The Best of Angela Lansbury

                 

                                                                  Angela Lansbury

                                                                     1925 - 2022

       I just stopped playing bitches on wheels and people's mothers. I have only a few 

       more years left to kick up my heels. 

1.   The Manchurian Candidate                             1962         John Frankenheimer
2.   The World of Henry Orient                              1964         George Roy Hill
3.   Samson and Delilah                                         1949         Cecil B. DeMille
4.   Gaslight                                                             1944         George Cukor
5.   National Velvet                                                  1944         Clarence Brown
6.   The Long Hot Summer                                     1958         Martin Ritt
7.   The Picture of Dorian Gray                              1945         Albert Lewin
8.   The Company of Wolves                                 1984         Neil Jordan
9.   Beauty and the Beast                                      1991   Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise
10.   Harlow                                                              1965           Gordon Douglas

Best known to my generation as a sleuth on the long-running television show Murder She Wrote, she had a long and fruitful career. On film, I treasure her turns in The Private Affairs of Bel Ami, State of the Union, The Three Musketeers, The Court Jester, Blue Hawaii, Something for Everyone, The Mirror Crack'd, and All Fall Down. She never mailed in a performance in even the most woeful project. 

We are fortunate to have the cast recordings of her work in Anyone Can Whistle, Mame, Dear World, and, most of all, Sweeney Todd. I was lucky enough to see her as Mrs. Lovett, surely the greatest performance I have seen in a musical. I saw the show in Boston with a group of friends including the late Jack Ward. Jack was the foremost admirer of Ms. Lansbury I have ever encountered. She vied with Lillian Gish for the top of his personal pantheon. Jack, this list is for you and I hope you are having a glass of port with Angela in paradise tonight.