take your eyes off her and she was mesmerising. Very gracious to all her fans at the stage door as well even though I'm sure she was exhausted.

Some posters babble about her kids but don't recognise how she helped them sort their lives out. Her son was very successful in TV (in large part thanks to Angela) and her daughter lived a very happy life in private.

TCM is doing a 24 hour Lansbury-a-thon in November

[quote] Gertrude in Hamlet in the West End during the 70s.

Uncut. With Albert Finney.

Gertie...

I wish she had said yes to Nurse Ratched in Cuckoo's Nest, her reason to refuse made no sense given that she played the irredeemable Mrs Iselin

Maybe the script writer was manic depressive, r386, and as we all know, manic depressives...

Did she ever have a greatest hits album?

"Kind Lady" was some sort of a proto-hag horror film. Ethel Barrymore played the lead and Lansbury played the role of the evil maid (which was quite similar to her "Gaslight" character). Homosexualist Maurice Evans played the main bad guy.

Kind Lady

^ Angela never got a word in.

Maurice Evans always seemed so lame on screen (and I never saw him on stage).

Hurd Hatfield, her Dorian Gray, had a few late life appearances on MSW

COZI-TV has been running a "Murder She Wrote" Marathon all this week.

See schedule below and choose your time zone.

R391, I thought Evans was great in Kind Lady. Lansbury, too. I think it's an underrated film

R373 her performance was calibrated, and worked brilliancy, for the stage. It's a very demanding rile, and at age 55 she NAILED it.

R32, thanks. We had a thread about him, but I was blanking on the name

R32, thanks. We had a thread about him, but I was blanking on the name

Sorry for the typos. Damn auto correct. Let me try again.

[R373] her performance was calibrated, and worked brilliantly, for the stage. It's a very demanding role, and at age 55 she NAILED it.

[quote] How did the West End get ahead of Broadway in dimming the lights? Some one fucked up big time there.

Because Charlotte St Martin is a dumb cunt. You'd think someone was electing a new pope with all the fuss she makes about meeting and deliberating it. And then the announcement.

MAME

Sorry if this has already been posted - I’m running out the door—

I couldn’t stand Jessica Fletcher in MSR. But I love Angela Lansbury. Sorry she passed.

I'm probably one of the few people still alive who saw PRETTYBELLE and has a few remembrances from it.

I saw a matinee in Boston when it was trying out and I was in college. It was slick and bright and cheery and Lansbury was wonderfully charming as a Southern belle manipulator who was involved in all sorts of small town shenanigans, much of it her own making. Not awful but I was most struck by her flouncy dresses which all had a distinctly 1950s flair, even though, IIRC, the show was set in the contemporary South of 1971. You have to know, that in 1971, 1950s fashions were about as out of style as could be. Can't remember any of the music or any of her co-stars. Well....that's about it. Of course, it never made it to NY.

The weird thing is that around the same time, FOLLIES was also trying out in Boston but I somehow missed it! I think maybe I'd gone home by then for Christmas break or something. Anyway, I caught up with it in NY.....twice. Loved it! And Dorothy Collins had that same 1950s flouncy thing going on in her costume.

Speaking of Follies, this pic of Gloria Swanson was the inspiration

"It was a very cunt-like thing to do."

[quote]And Dorothy Collins had that same 1950s flouncy thing going on in her costume.

And why do you think Sally was in that specific dress, r403?

Who dat?

Honestly, r406, back then in 1971, I thought it was an outrageously wrong choice for Sally. I refused to believe that a 50 year old woman would choose a dress that would have been about 12-15 years out of date to seduce a man she loved in1939 (a dress that suggested the 30s would have been more appropriate and believable). But that pink crinoline dress just didn't ring true. Not flattering and just downright silly. I mean, I got the extreme theatricality of it but thought it made Collins look too foolish right from the start.

I'll admit, however, now that we're decades away from 1971 and the 1950s, it's wonderfully sensational (if not quite realistic). In any case, Florence Klotz won a most-deserved Tony, anyway.

