# Angela Lansbury on screen and stage

* This article is part of a series aboutAngela Lansbury
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British and American actress Angela Lansbury was known for her prolific work in theatre, film, and television.
Lansbury's career spanned nine decades. She made her film debut in Gaslight (1944), and followed it up with an appearance in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945). She earned two consecutive Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress, and won the Supporting Actress Golden Globe for the latter film. Subsequent films throughout the late 1940s and the 1950s included National Velvet (1944), The Harvey Girls (1946), State of the Union (1948), Kind Lady (1951), The Court Jester (1956), and The Long, Hot Summer (1958).
She drifted towards more complex, mature work with The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1960), All Fall Down (1962), In the Cool of the Day (1963), Dear Heart (1964); and, in one of her most infamous roles, as the Machiavellian Mrs. Iselin in The Manchurian Candidate (1962). For the latter, she received stellar reviews, winning a second Golden Globe and earning her third Oscar nomination.
Meanwhile, Lansbury also found success on stage. She starred on Broadway in A Taste of Honey, Stephen Sondheim's Anyone Can Whistle, and later on as Anna Leonowens in The King and I. But that time with Sondheim began a collaborative partnership that would garner them both frequent success. Together, they also worked on Mame, the Broadway revival of Gypsy, and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. And for those three successful hits (plus one considered a flop, for which she was nonetheless praised, Dear World; albeit not by Sondheim), Lansbury won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical an unprecedented, and undefeated, four times.
Intermittently, she returned to do films, appearing in the dark comedy, Something for Everyone (1970). The following year, she starred in Disney's Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971). She earned Best Comedy/Musical Actress Golden Globe nominations for both roles. For the Hercule Poirot yarn, Death on the Nile (1978), she won the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress and earned a BAFTA nomination as well. She portrayed Miss Marple two years later in another Agatha Christie tale, The Mirror Crack'd (1980), earning a Saturn Award nom.
In the 1980s, she began to direct her efforts towards television. She earned her first Primetime Emmy nomination alongside Bette Davis, both for the miniseries Little Gloria...Happy at Last (1982). However, it would be her iconic role as mystery author Jessica Fletcher on Murder, She Wrote (1984-1996) which would immortalize her with a whole new generation. She starred in every episode for twelve seasons, and received an Emmy nomination for each of them, although she never won. She did win four more Golden Globe Awards, however, for Best Actress in a TV Drama Series, bringing her grand total to six. In total, she received eighteen unsuccessful Emmy bids, rendering her the most nominated individual performer never to win that award.
Lansbury lent her talents as a voice actress to Disney's Beauty and the Beast (1991) as Mrs. Potts, who sang the titular song in the film, as well as Anastasia (1997). She acted sporadically throughout various films, TV shows, and stage productions throughout the next two and a half decades, including playing the wicked Great Aunt Adelaide in Emma Thompson's Nanny McPhee (2005). She made a return to the stage opposite Marian Seldes in Deuce, and received her fifth nomination. She earned a sixth nomination for Blithe Spirit and won her fifth Tony as a result. Lansbury earned a seventh and final nomination for A Little Night Music, at the following year's ceremony. For her distinguished career, she has been presented with several honorary tributes, including the Honorary Academy Award and a Special Tony Award, plus damehood from Queen Elizabeth II. Lansbury's final role was a cameo as herself in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022), which was released posthumously, shortly after her death.

