Angela Lansbury, who died at age 96 on Tuesday, always played older than she was. MGM frequently cast her as a 40-ish woman, usually a villain, while she was still in her 20s. When she was nominated for an Oscar for her role as a villainous mother in “The Manchurian Candidate,” she was only three years older than the actor playing her son.
Today she’s remembered mainly for her long run as the grandmotherly sleuth Jessica Fletcher in “Murder, She Wrote,” but Lansbury had a long film and theater career before that. She first appeared in a musical in Steven Sondheim’s “Anyone Can Whistle” in 1964, but she didn’t have a starring role until she landed the title role in “Mame” in 1966.
Sondheim, hoping to inject some humor into his grim subject matter, called on Lansbury again in 1979 for the role of Mrs. Lovett in “Sweeney Todd,” but she needed some wooing. “Your show is not called ‘Nellie Lovett’, it’s called ‘Sweeney Todd.'” she told him. “And I’m the second banana.” So he wrote a couple of songs for her, including this one.
Because there will always be kids to watch Disney movies, Angela Lansbury’s most enduring role will probably be her turn as a teapot — a grandmotherly one, of course — in “Beauty and the Beast.” Alan Menken and Howard Ashman gave her the title tune, and she did not disappoint. She sang it in 2016 for the 25th anniversary of the animated film’s release.