Then you don't get the psychology of the costume, r408. It shows that Sally didn't have the money to buy a new *occasion* dress. That was the most recent one she had bought which would have been about 15 years previous. 15 years before, it wouldn't have looked inappropriate on her. She probably thought it would make her look more girlish to Ben. Now compare her to wealthy Phyllis in her designer couture.

Her niece interviews her at 3:30.

Kiss her now...

Murder, She Croaked

Just watch how all the murders in Cabot Cove magically stop now that Jessica Fletcher is dead.

Jess was a one-woman crime wave. In the 80s Cabot Cove was known as America's Murder Capital

R386 It is ironic that she wanted that Oscar so much but the one role that could probably have finally given it to her was one she rejected.

She made the right decision to reject the role of Nurse Ratched -- she avoided getting typecast and had several more decades of success -- from "Murder, She Wrote" to "Beauty and the Beast" and many others. Meanwhile, Louise Fletcher was a one-hit wonder and was little heard of again.

I doubt she would have been typecast, she was always a character actor first

R403 Love hearing your memories, did you see Angela in any later productions?

r225, I've never heard of Dowager Empress Marie murdering anyone before. Tell me more?

Who will play her in the tell all biopic?

There isn't much to tell! She was so grounded, saying her favourite things in life were running the family home, gardening and being with family.

In addition to Cuckoo's Nest, I wish she had been able to go ahead with the original "Sunset Boulevard" that Sondheim was working on. He dropped it as someone convinced him it would only work as a tragic opera! Angie would have been a terrific Norma Desmond.

Other projects she could have nailed were "A Star Is Born", "Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?" and "Away From Her".

She had a better and more enduring career than plenty of Oscar winners and surely that is more important. A Damehood is nothing to sneeze at either, although it should have come to her when she was somewhat younger.

Agreed, she should have been made a Dame in the 90s at the latest

Her damehood was undeserved, since she did most of her work in the US. The same goes for Liz Taylor (who wasn't even a real Brit to begin with), Olivia de Havilland and Julie Andrews.

There’s a wreath at Blair House right now for her. Blair House was Jessica Fletcher’s house in Murder, She Wrote. Blair House acted as the exterior for the show.

Angela said her favorite tv shows in the 90s were Seinfeld and Roseanne.

[quote]Blair House acted as the exterior for the show.

Not good enough to garner an Emmy nomination, r424.

Apologies if this was posted upthread.

The lights on Broadway will be dimmed for one minute tonight at 7:45pm.

Angela on The View

I apologize to the ATC poster I'm cutting and pasting here, but the post is too great not to:

[quote]There's an episode of Lucille Ball's radio talk show Let's Talk to Lucy from 1964 where Lucy chats with her dear friend Ann Sothern. In it, Ann says she was offered the London production of Hello, Dolly!, but turned it down. They say Angela Lansbury is going to do it. This sent me on a search of news coverage from the time and Angela was indeed announced to star as Dolly in London. However, David Merrick was insistent on getting the Drury Lane Theatre for Dolly and Camelot was already booked there. Merrick postponed the London production by a year. Mary Martin, of course, opened the show. In all the stories I've heard Angela tell in interviews about landing the role of Mame, I never heard her mention her earlier Dolly connection. Did anyone ever hear her speak of this?

[quote]Incidentally, Ann Sothern was mentioned in the columns at the time as the leading contender for Mame on Broadway. A bout of hepatitis a decade earlier left Sothern feeling like she didn't have the stamina for a long run in a musical. She did later do a brief Hawaiian production of Mame.

She must have patched up things with Walters.

She also turned down the role of Clairee in the film of Steel Magnolias. I loved Olympia Dukakis but she was so frigging miscast as a genteel Southern lady.

There was an episode or special in the 90s where AL featured as a southern lady in the 19th Century helping slaves escape to the North of USA, where they could be free. She must have gone without coaching on her southern accent as it was really bad. But she was very likeable.

drunk

R423 I half agree with you. It's unfair when a British honour is handed out to interlopers like those you mention and to Douglas Fairbanks Junior when there are so many, many worthies at home.

Icon!

1964s Dear Heart with Angela as Glen Ford's wife. Page who has the lead role is terrific.

Lansbury in 1964s The World of Henry Orient which was filmed in NY.

