Et glimt ind i livet for 96-årige Angela Lansbury, der giftede sig med en homoseksuel mand, men til sidst fandt sin eneste ene

Dec 22, 2021

Angela Lansbury, 96 år, er en britisk-amerikansk skuespillerinde, der er kendt for sine mange teater-, film- og tv-roller. Hendes karriere i showbusiness har strakt sig over næsten 80 år, og hun betragtes faktisk som en af de sidste tilbageværende stjerner fra Hollywoods gyldne tidsalder

Lansbury er bedst kendt for sine roller i "The Manchurian Candidate", "Mame", "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" og "Murder, She Wrote", og hun har også lånt sin stemme til populære animationsfilm som "Beauty and the Beast" og "Anastasia"

Hun har modtaget mange priser i løbet af sin lange karriere, bl.a. en æresakademipris og en Lifetime Achievement Award fra BAFTA. Hun har også vundet hele fem Tony Awards, seks Golden Globes og en Olivier Award, blandt mange andre nomineringer.

Men ud over sin stjernekarriere har Lansbury også haft et begivenhedsrigt privatliv. I en alder af 19 år giftede Lansbury sig med en anden skuespiller ved navn Richard Cromwell, som var 35 år på det tidspunkt. Mindre end et år senere blev parret skilt, men det var ikke på grund af deres aldersforskel. Selv om det ikke blev afsløret på det tidspunkt, hvorfor de gik fra hinanden, blev det senere kendt, at Cromwell var homoseksuel. Ikke desto mindre forblev parret nære venner indtil hans død i 1960.

I 1949, da Lansbury var omkring 24 år, giftede hun sig med sit livs kærlighed, Peter Shaw. Sammen fik parret to børn - en søn ved navn Anthony og en datter ved navn Deirdre. Deres kærlighed svigtede aldrig, og parret forblev sammen indtil Shaws død i 2003, hvorefter Lansbury gennemgik en lang og depressiv periode med sorg.

Læs videre for at få mere at vide om hendes kærlighedsliv gennem årene.

Angela was born to an upper-middle-class family in central London on Oct. 16, 1925. Her mother was actress Moyna Macgill and her father was a timber merchant and politician named Edgar Lansbury. Angela’s father passed away from stomach cancer when she was 9 and the actress had said that playing characters helped her cope with her grief.

Her mother struggled financially, and when she became engaged to another man, Angela and her mother moved in with him in Hampstead. Angela continued to educate herself with the help of books, movies and the theater. The young girl also learned how to play the piano and studied music at the Ritman School of Dancing. In 1940, she studied acting at the Webber Douglas School of Singing and Dramatic Art.

With the onset of the London Blitz, Angela's mother decided to move her family to the United States in 1940. Once there, Angela earned a scholarship from the American Theatre Wing, which granted her access to study at the Feagin School of Dramatic Radio and Arts. After graduating from the school in March of 1942, her family once again moved, this time to Greenwich Village. 

A natural-born actor all of her life, Angela once said:

“I did want people to notice me as a child. At the age of 11 or 12, I remember sitting on buses and trying to look interesting. Or I would get people’s attention by saying something kind of outlandish that simply sounded as if I knew something they didn’t know.”

She added:

“I had no adolescence. And I was too busy preparing to become an actress. It never occurred to me not to go on, not for one second. Nor did I think I was missing anything.”  

Angela began her professional acting career at the young age of 17 when she went from working the cosmetic counter at a small department store to suddenly signing a contract with MGM Studios. MGM had been looking for young British actresses to fill their roster, and Angela fit the bill perfectly.

Shortly after she signed with MGM, she had her first major role in the 1944 movie "Gaslight," in which she starred alongside such Hollywood greats as Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer. Astoundingly, this first landmark role garnered the then-rookie actress an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and sent her career rocketing to the top seemingly overnight. 

Angela's first Oscar nod was followed very shortly thereafter by a second Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for the film "The Picture of Dorian Gray." However, during this time, most of her roles were supporting characters, as Angela was under contract with MGM, which made her steadily grow unsatisfied with the way she was cast. She voiced her unhappiness in a 2017 Vanity Fair interview where she said:

"I was a utility actress, as far as MGM was concerned. They could put me into almost any role, and I would act it." 