## Film

List of film credits :
| Year | Title | Role(s) | Notes |
| 1944 | Gaslight | Nancy Oliver | |
| 1944 | National Velvet | Edwina Brown | |
| 1945 | The Picture of Dorian Gray | Sibyl Vane | |
| 1946 | The Harvey Girls | Em | |
| 1946 | The Hoodlum Saint | "Dusty" Millard | |
| 1946 | Till the Clouds Roll By | Star of London Gaieties | |
| 1947 | The Private Affairs of Bel Ami | Clotilde de Marelle | |
| 1947 | If Winter Comes | Mabel Sabre | |
| 1948 | Tenth Avenue Angel | Susan Bratten | |
| 1948 | State of the Union | Kay Thorndyke | |
| 1948 | The Three Musketeers | Queen Anne | |
| 1949 | The Red Danube | Audrey Quail | |
| 1949 | Samson and Delilah | Semadar | |
| 1951 | Kind Lady | Mrs. Edwards | |
| 1952 | Mutiny | Leslie Waldridge | |
| 1953 | Remains to Be Seen | Valeska Chauvel | |
| 1955 | The Purple Mask | Madame Valentine | |
| 1955 | A Life at Stake | Doris Hillman | |
| 1955 | A Lawless Street | Tally Dickinsen | |
| 1955 | The Court Jester | Princess Gwendolyn | |
| 1956 | Please Murder Me | Myra Leeds | |
| 1958 | The Long, Hot Summer | Minnie Littlejohn | |
| 1958 | The Reluctant Debutante | Mabel Claremont | |
| 1959 | Summer of the Seventeenth Doll | Pearl | |
| 1960 | A Breath of Scandal | Countess Lina Schwatzenfeld | |
| 1960 | The Dark at the Top of the Stairs | Mavis Pruitt | |
| 1961 | Blue Hawaii | Sarah Lee Gates | |
| 1962 | The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse | Marguerite Laurier (voice) | Provided dubbing for Ingrid Thulin |
| 1962 | All Fall Down | Annabell Willart | |
| 1962 | The Manchurian Candidate | Eleanor Shaw Iselin | |
| 1963 | In the Cool of the Day | Sybil Logan | |
| 1964 | The World of Henry Orient | Isabel Boyd | |
| 1964 | Dear Heart | Phyllis | |
| 1965 | The Greatest Story Ever Told | Claudia | |
| 1965 | The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders | Lady Blystone | |
| 1965 | Harlow | Mama Jean Bello | |
| 1966 | Mister Buddwing | Gloria | |
| 1970 | Something for Everyone | Countess Herthe von Ornstein | |
| 1971 | Bedknobs and Broomsticks | Miss Eglantine Price | |
| 1978 | Death on the Nile | Salome Otterbourne | |
| 1979 | The Lady Vanishes | Miss Froy | |
| 1980 | The Mirror Crack'd | Miss Marple | |
| 1982 | The Last Unicorn | Mommy Fortuna (voice) | |
| 1983 | The Pirates of Penzance | Ruth | |
| 1984 | The Company of Wolves | Granny | |
| 1991 | Beauty and the Beast | Mrs. Potts (voice) | |
| 1997 | Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas | Mrs. Potts (voice) | Direct-to-video |
| 1997 | Anastasia | Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna (voice) | |
| 1999 | Fantasia 2000 | Herself | Segment: "Firebird Suite – 1919 Version" |
| 2003 | Broadway: The Golden Age | Herself | Documentary |
| 2005 | Nanny McPhee | Great Aunt Adelaide | |
| 2008 | Heidi 4 Paws | Grandmamma (voice) | |
| 2011 | Mr. Popper's Penguins | Selma Van Gundy | |
| 2014 | Driving Miss Daisy | Miss Daisy Werthan | Theatrical release of stage production |
| 2018 | The Grinch | Mayor McGerkle (voice) | |
| 2018 | Mary Poppins Returns | Balloon Lady | |
| 2018 | Buttons: A Christmas Tale | Rose | |
| 2022 | Glass Onion | Herself (cameo) | Posthumous release; final film role |