She did a super campy movie with Jane Fonda in the 60s called In the Cool of the Day

No, it was horrendous, R438.

Jane Fonda had a nervous breakdown on location Greece and 20 minutes of footage and one actor (George Coulouris) had to be removed from the final film.

Neither Fonda or Lansbury have divulged what happened.

45 years later.

Fonda says—

[quote] I made a film with Angela Lansbury eons ago. Peter Finch was in it as well.

[quote] It was so bad, I’m not even sure it was ever released. (So you see, we all win some and lose some).

Jane Fonda does the Freudian thing of forgetting shameful things from her past.

[quote] I made a terrible movie called “In the Cool of the Day.” John Houseman produced it.

[quote] I can’t even remember the name of the director. It also starred Peter Finch and Angela Lansbury and we shot it in Greece. I’m not even sure that it got released

But Angela got lots more screen time.

When you are 80+ and have made dozens of movies, you can forget details, even if you remember a negative impression.

[quote]1964s Dear Heart with Angela as Glen Ford's wife. Page who has the lead role is terrific.

"Dear Heart" has the distinction of featuring both Gladys Kravitzes, Alice Pearce and Sandra Gould, in small roles.

I'll bet Alice Pearce was more worth watching than Gould.

Miss Barbara Nichols was more worth watching than either of them, r445.

If her career has proved one thing, it's that Angie always got the leftovers...

You think Olympia Dukakis was miscast and British Angela Lansbury would have been a better fit for Magnolias R431?

[quote] it's that Angie always got the leftovers.

She may have got the leftovers at MGM but she handed her subsequent career intelligently.

1. She moved her career sideways into movie supporting roles playing 'Mothers' and 'Bitches'.

2. Then she moved on to the New York stage playing the star roles.

3. Then she moved on to TV in a show which required no great intelligence but it made her a household name to all TV viewers. And she could do that (rather tacky) exercise videos.

She was obviously a very astute woman.

She’s sincere!

R447, Angela won 5 Tony Awards, was nominated for 3 Oscars and was nominated for almost 20 Emmys, as well as winning several Golden Globes. She had a career lasting from the 1940's until just a few years ago. There aren't many people who can say that.

Driving Miss Daisy

With Ernest Borgnine, Anne Baxter, John Mills and Angela Lansbury.

dimming for Angie

to honor Lansbury, I watched "Death on the Nile" again last night, her scene "I, Salome Otterbourne, have succeeded where frail men have faltered. I am a finer sleuth than even the great Hercule Porridge" always made me laugh, "Hercule Porridge", lol

R455 I love Salome for calling him "Porridge" too! I just wish her character had spat it out so she didn't get shot!

R432 yes it was one of the 4 spin-off TV movies, "The Last Free Man". Angela played both Jessica and her distant relation, Sarah. Her accent wasn't the best but you hit it in the head, she was very likable. Turns out sleuthing ran in the family as Sarah serves a murder too, which townsfolk are trying to blame on her beloved slave!

I had no idea Angela was offered a role in Steel Magnolias, any idea why she passed on it?

[quote] any idea why she passed on it?

Because they didn't allow her to be credited as a 'Co-Executive Producer' and hire eight of her nephews and nieces behind the scenes.

*solve not serve the murder!

Angie on working with Fonda

"I went to her room while we were on-location and attempted a friendship, but Jane, at that time, was into the Method. She wasn't friendly with me on-camera so she wasn't going to be friendly with me off. There's a time for that, I think, and there's a time to just let acting be acting."

Angie on working with Bette:

I think anybody who approaches acting from a standpoint of staying in character 24/7 is revealing their own massive insecurities.

At its core, Jane was afraid she didn't have the acting chops to hide her real feelings towards Angela when they were in a scene together. She didn't have the skill to inhabit her character when she needed to and cast it off when she didn't.

Is there really a form of The Method that insists on this nonsense? I was in a Meisner workshop for quite awhile and nothing like this ever came up. If it had, I would have stopped going even sooner than I did.

Didn't Daniel Day Lewis reportedly stay in character on the set? I am not sure how he's Lincoln when he heads over to craft services for a croissant, or some other food Lincoln never saw or when he gets a cell phone call, but anyway.

