Two grand Englishwomen had almost parallel lives.
Angela Lansbury and Queen Elizabeth both died at 96. Lansbury was born a half-year earlier and died a month later – Tuesday (Oct. 11), five days shy of her 97th birthday.
They did meet, at Windsor Castle. That was in 2014 (shown here), when Lansbury – then doing a play in London – officially became a Dame.
Both women had a refreshing mixture of intelligence and diligence. And neither mastered the notion of retiring: Elizabeth held her job for 70 years; Lansbury was a working actress for 77.
She started professionally at 16, not long after she had fled to New York with her mother (a widowed actress) and her siblings, to escape World War II. Her first job was a Canadian stage tour with her mom; her second involved singing Noel Coward songs in a Montreal nightclub.
Lansbury got the latter job by nudging her age three years, claiming she was 19. When she actually WAS 19, she was getting an Academy Award nomination as a supporting actress in “Gaslight.”
(Yes, that’s the film that helped create the expression to “gaslight” somebody. It remade a 1940 British film, based on a 1938 play.)
Lansbury’s award history would go on for generations. That first Oscar nomination was in 1945; her last actual award (not counting lifetime ones) came 65 years later, a Tony for “Blithe Spirit.”
In between, she had two more Oscar nominations, for “The Picture of Dorian Gray” (1945) and a chilling villain role in the original “Manchurian Candidate” (1962). She never won, nor did she win an Emmy – despite 18 nominations.
But Tonys were another matter – seven nominations and five wins. Four were for musicals – “Mame,” “Dear World,” “Gypsy” and “Sweeney Todd” – before that “Blithe Spirit” play.
Away from New York City, people rarely saw the musical side. Lansbury did star in the musical movie “Bedknobs and Broomsticks” (1971),but before it was released, Disney removed three of its musical numbers and shortened another. It did a re-release taking out most of the other songs; in 1996, the original version was restored..
Mostly, people knew Lansbury’s singing from Mrs. Potts, a teapot in the original “Beauty and the Beast” (1991) or from the 1996 TV movie “Mrs. Santa Claus.”
What they really knew was her work on “Murder, She Wrote.” It started big, finishing No. 8 in the Nielsen ratings for 1984-85, then peaked the next year at No. 3. In all, it would be in the top 10 for five years and on the air for 12 – plus some TV movies afterward.
After that, Lansbury would keep working, with her last stretch in 2007-8. That’s when she played kindly Aunt March in BBC’s excellent “Little Women” mini-series … did a voice in the animated “Grinch” movie … appeared briefly in “Mary Poppins Returns” and did “Buttons: A Christmas Tale,” which went straight to video after one night in theaters.
(The latter two also had Dick Van Dyke, who turns 97 on Dec. 13.)
“Buttons” has been called her last movie role, but Lansbury is listed as playing herself in the upcoming “Knives Out” sequel, in theaters (for a week) and on Netflix. Her image will linger; so will Elizabeth’s.