Angela Lansbury, a famous British-American actress, died peacefully in her sleep on October 11, 2022, at her home in Los Angeles.
She was most well-known for her role as Jessica Fletcher, a mystery writer, in the long-running “Murder, She Wrote” series. According to the website, she was also the oldest living Oscar nominee at the time.
For her roles in “The Manchurian Candidate” and “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” she won a Golden Globe and four more for “Murder, She Wrote.”
She was nominated for many awards, including Oscars and Emmys, but she never took home the gold. According to IMDb, she received an Honorary Academy Award for her work in the industry in 2014.
The Beginnings
British actress Angela Brigid Lansbury was born on October 16, 1925, in London’s Regent’s Park. Angela was raised in the upper middle class by a father who ran a successful wood veneering business before entering politics.
Her mom was Irish stage and screen star Moyna MacGill. Lansbury’s father died of stomach cancer when she was nine years old.
Due to this, she “escaped” into acting, where she used her several personas to deal with her feelings. Lansbury said she was still highly affected by her father’s death in the 2010s.
Angela also learnt to play the piano and developed a passion for movies around this time. She enrolled in an acting school in West London and soon after had her stage debut. Angela’s mother opted to evacuate the family from London during the Blitz because of the danger posed by the Allied bombing.
In order to start their new lives in the United States, the family initially settled in Montreal, Canada, and then made their way to New York City.
Lansbury attended the Feagin School of Drama and Radio while living in New York City to further her acting training. She resumed her career as a theatrical actress. In 1942, Lansbury completed her training in the theatre arts.
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At the beginning of one’s professional life
At the age of 16, Lansbury began working in the entertainment industry alongside her mother, earning $60 per week singing in nightclubs.
Her mother had already established herself as an actress, so she decided to follow in her footsteps and move to Hollywood. Angela got a job at a department shop, and now she and her family live comfortably on her $28 weekly salary.
1950s Prosperity
Meeting British playwright John van Druten, who had recently written the script for “Gaslight,” was a turning point in Lansbury’s career. Angela, then 17 years old, played a cockney maid opposite Ingrid Bergman and received $500 per week for her work.
Reviews were overwhelmingly positive, and the Academy even considered nominating Lansbury for Best Supporting Actress.
During the next few years after signing with MGM, Lansbury appeared in a number of other films. The contract terminated in 1952, but she continued to appear in films like “National Velvet” and “The Picture of Dorian Gray” until then.
After the fact, many people said that Lansbury’s career had suffered because of her MGM contract, as she was cast in so many bad movies. Lansbury kept working in the theatre and on radio for the following few years.
Angela, being only in her twenties when she left MGM and was portrayed as much older women in several films, was often miscast as a child.
With films like “The Long Hot Summer” and “The Reluctant Debutante,” she gained popularity again. Lansbury played the villain in “The Manchurian Candidate” after appearing in a number of other films and plays.
How Much Does Angela Lansbury Make Per Year?
The success of her career as an actor, including her roles in films like The Grinch and Nanny McPhee, has contributed to Angela Lansbury’s estimated $75 million net worth and annual salary of more than $15 million.
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It’s Angela Lansbury. Husband
Angela Lansbury led a full life, highlighted by a plethora of memorable film performances. She also married twice. Closer Weekly reports that Angela Lansbury married actor Richard Cromwell in 1945.
A year later, Cromwell and Lansbury got a divorce, and Lansbury came out as Cromwell’s gay spouse. ‘I had no notion that I was marrying a gay man,’ she said.
When I was a young actress, I regarded him to be a really glamorous and interesting person; he was friends with Joan Crawford and other celebrities who I looked up to.
And he was interested in marriage, he was enamoured with me, but only because of what he had seen on film. After her first marriage to Richard Cromwell ended in divorce, Angela Lansbury wed Peter Shaw.
A report from RadioTimes.com After his time in the British military, Shaw settled in the United States, where he would eventually meet Lansbury the following year, in 1946.
They wed in 1949 and shared nearly fifty years of marriage before his untimely death from heart disease in 2003. Lansbury claims that she had a “wonderful” connection with Shaw.
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