FYC: Three-time Academy Award nominee Angela Lansbury for an Honorary Oscar, Part 1/5

Hard to believe, but it's true, in the 83 years of the Academy Awards history only nine (!) women have been recognized for their cinematic contributions with The Academy Honorary Award: Greta Garbo (1955), Lillian Gish (1971), Mary Pickford (1976), editor Margaret Booth (1978), Barbara Stanwyck (1982), Myrna Loy (1991), Sophia Loren (1991), Deborah Kerr (1994), and Lauren Bacall (2009). The rest of them were obviously, men.

Ms. Lansbury is a perfect, and one of the most deserving candidates to be recognized with an Honorary Oscar for her outstanding contribution to the art of film.
The legendary Angela Lansbury, CBE (born 16 October 1925) is an English actress and singer whose career has spanned almost seven decades. Highly respected for her versatility, Ms. Lansbury has been nominated for three Academy Awards, eighteen Emmy Awards, won five Tony Awards and six Golden Globes.

Ms. Lansbury was contracted by MGM while still a teenager and nominated for an Academy Award for her first film, Gaslight (1944). Year later she was again nominated for Best Supporting Actress, this time for The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945). That made Ms. Lansbury the youngest actress to receive a second Oscar nomination by the age of 20, a record that she still holds. Ms. Lansbury's performance in The Manchurian Candidate (1962) in which she played Mrs. Iselin, the cold-blooded mother of a war veteran is not only her best screen performance, but also one of the greatest female performances ever to be filmed. She won much critical praise for her performance, as well as Golden Globe and NBA Award, Ms. Lansbury also received her third Oscar nomination, but lost to Patty Duke.
Her other popular films include Death on the Nile (1978), Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) and Beauty and the Beast (1991) in that Disney's highly successful animated feature, Legendary actress lent her voice to Mrs. Potts, the teapot housekeeper. She also sang the film's theme song.

It was not until 1964 that Ms. Lansbury appeared in her first Broadway musical, "Anyone Can Whistle," which had a score by Stephen Sondheim. Two years later, she was offered what proved to be the biggest triumph of her theatrical career, the title role in Mame that ran for 1508 performances. Ms. Lansbury's performance earned her the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical. Lansbury won additional Tony Awards for Dear World (1969), the first Broadway revival of Gypsy (1974), and her English music hall turn as affection-starved meat pie entrepreneur Mrs. Lovett in Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd (1979).
Ms. Lansbury returned to the Broadway stage for the first time in more than 25 years in Deuce, she received a Tony nomination in the category of Leading Actress in a Play for her role in this production. By winning a fifth Tony in her extraordinary career on June 7, 2009 for playing psychic Madame Arcati in the revival of Blithe Spirit Ms. Lansbury tied the record for acting prizes with legendary actress Julie Harris. The same year Ms. Lansbury starred as Madame Armfeldt in the first Broadway revival of A Little Night Music apposite Catherine Zeta-Jones as Desiree. For this role, she received a 2010 Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical, her 7th to date. It also made her the only actress in Tony Awards history to being nominated in all 4 acting categories (Lead Musical and Play and Featured Musical and Play).

Ms. Lansbury found her biggest success and a worldwide following as Jessica Fletcher in the long-running hit television series, Murder, She Wrote (1984 - 1996), which was one of the longest running prime-time series in US TV history.

As an advocate for The ALS Association Ms. Lansbury is also increasing the public's awareness about the need to support The ALS Associations global, cutting-edge research program into new treatments and a cure for Lou Gehrigs Disease.

Ms. Lansbury was last seen co-starring in Mr. Popper's Penguins, opposite Jim Carrey, released in June 2011.

PART 1 INCLUDES

Nancy Oliver in Gaslight, 1944 (1st Oscar nomination)
Sibyl Vane in The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1945 (2nd Oscar nomination)
Em in The Harvey Girls, 1946
Kay Thorndyke in State of the Union, 1948
Semadar in Samson and Delilah, 1949


*Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.*

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Angela
• Lansbury
• Honorary
• Oscar
• State
• of
• the
• Union
• Samson
• and
• Delilah
• Harvey
• Girls
• The
• Picture
• Dorian
• Gray
• Gaslight
• Charles
• Boyer
• Hurd
• Hatfield
• Adolphe
• Menjou
• Van
• Johnson
• Katharine
• Hepburn
• Victor
• Mature

[DukeofYar]

Is Angela's singing dubbed in Dorian Grey, or is that her?

[picturefan2009]

It's her own voice.

[JannyPanny59]

In the Harvey Girls, that is NOT our Angela singing.

Sounds more like Ann Miller.

[picturefan2009]

You're right. In the Harvey Girls Ms. Lansbury was dubbed by Virginia Rees. For no good reason.

[mirrenfan2]

Angela should DEFIANTLY get an honorary Oscar!!! We need more women recipients and she deserves it!!! :)

[oldiesguy8]

love this vid i am a huge Angela Lansbury fan and i think she definitly should be considered for an Honary oscar, so many think of her as only Jessica Fletcher from Murder She Wrote but she is so much more than that she has been in some great movies and not to mention a big broadway star and is an exceptional actress can't wait for part 2

[Asagiri91]

@picturefan2009 Sounds crazy but I like it. It certainly is completely unnatural, but somehow as they changed the voice, they made her character have a totally different personality from Angela.

[Ravenelvenlady]

@picturefan2009

Definitely for no good reason, because she was a great singer. That's how she carried all those great musical roles on Broadway.

[ThorneAstor]

She's absolutely amazing, especially in State of the Union!

[HighPlainsDrifter53]

Little Yellow Bird is perfect for the film it appears in. The story haunts me. It reminds me of Dickens' story when the ghost of xmas past shows old Ebaneezer how he let his bride walk away when he was a younger man. Both stories had so much despair. Theres so much regret in Dorian Gray it is spine chilling. It is important that this be sang by a woman to a man, rather than the other way around, for it would lose its meaning. I pray we never have to suffer our mistakes in such a way.

[thebradybunchlover]

@picturefan2009 Well that's what MGM does, they ruin people.

[unkadoe]

There is a groundswell of support for Doris Day getting a well deserved Oscar next year, but 2 details militate in Miss Angela's favor: she will travel by plane, and she is STILL making movies (just been busy shooting one in NYC with Jim Carrey).

[mowbrad86]

@picturefan2009 That is so silly - why did MGM do that? Angela can sing!! >:(

[masonmcfadden]

Regarding Harvey Girls: How could they dub her with another woman's voice? Argh. And it's silly because AL's speaking voice does not match the tone of the singing voice at all. Amazing Angela!!!

[dmce1]

Can you believe that when she filmed that scene in State of the Union where she dominates those men (& Katharine Hepburn) she was only 22 years old!

[BeckEis]

I think she said she was 17 years old during GASLIGHT and 19 years old during DORIAN GRAY -- but even then she was being asked to play older ladies.