Angela Brigid Lansbury CBE was born on October 16, 1925 in London, UK to
Belfast-born actress Moyna Macgill and Edgar Lansbury, a prominent businessman.
Her grandfather, George Lansbury, was the Labour Party leader from 1932 to 1935. She began training as an actress at the Webber-Douglas
School for Dramatic Arts but was interrupted by the start of World War II, when she and her family moved to the USA.
There, the young aspiring actress enrolled at the Feagin School of Dramatic Arts in New York. Eventually she joined the rest
of the family in California.
In 1944 director George Cukor cast the teenage actress in "Gaslight," and
she became a contract player at MGM. This first movie role won her an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress.
In 1957, Lansbury won critical acclaim for her Broadway debut in "Hotel
Paradiso." Three years later, at the urging of producer David Merrick, she returned to the Broadway stage to star in the drama
"A Taste of Honey." She continued to demonstrate her versatility as a performer with her next stage role in the Arthur Laurents/Stephen
Sondheim musical "Anyone Can Whistle." The actress became a Broadway star and won the first of her four Tony Awards in 1966
with her tour de force performance as Mame Dennis in the hit musical "Mame." She went on to win other Tonys as best actress
in a musical for her work in "Dear World," the revival of "Gypsy" and "Sweeney Todd." Among her other prestigious stage credits
are starring roles in Peter Hall's 1975 National Theater Company production of "Hamlet" at the Old Vic and in the Royal Shakespeare
Company's production of Edward Albee's "All Over."
Angela
Lansbury's distinguished career includes successes in virtually every area of the entertainment spectrum. She has received
an unprecedented four Tony Awards, three Academy Award nominations as well as ten Emmy Award nominations for her many
outstanding television appearances. She starred for several seasons as the beloved 'Jessica Fletcher' on the hugely popular
series "Murder, She Wrote" and has reprised the role in four special television films.
Also in television, Lansbury's credits include the mini- series "Little Gloria...Happy at Last," the broadcast
presentation of "Sweeney Todd," as well as the television films "A Talent for Murder" (with Laurence Olivier), "The Shell
Seekers" and "Mrs. Santa Claus".