## Television

List of television credits :
| Year(s) | Title | Role(s) | Notes | Ref(s) |
| 1950 1953 | Robert Montgomery Presents | Christine Manson Rosie | Episode: "The Citadel" Episode: "Cakes and Ale" | [30] [31] |
| 1950 1952 1952 1954 | Lux Video Theatre | Leslie Lucy Landor Tina Rafferty Elsa | Episode: "That Wonderful Night" Episode: "Operation Weekend" Episode: "Stone's Throw" Episode: "A Chair for a Lady" | [32] [33] [34] |
| 1953 | The Revlon Mirror Theater | Joan Dexter | Episode: "Dreams Never Lie" | [35] [36] |
| 1953 | Ford Television Theatre | Lola Walker | Episode: "The Ming Lama" | |
| 1953 | Pantomime Quiz | Guest | | |
| 1953 | Schlitz Playhouse of Stars | Florie Vandrop | Episode: "Storm Swept" | |
| 1954 | Your Show of Shows | Guest Host | | |
| 1954 | General Electric True Theater | Daphne Rutledge | Episode: "The Crime of Daphne Rutledge" | |
| 1954–1955 | Four Star Playhouse | Joan Robinson Mrs. Hallerton | Episode: "A String of Beads" Episode: "Madeira, Madeira" | [42] [43] [44] |
| 1954 | The George Gobel Show | Guest | | |
| 1955 | Fireside Theatre | Mrs. Jarvis | Episode: "The Indiscreet Mrs. Jarvis" | |
| 1955 | Stage 7 | Vanessa Peters | Episode: "Billy and the Bride" | |
| 1955–1956 | The Star and the Story | Mrs. Jane Pritchard | Episode: "The Treasure" Episode: "The Force of Circumstance" | [48] [49] |
| 1955–1956 | Celebrity Playhouse | Unknown Deborah | Episode: "Empty Arms" Episode: "Deborah" | [50] [51] |
| 1956 | Chevron Hall of Stars | Laura Ellsworth | Episode: "Crisis in Kansas" | |
| 1956 | Front Row Center | Joyce | Episode: "Instant of Truth" | |
| 1956 | Screen Directors Playhouse | Vera Wayne | Episode: "Claire" | |
| 1956 | Studio 57 | Katy Flossie Norris | Episode: "The Rarest Stamp" Episode: "The Brown Leather Case" | [55] [56] |
| 1956–1957 | Climax! | Justina Marshall Judith Beresford | Episode: "Bury Me Later" Episode: "The Devil's Brood" | [57] [58] |
| 1958–1959 | Playhouse 90 | Victoria Atkins Hazel Wills | Episode: "Verdict of Three" Episode: "The Grey Nurse Said Nothing" | [59] [60] |
| 1963 | The Eleventh Hour | Alvera Dunlear | Episode: "Something Crazy's Going on in the Back Room" | |
| 1965 | The Man from U.N.C.L.E. | Elfie van Donck | Episode: "The Deadly Toys Affair" | |
| 1965 | The Trials of O'Brien | Celeste Thurlow | Episode: "Leave It to Me" | |
| 1975 | The First Christmas: The Story of the First Christmas Snow | Sister Theresa / Narrator (voice) | Television special | |
| 1982 | Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street | Nellie Lovett | Television special (filmed stage performance) | |
| 1982 | Little Gloria... Happy at Last | Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney | Miniseries | |
| 1983 | The Gift of Love: A Christmas Story | Amanda Fenwick | Television film | |
| 1983 | A Talent for Murder | Ann Royce McClain | Television film | |
| 1984 | Lace | Aunt Hortense Boutin | Miniseries | |
| 1984 | The First Olympics: Athens 1896 | Alice Garrett | Miniseries | |
| 1984–1996 | Murder, She Wrote | Jessica Fletcher | 264 episodes | |
| 1986 | Magnum, P.I. | Jessica Fletcher | Episode: "Novel Connection" | |
| 1986 | Rage of Angels: The Story Continues | Marchesa Allabrandi | Television film | |
| 1988 | Shootdown | Nan Moore | Television film | |
| 1989 | The Shell Seekers | Penelope Keeling | Television film | |
| 1990 | The Love She Sought | Agatha McGee | Television film | |
| 1992 | Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris | Mrs. Ada Harris | Television film | |
| 1996 | Mrs. Santa Claus | Mrs. Santa Claus | Television film | |
| 1997 | Murder, She Wrote: South by Southwest | Jessica Fletcher | Television film | |
| 1999 | The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax | Emily Pollifax | Television film | |
| 2000 | Murder, She Wrote: A Story to Die For | Jessica Fletcher | Television film | |
| 2001 | Murder, She Wrote: The Last Free Man | Jessica Fletcher | Television film | |
| 2002 | Touched by an Angel | Penelope Berrington | Episode: "For All the Tea in China" | |
| 2003 | Murder, She Wrote: The Celtic Riddle | Jessica Fletcher | Television film | |
| 2004 | The Blackwater Lightship | Dora | Television film | |
| 2005 | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Eleanor Duvall | Episode: "Night" | |
| 2005 | Law & Order: Trial by Jury | Eleanor Duvall | Episode: "Day" | |
| 2014 | Great Performances: Driving Miss Daisy | Miss Daisy Werthan | Filmed stage performance | [84] [85] |
| 2017 | Little Women | Aunt March | Miniseries | |

