Fascinating Resemblance — Angela Lansbury's Daughter Is A Carbon Copy Of Her Mother And They Indeed Look The Same

Sep 02, 2021

Hollywood has seen the rise of many truly iconic actors and actresses over the years. The most distinguished of them had careers that lasted several decades and usually either showcased a wide array of roles and talents or cemented each star's overwhelming talent in one particular genre.

One of these actresses was Angela Lansbury, a British-American actress who was known for her many theater, film and television roles. Her career in show business spanned nearly 80 years before she sadly passed away on Oct. 11, 2022. Angela was considered one of the last remaining stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood. 

The actress was best known for her roles in “The Manchurian Candidate,” “Mame,” “Bedknobs and Broomsticks” and “Murder, She Wrote.” Angela also lent her voice to popular animation films such as “Beauty and the Beast” and “Anastasia.”

She had been the recipient of many awards over her lengthy career, including an Honorary Academy Award and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the BAFTA, as well as winning five Tony Awards, six Golden Globes, and an Olivier Award, among many other nominations.

But on top of her stellar career, Angela also had a rich personal life. In 1949, she married the love of her life, Peter Shaw, and the couple had two children. Their son Anthony and daughter Deirdre grew up in America but moved to Ireland with their parents later in life after personal struggles. Before the icon's passing, the Lansbury family had led a very happy life. Perhaps now more than ever, fans are noticing a striking resemblance between the late Angela and her daughter Deirdre.  

Angela Lansbury 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, Edgar Lansbury. Angela’s father passed away from stomach cancer when she was 9 and the actress has 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 began studying 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 has 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 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 signing with MGM, she took her first major role in the 1944 movie "Gaslight," starring 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 a middle-aged woman despite the fact that she was a good 20 years younger than the characters she represented. MGM's way of handling her left the actress 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, instead choosing to focus on her growing family. 

While she took a break from acting, Angela was busy enriching her personal life. In 1949, she married actor and producer Peter Shaw, however, it was actually her second marriage. Her first marriage was to actor Richard Cromwell in 1945 when Angela was just 19 and her husband was 35, however, they divorced just a year later, in 1946, but remained close friends until Cromwell died of liver cancer in 1960. But her second marriage proved to be the big one. Peter already had a son from his first marriage, David Shaw, and Angela took him in as her own. David once said:

“She’s a great lady. I came in and she didn’t have to have me. It was an incredible thing to do. She always puts family first.”

But Angela and her husband had plans for more children, so in 1952 — around the time that she left MGM — Angela gave birth to her son Anthony Pullen Shaw, while one year later they had a daughter named Deirdre Angela Shaw. Angela's family has always been incredibly important to the star and even when she was off working as an actress, she knew her children were in good hands with her husband. Angela said in a 2012 interview: 

“I give Peter credit for so much that I probably wouldn’t have done had I been left to my own devices. He would say, ‘Go do it; I will take care of things here. Go.’ And I was always thankful that he did.” 

So strong was the couple's love that when Peter died in 2003, after 53 years together, Angela took it hard. She said in the same 2012 interview:  

“It’s not the life plan that one has. And it never occurs to you until suddenly it happens and that special person is gone.”   

Although Angela was happy to start a family with the love of her life, her passion for acting was still strong, and by the mid-1950s, she had finally returned to Hollywood as a freelance actress. 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."

But her luck and career changed when she debuted on Broadway in 1957. Using the skills she had learned earlier in her career, she took to playing mature characters and gave them her own spin. This later netted her the role of Mrs. Iselin in "The Manchurian Candidate" in 1962, despite being only three years older than the actor who played her son at the time, landing Angela her third Oscar nomination.

Then in 1966, Angela's career took yet another turn — she managed to conquer Broadway playing the titular character in the musical-comedy smash hit "Mame." This was a welcome relief for the actress, who may have feared being forever typecast playing mother roles in Hollywood. 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 special and she remains faithful to the stage to this day.

As Angela's stardom continued to rise, she took the reins on numerous pictures that quickly became fan favorites. One such role was in "Bedknobs and Broomsticks," the Disney film that featured toe-tapping music and cutting-edge animation effects. And just as memorable was her voicing the charming Mrs. Potts in "Beauty and the Beast" in 1991, which allowed her to stretch her beautiful, signature singing voice.  

With a career as long as hers, Angela would have yet another major moment. It happened when she made the jump to television in the early '80s for the role of Jessica Fletcher in the long-standing CBS drama "Murder, She Wrote." She played an unassuming mystery writer with a knack for cracking tough murder cases and it quickly became one of her most recognizable and beloved characters. The show had a 12-year run, debuting in 1984 and ending in 1996.

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, helping to cement 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 job 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, with many touting her to be the most powerful woman on television at the time. Wishing to make sure her character's personality remained strong, 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.       

Despite her successes in acting, Angela's personal life went through a troubled period. Both she and her husband had to make a difficult decision to move their family away from the US when their two children, Anthony and Deirdre, became heavily involved with drugs in the late 1960s. Deirdre was also involved with the infamous Charles Manson family. Angela recalled, “It started with cannabis but moved on to heroin. It pains me to say, but Deirdre was in with a crowd led by Manson.”

The entire family moved to Ireland for a fresh start. Angela said:

“We really had to get rid of California and this drug-rich life. When we got to Ireland it was like we had started a new life. It gave us the time we needed to come back to earth. I bought a house in Cork. We started working in the garden and I learned to cook. I cooked for the first time in my life. I used products from my own garden. We started a whole new life.“

The move ended up being just what Anthony and Deirdre needed. Angela shared:

 “Anthony pulled out of his bad habits quickly. It took Deirdre a little longer, but she eventually got married and she and her husband run an Italian restaurant in L.A.”

Deirdre is married to the Italian chef Enzo Battarra and they happily own and operate their own restaurant. Now that Deirdre is grown up, her resemblance to her mother is incredible. They look like carbon copies of one another at different points in life. Despite Angela's passing on Oct. 11, 2022, Deirdre continues to be a living testament to her mother's classic beauty.

Do you think Angela Lansbury and her daughter Deirdre look alike? Are you a fan of Angela's work? Let us know and send this on to your friends and family so they can see it too!