R460 Not a secret that Jane Fonda had massive insecurities. Yes, you can be beautiful, wealthy and intelligent and still messed up. She's talked about this a lot.

R461 They made one of the craft service people dress up as a slave and bring him period accurate food.

She’ll never get an EGOT now.

This is interesting, apparently it was Angela speaking with Terrance McNally about his drinking that led him to AA and getting sober.

As a kid I saw her in Gypsy (she was great). After seeing shows we used to hang around the stage door trying to see stars or get autographs. They were usually nice and unpretentious, on their way home, or to their hotel, or whatever. Angela, on the other hand...a man came out an announced that Miss Lansbury would be coming out to sign autographs, and we had to line up. Then she came out, in a trenchcoat and silk scarf, and signed our programs. Nobosy really said anything, it was like an audience with the Queen. I thought it was kind of weird.

*nobody

She was hilarious in a supporting role behind Rex Harrison and Kay Kendall in The Reluctant Debutante - featuring sexy John Saxon and Sandra Dee.

R468 Really? I didn't think she was all that great. I did think Rex was amusing.

I have really enjoyed seeing Angela at awards shows. The one above for Bette Davis is read without a teleprompter, but from (possibly?) index cards she has on the podium. Lansbury really can hold an audience with her voice, her facial expressions, body language.

A treat to watch and leaves me wondering how many current "stars" could stand alone at a microphone on a stage in a house as big as the the Kennedy Center so comfortable and for so long.

She really was a treasure on so many levels.

3 1/2 hour interview.

You know you want to!

Picture gallery from the Guardian.

[quote] Jane was afraid she didn't have the acting chops

[quote] Not a secret that Jane Fonda had massive insecurities

Fonda was woefully miscast and a disaster in this role. She was playing an intellectual who was both mentally and physically ill. The other characters discuss her physical illnesses.

The producer was John Houseman, an intellectual snob who produced Shakespeare, Mankiewicz and Orson Welles. The role needed someone like Claire Bloom or Anne Bancroft but bubbly, broad-voiced Jane suppressed her breasts in sombre Morticia Addams black pretending she was in an Ingmar Bergman movie.

Her craziness got out of control in the heat of Greece and the weak director was unable to control her nervous breakdown. And one third of the film had to be abandoned.

What is “the cool of the day,” exactly?

“The cool of the evening” I’d understand.

R474 That movie was meant for intellectuals, not us.

It referred to the cool periods of the day when there's a gentle breeze and one can cool down one's tits and ass whilst reclining on a sun lounger

There's a scene where poor Jane climbs all those steps up to the Acropolis and she freaks out about the sweat appearing in her armpits and against all the angst of her wealthy existence and her committing adultery with a very unlikely married man.

She has to get back to the cool of her marble-lined hotel with Angela squawking outside striding along the corridors as her chiffon scarf drapes across her ample bosoms. Jane had her mental breakdown when she realised she didn't belong in that movie at all. And ALL that footage had to be scrapped.

Well, what the character’s seeking is The Cool of the Hotel Room, it seems.

Getting her Honorary Acadamy Award .

Must have looked nice on the shelf flanked by her six Tonys and six Golden Globes.

[quote] Well, what the character’s seeking is The Cool of the Hotel Room, it seems.

Yes, R478, Jane was seeking the coolness of the hotel room and hoping that she would be porked by her adulterous lover while Angela tramps over the Acropolis.

But we've already got the subtext that Jane will commit suicide fairly soon to atone for her sins, her illnesses and her adultery.

[quote]The producer was John Houseman, an intellectual snob who produced Shakespeare, Mankiewicz and Orson Welles.

What's so bad about that?! He also produced many other good movies like Executive Suite, The Bad And The Beautiful, and Lust For Life. And acted in all kinds of things - not all of them intellectual (Silver Spoons, Scrooged, Naked Gun).

R473, Houseman may have been in the Federal Theater and at Juilliard, but he wasn't too much of an "intellectual snob" to do commercials or go for cheap laughs by saying "it sucks" and other such things while playing Ricky Schroeder's grandfather on one of the worst sitcoms ever.