## Radio

| Year(s) | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1947 | Suspense | Unknown | Episode: "A Thing of Beauty" |
| 1948–1949 | NBC University Theatre | Mildred Elizabeth Bennet | Episode: "Of Human Bondage" Episode: "Pride and Prejudice" |
| 1950 | The MGM Theater of the Air | Unknown | Episode: "Stamboul Quest" |
| 1952 | Theatre Guild on the Air | Unknown | Episode: "Dear Brutus" |
| 1952 | Stars over Hollywood | Unknown | Episode: "The Lady and the Beachcomber" |

## Stage

List of theatre credits :
| Year(s) | Title | Role | Theatre | Notes | Ref(s) |
| 1952 | The Gramercy Ghost | Nancy Willard | Unknown | Summer tour | |
| 1952 | Affairs of State | Irene Elliott | Bucks County Playhouse | Summer tour | |
| 1957 | Hotel Paradiso | Marcelle | Henry Miller's Theatre | 11 April – 13 July | [94] [95] |
| 1960–1961 | A Taste of Honey | Helen | Lyceum Theatre | 4 October 1960 – 15 April 1961 | |
| 1964 | Anyone Can Whistle | Cora Hoover Hooper | Majestic Theatre | 4–11 April | |
| 1966–1968 | Mame | Mame Dennis | Winter Garden Theatre | 18 May 1966 – 30 March 1968 | |
| 1969 | Dear World | Countess Aurelia | Mark Hellinger Theatre | 6 February – 31 May | |
| 1971 | Prettybelle | Prettybelle Sweet | Shubert Theatre | 1 February – 6 March | [96] [97] |
| 1972 | All Over | The Mistress | Aldwych Theatre | | |
| 1973–1975 | Gypsy | Rose | Piccadilly Theatre Winter Garden Theatre | 29 May – December 1973 23 September 1974 – 4 January 1975 | [95] [99] |
| 1975–1976 | Hamlet | Gertrude | National Theatre | | [100] [101] |
| 1978 | The King and I | Anna Leonowens | Uris Theatre | 11–30 April (replacement for Constance Towers) | |
| 1979–1981 | Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street | Mrs. Nellie Lovett | Uris Theatre John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Shubert Theatre Boston Metropolitan Theatre Arie Crown Theater Golden Gate Theatre Dorothy Chandler Pavilion | Broadway American tour | [95] [102] |
| 1982 | A Little Family Business | Lillian Ridley | Ahmanson Theatre Martin Beck Theatre | 8 October – 20 November 15–26 December | [95] [103] [104] |
| 1983 | Mame | Mame Dennis | Gershwin Theatre | 24 July – 28 August | |
| 2007 | Deuce | Leona Mullen | Music Box Theatre | 6 May – 19 August | |
| 2009 | Blithe Spirit | Madame Arcati | Shubert Theatre | 15 March – 19 July | |
| 2009–2010 | A Little Night Music | Madame Armfeldt | Walter Kerr Theatre | 24 November 2009 – 20 June 2010 | |
| 2012 | The Best Man | Mrs. Sue-Ellen Gamadge | Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre | 1 April – 22 July | |
| 2013 | Driving Miss Daisy | Miss Daisy Werthan | Queensland Performing Arts Centre Theatre Royal, Sydney Comedy Theatre, Melbourne Her Majesty's Theatre, Adelaide His Majesty's Theatre, Perth | Australian tour | [26] [105] |
| 2014–2015 | Blithe Spirit | Madame Arcati | Gielgud Theatre Ahmanson Theatre Golden Gate Theatre Princess of Wales Theatre National Theatre | West End North American tour | [106] [107] |
| 2017 | The Chalk Garden | Mrs. St. Maugham | Hunter College | 19 June | |
| 2019 | The Importance of Being Earnest | Lady Bracknell | American Airlines Theatre | 18 November | |
| 2021 | Beauty and the Beast | The Narrator | | UK Tour | |

## Video Games

| Year | Title | Role(s) |
| 2000 | Disney's Beauty and the Beast Magical Ballroom | Mrs. Potts (voice) |
| 2005 | Kingdom Hearts II | Mrs. Potts (voice) |
| 2007 | Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+ | Mrs. Potts (voice) |

## Exercise Video

| Year | Title | Role(s) | Notes | Ref(s) |
| 1988 | Angela Lansbury's Positive Moves: A Personal Plan for Fitness and Well-Being at any Age | Herself | | |