Profile of the Day: Angela Lansbury

Posted October 16, 2020 by Amanda | No Comment

Happy birthday to Angela Lansbury! Today she turns 95.

Image: Angela Lansbury / Eva Rinaldi, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The Murder, She Wrote actress was born in London, England on October 16, 1925 to Edgar Lansbury, a politician, and stage and film actress Moyna Macgill. When she was nine, her father died from stomach cancer. She has stated that his death was a defining moment of her life.

At the onset of the Blitz in 1940, her family immigrated to the United States. She studied acting while in New York City and soon landed her screen debut in the 1944 film, Gaslight. Starring Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer, Gaslight was nominated for 7 Oscars, including a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Lansbury. She earned her second Academy Award nomination the following year for her role in The Picture of Dorian Gray.

For the next several decades, Lansbury continued working on stage, film and television. In the 1980s, she found huge success on television as the star of the detective series Murder, She Wrote. The show ran for 12 seasons and was followed by four TV movies. Over the course of the series, Lansbury was nominated for a total of 12 Emmy Awards, setting the record for the most Emmy nominations for a lead actress in a drama series.

Explore Angela Lansbury’s family tree on Geni and share how you’re connected to the star.