482 Worse than My Mother The Car, Joanie Loves Chachi, or Angel From Hell?

Lansbury was 5' 8+" barefoot, when she was young - probably was close to 6 feet in heels.

John Houseman's intellectual artistic efforts were in the 1940s and 1950s.

He chose Peter Finch to portray the mature, intellectual hero of this 1962 movie but he made big mistake in choosing Jane because when you see the movie you'll realise she's really struggling to inhabit the role of the bored, fragile, adulterous, intellectual wife with chronic health problems who falls incredulously in love with a man close to John Houseman's age.

To quote R460

[quote] Jane was afraid she didn't have the acting chops

the dressing room

With Burton, Taylor, and a young Kate Burton .

Elizabeth's chin. Two of the "Brown girls" from National Velvet reunited, at any rate.

With koala.

Just two MGM girls, r487.

R490 Aww. They're so pretty. She was kissed by Terry Kilburn in that movie, and he outlived her.

Speaking of Terry Kilburn....he's openly gay, and had a life partner who died years ago. He's 95 years old!

And Angela's first husband was one of the gays.

To be honest, Angela’s death impacted me more than Betty’s. I don’t know, Angela was like everyone’s favorite grandmother. RIP

Angela's gay first husband was actor Richard Cromwell

Sooo, I wuz tawking to Angie Cromwell the other day...

R494 Betty who?

R494 Sorry, you must mean Betty White. I forgot. All I could think of was, maybe, Betty Bacall.

He must have meant Bea, not Betty.

When other actresses took over as Mame, were there any other actresses who were memorable as Vera?

I just looked it up on IMDB. Apparently Audrey Christie (who also played Mrs. Upson in the Lucille Ball movie). And Anne Francine.

Anne Francine

R502 Why was the 80s revival of Mame a flop, anyway?

Did you read the youtube comments, r503?

I'm not R502, and I was just a toddler when that revival was mounted, but, my guess is that Herman's style of show was decidedly old-fashioned and of its time. And perhaps not enough time had passed for people to be nostalgic for something of that nature?

R504 No, and I probably won't.

R504 Ok I read them since there were only a few. Two people loved it and one said everyone was too old. (And the theater was big.) That's the explanation, then? 57 doesn't seem all that old (on stage, anyway) to play Mame. Roz Russell was no spring chicken when she did it.

I didn’t know Angela was in the King and I

R504 An almost 60 year old Agnes Gooch (Jane Connell, age 58) was a bad idea, though. When you consider the pregnancy.

R508 Yes she was, but not for long, they brought her in when Yul Brynner was on vacation. I remember there was a billboard advertisng it when I was visiting NY at the time - wish I'd seen it.

Wasn’t she too old for the part ?

She was pretty good (though overshadowed by almost everyone in the cast) in The Long, Hot Summer (1958). Here she is with Orson Welles as Will Varner - who sees to be based on Big Daddy in Tennessee Williams' Cat On A Hot Tin Roof - though this was loosely based on Faulkner. She played Will's girlfriend, Minnie.

She was also in The Dark At The Top Of The Stairs, playing the other woman, her scenes were with Robert Preston. It was a sympathetic role. In All Fall Down, she played the wife of Karl Malden and the mother of Warren Beatty and Brandon DeWilde. She was good with Eva Marie Saint. It was directed by John Frankenheimer, who then cast her in The Manchurian Candidate.

R511 Probably in her 50s, but then so was Gertrude Lawrence, I think.

[quote]I just looked it up on IMDB. Apparently Audrey Christie (who also played Mrs. Upson in the Lucille Ball movie). And Anne Francine.

Unless I'm remembering incorrectly, Audrey Christie played Bea Arthur's mother in an episode of "Maude."

R449 and R451, yes, she had a long career overall, but her leftovers didn't stop at MGM. Mary Martin turned down the title role in 'Mame' and after many actresses had been considered, the part went to Lansbury. The same goes for 'Murder She Wrote', which was turned down by Jean Stapleton, then Doris Day -- before Lansbury was offered the part.