This often had the young actress playing the role of middle-aged women despite the fact that she was a good 20 years younger than the characters she represented. MGM's way of handling her left her feeling underappreciated and stifled in her career and skills. As she explained in the same interview: 

“MGM did not have a clue as to how to use me. And eventually, I couldn’t wait to leave because I wasn’t getting anywhere.”

She finally canceled her contract with MGM in 1952 and left acting for a while and instead chose to focus on her growing family.  

When she returned to acting, Angela's career continued to rise. However, once again she was typecast in roles as older women who were often villainous or antagonistic characters. She went so far as to complain that "Hollywood made me old before my time." During the '50s and '60s, she portrayed a number of middle-aged women, even though she was only in her 30s. 

In the 1961 movie “Blue Hawaii,” 36-year-old Angela portrayed the mother of Elvis Presley’s character Chad Gates, even though Presley was 26 at the time. The year after, she portrayed Laurence Harvey’s scary mother in “The Manchurian Candidate,” while Harvey was three years her junior. Nevertheless, the role landed Angela her third Academy Award nomination. 

Arguably her most famous character, however, is Jessica Fletcher, the author-turned-sleuth from the long-running television drama series “Murder, She Wrote.” The show debuted in 1984 and remained on the air until 1996. Angela's wit, warmth and integrity made the show a smash hit. Her turn in the series is widely considered to be her most popular, but this signature role of hers almost didn't happen, as she went against her agent's recommendations, who had instead favored the main role in a sitcom that she was offered at the same time.

But Angela went with the role she wanted to play the most, and aren't we all lucky she did! It brought her a great deal of recognition and cemented her icon status in the minds of a new generation of TV viewers while reviving interest among her longtime fans. Furthermore, she also received numerous award nominations for the role, including the Primetime Emmy Awards, Golden Globe Awards and SAG Awards.  

What's more, Angela took on the role in "Murder, She Wrote" in her 60s, an age many in Hollywood would consider past an actor's prime. Instead, it made her a powerhouse in the entertainment industry, and many touted her to be the most powerful woman on television at the time. She wished to make sure her character's personality remained strong, so Angela pushed for changes to the script if the character wasn't to the right standard. Several of Angela's family members, including her husband and son, also worked on the show. She would continue to play that part with her signature passion and charisma past her 70th birthday.    

During an interview with Studio 10 in Sept. 2018, Angela opened up about the iconic show and her role in reshaping Fletcher's character. While the writers originally wanted the character to be a bit sillier, Angela wanted to portray her as a smart woman who was more dynamic.

“By the time we were finished, she had gotten back her sense of purpose as a woman, she was attractive, she had boyfriends, she had a nice wardrobe,” Angela said. “She became much more of an ‘every woman’ rather than a kook.”

Then, towards the end of the century, Angela's career took yet another turn when in 1996 she managed to conquer Broadway when she played the titular character in the musical-comedy smash hit “Mame.” The list of her Broadway triumphs is long and varied. From Mama Rose in “Gypsy” to the murderous widow Mrs. Lovett in “Sweeney Todd,” Angela always gave her Broadway audiences something remarkably special. She has continued to remain faithful to the stage to this day, while she appeared in a London West End revival of “Blithe Spirit” in 2015.  

Forbes reported that the incredible actress was initially offered the role of Nurse Ratchet in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” in 1975, but she turned it down because she didn’t know if she would be able to handle it. Instead, Louise Fletcher was cast and went on to win the Oscar for Outstanding Actress in a Lead Role for her portrayal of the character. 

Nevertheless, the list of awards and nominations that Angela received over the course of her incredibly long career is nothing short of remarkable. In addition to her three Academy Award nominations, she also managed to earn seven Tony Award nominations, five of which she won. Even if an Oscar for a particular performance eluded her, she was finally given an honorary Academy Award in 2014. In addition, she earned an amazing 18 Emmy nominations and 15 Golden Globe nominations.

With such a long career behind her, it’s no surprise that Angela was one of the most awarded actresses of all time and was honored multiple times for her hard work and dedication to the entertainment industry. In 2010, Angela passed Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson and Alan Alda for the most Golden Globe Award wins. While each of the other actors has six wins, Angela won her seventh that year. She also received the John F. Kennedy Center Honors in 2000 for all of her incredible work and dedication to the arts.

