AL In The Big Leagues
Angles Lansbury turns 90 today. She was successful as a movie actress, often playing older women, or nasty ones. Her career has been long and varied enough to win her an honorary Oscar last year. And in TV she starred in the long-running series Murder, She Wrote. But it's on Broadway, particularly in musicals, where she was as big a star as you could be, winning five Tonys.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:03 AM
4 Comments:
We saw her in Blithe Spirit about a year ago and remarkable she was.
Knowing little as I do about it, I took for granted that her character fit her age (the nutty seer), and was surprised that she has been playing Madame Arcati her entire career.
Watching a 90 year old woman cavort as she did was quite impressive. I can't stand up without grunting, but she played this vigorous role for three hours.
She started making movies when she was a teenager--she was in National Velvet and The Picture Of Dorian Gray. But there was something about her that seemed older and vaguely sinister, so by the time she was in her thirties she was playing middle-aged women, such as Laurence Harvey's mother in The Manchurian Candidate.
I'm sort of surprised that she didn't sing in her role as Princess Gwendolyn in "Court Jester", which was sort of a musical (does it count if one character sings all the songs?). She was a little bit sinister, but more petulant in that part.
We also should remember Bedknobs & Broomsticks - she plays a witch, but good one, sort of in-training.
Danny Kaye could be insecure and demand he get all the numbers. I'm reminded of Yentl, where Barbra Streisand costars with Mandy Patinkin but still manages to sing all the songs.
Ironically, though The Court Jester is probably Danny Kaye's most beloved film today, it was a huge flop when released.
Post a Comment
<< Home