Don’t knock leftovers. They are better than nuthin’

Kilburn was pinging from space in the 30s when they took that pic.

How come sometimes Grammy awarded the vocalist on Musical Theatre albums and other times not? Ethel Merman, Gwen Verdon and many others won as "Principal vocalists" yet when "Mame" and "Sweeney Todd" won it was in years where they just recognised the Composer. Seems arbitrary.

DL Icon Dame Catherine Zeta was also not nominated for her dramatic stylings when "A Little Night Music" was nominated in 2011!

R519, she was nominated and won. Lansbury lost to Katie Finnetqn.

Sorry R520 I was following on about their Cast recording not winning the Grammy and it only being the Composer who was nominated.

Who can forget CZJ winning her Tony?!

[quote]Lansbury lost to Katie Finnetqn.

Is that really her name?

No

R523 For those of us not familar with women who won Grammys for Broadway cast albums in the 60s, could you tell me what her name was, and what she won for?

Has nothing to do with the Grammys, r524. R520 was referring to Angie losing the Tony to Katie Finneran. Capische?

R525 Ok, pal.

I happen never to have heard of her. I'm probably not alone.

I[quote]I'm probably not alone.

Probably not, but you asked, r526. Anybody else know who Katie Finneran is?

No but I know Katie Finnetqn.

That's only because she stole Katie Finneran's career, r528.

How would you describe Lansbury's voice in this clip from the '74 revival of Gypsy?

It's very strong, but seems almost too brassy...like she's chewing up every single word and spitting it out. Like she's trying waaaaay too hard.

Or is it just me? :)

[quote]Or is it just me? :)

It's just you. She was terrific in "Gypsy," in every way. And surely you realize that the sound quality in those clips is pretty bad,

R530 fraid it's you. Many eldergays have waxed poetic about how stunning Angie was in Gypsy.

Did anyone see her in Dear World? She looks like a prototype Norma from Sunset

[quote] Did anyone see her in Dear World? She looks like a prototype Norma from Sunset

The character in the original play is called 'The Madwoman' of Chaillot.

She's going to make martial law look like anarchy.

R530 I saw the show and she was amazing. The sound of the clip *is* not the greatest. There is a soundtrack album, obviously. Maybe on YouTube. She was not a great singer, particularly, she just was perfect in the part and yeah, she enunciated, very clearly as one does in the theater. Or should.

[quote]There is a soundtrack album, obviously.

Obviously there *isn't*.

[quote]She was not a great singer, particularly,

Who else has *four* Tony Awards for Best Actress in a *Musical*, r536?

R536 Ok, there's a cast album. God, grow up.

[quote]Who else has *four* Tony Awards for Best Actress in a *Musical*, [R536]?

But, see, I'm a being a human being. I have opinions, and that's my opinion. Tonys don't have any bearing on my opinions, which as mine and belong to me. Yours belong to you. See how that works?

*which are mine

[quote]She was not a great singer, particularly

You stated that as fact, r538, not opinion.

My opinion is that she *was* a great Broadway singer and I think her *four* Tony Awards for Best Actress in a *Musical* backs it up, r538.

Totally agree, r541!

You may not like her *sound*, r542, but Betty kept tempo and hit the notes. What she lacked in vocals she compensated with attitude and glamour (a lost quality). Angela had better pipes, was a better dancer, and a better actress.

She should have won the Oscar for The Manchurian Candidate

Recognised by Grammy for her work on the Grammy-winning cast recordings for Mame and Sweeney Todd

Won an Emmy for the TV version of Sweeney Todd (she lost to her co-star) and a second Emmy for The Blackwater Lightship, which is underrated

[quote]You may not like her *sound*, [R542], but Betty kept tempo and hit the notes.

I beg to differ.

Jesus!

Do you think Angie was good in bed?

Peter Shaw was hot!

[quote] Totally agree, [R541]! — L. Bacall

You have to be a strong singer even to be NOMINATED!

The impertinence!

I have all her albums!

Her hit singles, too!

Well, I had Mame, Dear World, Gypsy, Sweeney, and Prettybelle solely for her presence on the recordings.

How did this thread get to R547 before someone said this?!