Angela went above and beyond in her professional life multiple times, and she brought that same attitude toward more personal endeavors. The actress was a strong supporter of certain charities, including Abused Wives in Crisis, an organization that helps victims of domestic abuse, as well as a number of charities aimed at fighting against the HIV/AIDS epidemic. 

Som pige studerede Lansbury musik, inden hun i 1940 begyndte at studere skuespil på Webber Douglas School of Singing and Dramatic Art i London. Efter hendes familie flyttede til USA under 2. Verdenskrig, fik den spirende skuespillerinde sin start i Hollywood som 17-årig, da hun gik fra at arbejde ved kosmetikdisken i et lille stormagasin til at få en kontrakt med MGM Studios. MGM havde været på udkig efter unge britiske skuespillerinder, og Lansbury passede perfekt ind.

Succesen kom hurtigt for Lansbury, som blev nomineret til sin første Oscar for sin første store rolle i filmen"Gaslight" fra 1944. Dette blev fulgt op meget kort tid efter med en anden Oscar-nominering for bedste kvindelige birolle for "The Picture of Dorian Gray"

I takt med at hun fik succes i Hollywood, blev Lansbury gift med Cromwell, en skuespillerkollega, i 1945, da hun kun var 19 år og han var 35 år. Forholdet skulle dog ikke vare ved, og i 1946 var de blevet skilt. Parret talte ikke om, hvorfor deres ægteskab ikke havde fungeret på det tidspunkt, men år senere afslørede Lansbury, at det ikke kun var deres aldersforskel, der var en hindring, men også det faktum, at Cromwell var homoseksuel. Lansbury fortalte Radio Times, som Attitude rapporterede:

"Jeg havde ingen anelse om, at jeg giftede mig med en homoseksuel mand... Jeg fandt ham så tiltrækkende. Han ville giftes, han var fascineret af mig, men kun på grund af det, han havde set på skærmen."

Hun tilføjede

"Det sårede eller skadede mig ikke på nogen måde, for vi fortsatte et godt venskab med mig og min kommende mand (Peter Shaw)... Det var bare en forfærdelig fejl, som jeg begik som meget ung kvinde. Men jeg fortryder det ikke."

Cromwell døde af leverkræft i 1960.

Lansbury fandt dog den sande kærlighed kort efter med Shaw, en skuespiller og producer, som hun giftede sig med i 1949. Hendes ægteskab med Shaw viste sig at blive det helt rigtige. Shaw havde allerede en søn fra sit første ægteskab, David, og Lansbury tog ham til sig som sin egen. David sagde engang:

"Hun er en fantastisk kvinde. Jeg kom ind i hendes liv, men hun behøvede mig ikke. Det var en utrolig ting at gøre. Hun sætter altid familien først."

Men parret havde planer om flere børn, så i 1952 - omtrent samtidig med at hun forlod MGM - fødte Lansbury sin søn Anthony, mens parret et år senere fik en datter ved navn Deirdre. Lansburys familie har altid været utrolig vigtig for stjernen, og selv når hun ikke arbejdede som skuespillerinde, vidste hun, at hendes børn var i gode hænder hos Shaw. Lansbury sagde i et interview i 2012

"Jeg giver Peter æren for så meget, som jeg sandsynligvis ikke ville have gjort, hvis jeg havde været overladt til mig selv. Han sagde: 'Gør det bare, jeg skal nok tage mig af tingene her. Gå.' Og jeg var altid taknemmelig for, at han gjorde det."

Parrets kærlighed var så stærk, at da Shaw døde i 2003 efter 53 år sammen, tog Lansbury det meget hårdt. Hun sagde i det samme interview fra 2012:

"Det er ikke den livsplan, man har. Og det går aldrig op for en, før det pludselig sker, og den særlige person er væk."

I et interview med CNN talte Lansbury om den depressive fase, hun kom ind i efter Shaws død, og om hvordan hun ikke ville tvinge sig selv til at komme videre før tid:

"Jeg vidste bare, at jeg måtte vente, og at det øjeblik ville komme, hvor jeg måtte se på overfladen igen og finde en måde at reparere den revne, der var i min sjæl."

Vidste du, at Angela Lansbury har været gift to gange, herunder med sin store kærlighed Peter Shaw? Hvis du nød at læse dette, så giv det videre til en, du kender, så de også kan læse med!