Inuti livet för den 96-åriga Angela Lansbury, som gifte sig med en homosexuell man men till slut hittade sin enda sanna kärlek

Dec 22, 2021

Angela Lansbury, 96, är en brittisk-amerikansk skådespelerska som är känd för sina många teater-, film- och tv-roller. Hennes karriär i showbusiness har sträckt sig över nästan 80 år och hon anses faktiskt vara en av de sista kvarvarande stjärnorna från Hollywoods guldålder

Mest känd för sina roller i "The Manchurian Candidate", "Mame", "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" och "Murder, She Wrote" har Lansbury också lånat ut sin röst till populära animationsfilmer som "Beauty and the Beast" och "Anastasia"

Hon har fått många utmärkelser under sin långa karriär, bland annat en Honorary Academy Award och en Lifetime Achievement Award från BAFTA. Hon har också vunnit otroliga fem Tony Awards, sex Golden Globes och ett Olivier Award, bland många andra nomineringar.

Men utöver sin fantastiska karriär har Lansbury också haft ett händelserikt privatliv. Vid 19 års ålder gifte sig Lansbury med en annan skådespelare vid namn Richard Cromwell, som då var 35 år gammal. Mindre än ett år senare skilde sig paret, men det berodde inte på deras åldersskillnad. Även om det inte avslöjades vid tidpunkten varför de gjorde slut blev det senare känt att Cromwell råkade vara homosexuell. Trots detta förblev paret nära vänner fram till hans död 1960.

År 1949, när Lansbury var omkring 24 år gammal, gifte hon sig med sitt livs kärlek Peter Shaw. Tillsammans fick paret två barn - en son vid namn Anthony och en dotter vid namn Deirdre. Deras kärlek sviktade aldrig och paret förblev tillsammans fram till Shaws död 2003, varefter Lansbury genomgick en depressiv sorgeperiod.

Läs vidare för att få veta mer om hennes kärleksliv genom åren.

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 flicka studerade Lansbury musik innan hon 1940 började studera skådespeleri vid Webber Douglas School of Singing and Dramatic Art i London. Efter att hennes familj flyttat till USA under andra världskriget fick den blivande skådespelerskan sin start i Hollywood vid 17 års ålder då hon gick från att arbeta i kosmetikdisken på ett litet varuhus till att få kontrakt med MGM Studios. MGM hade letat efter unga brittiska skådespelerskor för att fylla sitt register, och Lansbury passade perfekt in i bilden.

Framgången kom snabbt för Lansbury, som nominerades till sin första Oscar för sin första stora roll i filmen"Gaslight" från 1944 Detta följdes upp mycket kort därefter med en andra Oscarsnominering för bästa kvinnliga biroll för "The Picture of Dorian Gray"

Samtidigt som hon fick framgång i Hollywood gifte sig Lansbury med Cromwell, en skådespelarkollega, 1945 när hon bara var 19 år och han 35 år. Förhållandet var dock inte menat att vara och 1946 hade de skilt sig. Paret diskuterade inte varför deras förening inte hade fungerat vid den tidpunkten, men flera år senare avslöjade Lansbury att det inte bara var deras åldersskillnad som var ett hinder, utan även det faktum att Cromwell var homosexuell. Lansbury berättade för Radio Times, vilket rapporterades av Attitude:

"Jag hade ingen aning om att jag skulle gifta mig med en homosexuell man ... Jag tyckte att han var en så attraktiv person. Han ville gifta sig, han var fascinerad av mig, men bara på grund av vad han hade sett på filmduken"

Hon tillade

"Det skadade eller skadade mig inte på något sätt, eftersom han upprätthöll en vänskap med mig och min framtida make (Peter Shaw) ... Det var bara ett fruktansvärt misstag som jag gjorde som mycket ung kvinna. Men jag ångrar det inte."

Cromwell dog av levercancer 1960.

Lansbury hittade dock den sanna kärleken kort därefter med Shaw, en skådespelare och producent som hon gifte sig med 1949. Hennes äktenskap med Shaw visade sig vara det stora. Shaw hade redan en son från sitt första äktenskap, David, och Lansbury tog honom som sin egen. David sade en gång:

"Hon är en fantastisk kvinna. Jag kom in och hon behövde inte ha mig. Det var en otrolig sak att göra. Hon sätter alltid familjen först."

Men paret hade planer på fler barn, så 1952 - ungefär samtidigt som hon lämnade MGM - födde Lansbury sonen Anthony, medan paret ett år senare fick en dotter vid namn Deirdre. Lansburys familj har alltid varit otroligt viktig för stjärnan och även när hon var ledig som skådespelerska visste hon att hennes barn var i goda händer hos Shaw. Lansbury sade i en intervju 2012

"Jag ger Peter äran för så mycket som jag förmodligen inte skulle ha gjort om jag hade lämnats åt mig själv. Han sa: 'Gör det, jag tar hand om saker och ting här. Gå Och jag var alltid tacksam för att han gjorde det."

Parets kärlek var så stark att när Shaw dog 2003, efter 53 år tillsammans, tog Lansbury det hårt. Hon sade i samma intervju 2012:

"Det är inte den livsplan man har. Och det går aldrig upp för en förrän det plötsligt händer och den speciella personen är borta"

I en intervju med CNN talade Lansbury om den depressiva fas hon hamnade i efter Shaws död och hur hon inte ville tvinga sig själv att gå vidare i förtid:

"Jag visste bara att jag var tvungen att vänta och att ögonblicket skulle komma då jag var tvungen att se på ytan igen och hitta ett sätt att laga sprickan i min själ."

Visste du om Angela Lansburys två äktenskap, inklusive det med sin stora kärlek Peter Shaw? Om du tyckte om att läsa detta, skicka det vidare till dem du känner så att de också kan läsa om det!