She should have been given an album deal in the 70s

It's weird to hear Angela's voice coming out of Ingrid Thulin's mouth in the Glenn Ford version of Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse - it's like watching a couple of hours of a ventriloquist act....

R552, because most of us don't have cataracts.

The fact that she did so much nudity made me respect her less as an actress, TBH.

How she got to work at MGM

She was very talented, and seems to have been a decent person too, but could the Eldergays (sorry!) explain why exactly AL was a "gay icon". She was a Broadway star? I guess Mama is an esp. gay, campy musical? She was a strong woman who was not really that attractive to straight men? I am not sure what one has to do to merit this status!

R559 Who is your idea of a gay icon? I'm not saying Lansbury is an icon to me (she isn't) - I'm just curious who you consider to be a gay icon, yourself.

I love her because of MSW, Death On The Nile and some other movies, in addition to her seeming like a great person who was kind to others. Not really for her musicals that I never got to see

"Moving into musical theatre, Lansbury finally gained stardom for playing the leading role in the Broadway musical Mame (1966), which won her her first Tony Award and established her as a gay icon."

She’s a gay icon because she’s camp

Just the Mame character though, or is there more to it?

[quote]and glamour (a lost quality)

Mystique, too!

[quote] Mystique

Mystique is a synonym for that which we consider to be of no interest.

How on earth did I never see this before? She is majestic!

R562 That's an interesting video taking about contracts and salaries.

She says this nondescript looking man on the left (named Michael Dyne) was considered to play Dorian Gray who, supposedly, had an ethereal super-human beauty.

R554 Not unlike Andie McDowell speaking with Glenn Close's voice in Graystoke: The Legend of Tarzan

Michael Dyne was pretty good in Cluny Brown, but he apparently he had much more success as a playwright and screen/TV writer. Doesn't seem like the Dorian Gray type but then maybe he tested well, and how many young English actors were floating around Hollywood in 1945?

Why is no one more scandalized by the blatant nudes Lansbury posed for, @ r556 r557?

There, there, r571...I'm sure your spectacles are around somewhere.

R571 Because they are fake. Angela was a virgin at age 18.

performing at the 1959 Academy Awards

She was into spooning

R575 That video at R562 says MGM forced her to do inappropriate roles.

Back in 80s this progressive queer movie was frequently double billed with another 1970 queer film Boys in the Band at Cinema Village in NY. Michael York as he did in Cabaret played a bisexual. This black comedy was directed by famed theater director Hal Prince

R577 It was written by Hugh Wheeler who also did 'Cabaret' and I sure the New York Eldergays know his work well.

Hugh Wheeler had something to do with this hunk

He'll be remembered for the Honourable, decent and kind woman that he so valiantly pretended to be.

She got around

One of Angela's "Murder, She Wrote" co-stars has died at 86.

I remember him well, R582. He took over from Tom Bosley as the sheriff of Cabot Cove.

He had a small appearance in a 'Columbo' episode in the 1990's.

Only 17 more posts are needed before some Lansbury-ite will need to start a new thread.

[quote]He had a small appearance in a 'Columbo' episode in the 1990's.

He has a *very* lengthy resume.

Who the hell is going to solve all the murders in Cabot Cove now Jessica AND the Sheriff are gone?!

I think you'll find that the Cabot Cove murder rate has gone down to zero, r586.

I never watched the show. I don't think there are any local sheriffs in Maine. There are county sheriffs. Why does he wear a cowboy hat, is he supposed to come from the South or West?

Aspie vibes from R588, no?

Yes, looking for authenticity from MSW was rather sad. I saw all those scenes supposedly set in London, Hawaii and Greece but recognised all those cardboard sets and back projection on the LA backlot.

R589 I said I never watched it. But somehow I'm supposed to know the show I never watched was inauthentic.

R589 Besides, didn't Ruth Roman play a hairdresser on the show? That seems very authentic to me.

Still dead?

She's NOT dead R593, she's Resting in Peace!

Blowed up good.

Swan songs...

Where is the link to the "Angela Lansbury is DEAD to me" second thread?

Not needed. She's old news...

R597 - here you go. NEW THREAD...

She's in a tree...