"I had the ability, but I didn't have the name. They could have built me, which is what they did with Deborah Kerr, but I don't think I was quite hot enough in the looks department, quite frankly. I was all talent and no looks."
As I said of her way back in 2016:
She's won five Tony Awards, six Golden Globes and an Olivier Award, as well as an Honorary Academy Award. In her eight decade career she's worked with them all, including Ingrid Bergman, Elizabeth Taylor, George Sanders, Judy Garland, Deborah Kerr, Lana Turner, Gene Kelly, Hedy Lamarr, Tony Curtis, Paul Newman, Sophia Loren, Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley - and all this even before landing her memorable turns in the star-studded Agatha Christie adaptations Death On The Nile and The Mirror Crack'd, and her later immortality as TV's "Jessica Fletcher" in Murder She Wrote (in which guest stars dropped like flies)...
The death of the magnificent Dame Angela Lansbury has hit us hard here at Dolores Delargo Towers.
Mere words cannot do the pinnacle of our pantheon of Patron Saints true justice, so instead let us wallow in highlights from her incredible career...
A "Dame-fest":
One of her many tributes to Sondheim...
...who cast her in one of the finest roles of her stage career:
Here she is in glittering form, performing her show-stopper Mame at the 1975 Tony awards...
...and again, with an all singing, all-high-kicking classic:
She held her own against the memory of The Merm, with one of our eternal theme tunes here at Dolores Delargo Towers:
...and she was the immortal "Salome Otterborne":
After all that, it's time for some gentle exercise...
RIP, Dame Angela Brigid Lansbury (16th October 1925 – 11th October 2022)
An incredible talent.
ReplyDeleteShe was truly amazing! Jx
DeleteOne of the greats.
ReplyDeleteOne of the greatest! Jx
Deleteshe was so smart and witty in interviews. That's why the blandness of the Murder She Wrote role was so unlikely.
ReplyDeleteShe had complete control over that show. She knew middle-of-the-road "family entertainment" would sell. She became the wealthiest woman in television history at that time, and her estate was worth more than $70 million when she died.
DeleteI think I'd deal with that kind of blandness! Jx
Oh, I liked Angela - my first encounter was Bedknobs and Broomsticks in 1971/2 - one of my early cinema visits, so she'll always be special.
ReplyDeleteSx
Treguna Mekoides Trecorum Satis Dee!!
DeleteI loved it, too. Jx
A truly great loss, words fail me.
ReplyDeleteAdorable and Adored
I've been in widow's weeds for the past three weeks! Jx
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