This beloved star, who you've likely seen in at least one episode of her long-running
sleuthy series Murder, She Wrote, is one of the most recognizable faces in the entertainment
industry.
But her real life has also been full of real drama.
This is the untold truth of Angela Lansbury.
Angela Lansbury may be the most famous member of her family these days, but when she was
young, her grandfather was the well-known public figure.
From 1932 to 1935, George Lansbury was the leader of the Labour Party in England.
When Lansbury spoke with the Mirror, she described him as the biggest inspiration in her life.
She said:
"This was the man who tried to stop World War Two.
He went and spoke with the various leaders, Mussolini, Hitler, Roosevelt.
He didn't give up.
Many people feel that killed him."
Although it apparently took a toll on George (he passed away in 1940, at the age of 81)
he wasn't the only one in the family who was active in politics.
Angela's paternal grandmother, Bessie, was a Suffragette, while her father, Edgar Lansbury,
was also involved in politics.
Despite the fact that Lansbury's own family attempted to stop World War II, her family
was forced to leave England in 1940.
"We were evacuated from Britain in 1940, and we came to America without a penny in our
pockets."
The actress told the Radio Times in 2017:
"The day we sailed from Liverpool, it was bombed.
But we escaped!
On a Canadian Pacific Line steamship called the Duchess of Atholl.
[I] didn't really understand how crucial that journey was, or how imminent [our] demise
might have been."
She later recalled:
"It was a huge adventure.
Can you imagine, coming to America, with the World's Fair on, and we were greeted by the
American people with such incredible warmth and friendliness?
My mother also happened to be getting out of an unfortunate love affair and was very
happy to be leaving England, for that reason.
So, here we were, with a chance for a new beginning."
Lansbury was married to her second husband, actor Peter Shaw, for over 50 years until
his death in 2003.
While she obviously enjoyed a lengthy relationship with Shaw, her first marriage didn't even
last a year.
Lansbury eloped in 1945 with a man named Richard Cromwell, who was a fellow actor and had appeared
in the 1938 film Jezebel with Bette Davis and Henry Fonda.
Lansbury was just a budding 19-year-old starlet at the time while her husband was 15 years
older.
However, beyond the age difference between Lansbury and Cromwell, there was also a secret
issue that doomed the union from the start.
The relationship fell apart after just seven months of marriage, and she explained:
"I had no idea that I was marrying a gay man...It didn't injure or damage me in any way, because
he maintained a friendship with me and my future husband."
Lansbury and her second husband, Peter Shaw, had two children, Anthony and Deirdre, who
faced serious issues that put the family through tough times.
In the '60s, both Lansbury's son and daughter were apparently involved in the drug scene,
and speaking to the Express of those times, Lansbury mused,
"It was a juggling act.
Juggling marriage and children and problems ..."
According to the Radio Times, things became even scarier when Deidre got caught up with
members of the infamous Manson family.
The California cult still terrifies: it was led by Charles Manson, a man who prophesied
about a race war and ordered his family to go on a killing spree.
Their actions resulted in multiple deaths, including the killing of actress Sharon Tate
who was pregnant at the time of her death.
Lansbury later told the Radio Times:
"Everybody knew about Charles Manson, the family [was] living up there in the hills,
you couldn't be a resident and not know.
God, that was a terrible period."
In the end, Lansbury's family survived the ordeals, and her attitude toward the troubles
is nothing short of inspiring.
She told Express:
"[A]ll those things contribute to building the person you become and the person they
become."
Lansbury was dealing with her children's problems with drugs as well as her daughter's involvement
with the deadly Manson family when she was dealt another serious blow: the family's house
burned down in 1970.
According to the Radio Times, the actress decided to pack up her family and move them
all to Ireland where she had lived briefly with her mother, Moyna MacGill, who was born
in Belfast.
In 2014, she told Express:
"I was unable to help my kids so I pulled them out of where they were and put them in
a safe place.
That was the most I could do at the time, because we didn't have the help back then,
the places where youngsters could go that they have today."
After settling in Cork, the entire family embraced their new life, and stayed in Ireland
for a decade, while Lansbury focused on theater roles in London.
These days, Lansbury still has a home in Cork, in the "beautiful" and "tranquil" Ballycotton
area, to be exact, although she did eventually return to America when the time was right.
Despite the fact that there's a lot of pressure to appear as young as possible for as long
as possible if you work in show business, Lansbury, who was born in 1925, has never
had plastic surgery and doesn't diet, according to the Radio Times.
She says:
"I'm very English in my eating habits.
I love a baked potato, that's my absolute fave.
And bacon and eggs.
And sausages, yes!"
She only likes the finest things.
"Oh yes, and I only drink Rothschild '61.
If you don't have it, Mr. Brown, get it."
As for Lansbury's youthfulness, the Bedknobs and Broomsticks actress is incredibly modest,
saying:
"It's genetics.
It really is, absolute genetics, yes."
Giving credit for that inherited trait to her grandfather George Lansbury, she says
that he was the kind of man who,
"...had tremendous energy and stayed on top of everything until the end of his life."
The actress has addressed her own healthy lifestyle, saying that she walks and keeps
herself moving, mostly by choice.
She has admitted, though, that while she sometimes catches herself sitting a bit too much, while
doing things like knitting and, perhaps unsurprisingly, getting absorbed in books, she tries not to
do too much of that sort of thing.
"You've just got to get up, and get on with it, y'know?"
When you think of The Golden Girls, you surely find yourself reminiscing about the onscreen
antics of the four best friends on the show: it's a cast that's managed to remain iconic
across the decades, and in real life, one was also good friends with Angela Lansbury.
Lansbury once said to Entertainment Weekly,
"Bea Arthur and I first met when we did Mame together in 1965.
She became and has remained 'My Bosom Buddy' ever since!"
That shout-out is a reference to the song the duo performed together during the Broadway
show's original run, and what about Arthur?
She talked to the Independent about Lansbury in 2003, revealing:
"When I first met her I thought I was meeting this patrician, classically trained actor,
but she has a mouth like a longshoreman...She started in British music hall and taught me
'What Can You Get A Nudist For Her Birthday' and it's really saucy."
Angela Lansbury has been in the business for a long time.
She nabbed her first gig in 1944, playing a character named Nancy in the film Gaslight,
which starred Ingrid Bergman.
From there, she went on to rack up over 100 other credits that include everything from
serious dramas to animated classics.
Who can forget her as Mrs. Potts in 1991's Beauty and the Beast?
She also appeared on shows like Newhart, Touched by an Angel, and Law & Order: Special Victims
Unit, and childhood-shaping films like Bedknobs and Broomsticks, just to name a few.
Of course, Lansbury's most well-known part is undeniably her starring role on Murder,
She Wrote.
What's the secret to finding such success?
She once told The West Australian:
"I really can't honestly give any tips beyond hang on to your dream.
Hang on to what you want, what you feel you want to achieve and go for it.
We are all the victims of our own talent and our own shortcomings sometimes, and we have
to be aware of those things because they will trip us up and stop us from achieving what
our aims are."
"How does she do that?"
"'Cause she's a witch.
That's the sort of thing witches do."
When Angela Lansbury finally returned to the United States after living abroad with her
family in Ireland, she took on the starring role on Murder, She Wrote, playing a mystery
novel-writing, homicide-solving amateur detective named Jessica Fletcher from 1984 to 1996.
While others might be afraid to admit that they let finances guide their creative profession,
the actress has a very practical attitude concerning the choice she made.
Lansbury blatantly admitted to the Mirror in 2016:
"I did it for the money.
There comes a time in a theatrical life when you say to yourself, 'Well I can't make any
money in the theatre,' so television was a very specific decision I made."
Thankfully for the actress, the people behind Murder, She Wrote were looking for its lead
at that same time.
She recalled:
"When this came on the horizon I thought, 'That's interesting...I think I can make something
of this."
And she certainly did make something of it!
These days, she's estimated to have a fortune that hovers around $70 million, according
to Celebrity Net Worth.
It seems like going into television was certainly a financially savvy decision.
Lansbury may have earned fame, fortune, and countless fans over the years, but, as Variety
points out, she's also felt more than her fair share of being snubbed at award shows.
The most notable is the fact that she never earned an Emmy for her starring role in Murder,
She Wrote, despite being nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series every year
from 1985 until 1996.
And time didn't make it sting any less.
Lansbury admitted to the Radio Times in 2016, years after she left behind her popular show:
"It pissed me off!
Because I just didn't add up at all in Hollywood.
Everywhere else in the U.S., Murder, She Wrote was huge, but not in Hollywood, no, no, no,
they didn't want to know.
I wasn't upset...well, I was upset, really.
It rankled me.
I can't say it didn't."
Thankfully, Lansbury did take home four Golden Globe Awards for Best Performance by an Actress
in a Drama Television Series for her work on Murder, She Wrote, as well as two others
for Best Supporting Actress for 1945's The Picture of Dorian Gray and 1962's The Manchurian
Candidate.
She was also eventually inducted into the Emmys Hall of Fame in 1996 and was given an
honorary Oscar in 2014, which seems about right when it comes to the kind of industry
recognition that she deserves.
Lansbury may be an icon on the television side of the entertainment industry, but she
also has a pair of surprising yet super cool connections to the music scene that might
surprise and delight you.
Lansbury told the Mirror in 2016:
"Frank Sinatra and his wife invited my husband and I for dinner.
He proceeded to ask me all about the show and how we put it together.
It turned out he was a huge fan, I mean, Frank Sinatra!"
That's right, ol' blue eyes who was the king of Vegas-worthy crooning liked to unwind by
putting on an episode of Murder, She Wrote.
She modestly said:
"I was very touched to realize it gave him some sense of entertainment to watch this
silly show."
But that's not the only way that Lansbury is connected to the music side of showbiz.
Her hit show happened to be the inspiration for Chaka Demus and Plier's 1993 "Murder,
She Wrote" song.
While the tune has been a favorite on party playlists for years, the actress only found
out about it in 2019 and was pretty happy about the situation, telling CBC Radio Q DJ
Tom Power,
"Oh, reggae.
Oh, I'm thrilled to be part of reggae.
Of course."
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