Dame Angela Brigid Lansbury

Angela Brigid Lansbury was born in Regent's Park, London, into an artistic and political family; her grandfather George Lansbury was leader of the Labour Party. Evacuating the Blitz to the United States during World War II, Lansbury signed with MGM at seventeen. She earned Academy Award nominations for her first two film roles: Gaslight (1944) and The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), later chilling audiences as the monstrous mother Mrs. Iselin in The Manchurian Candidate (1962), earning a third Oscar nomination.

Lansbury conquered Broadway, winning five Tony Awards for legendary starring roles in Mame (1966), Dear World, Gypsy, Sweeney Todd (as pie-maker Mrs. Lovett in 1979), and Blithe Spirit (2009). From 1984 to 1996, Lansbury became one of the highest-paid and most beloved actresses in world television history as amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher in CBS's Murder, She Wrote, running for 264 episodes and earning twelve consecutive Emmy nominations. She also voiced Mrs. Potts in Disney's animated masterpiece Beauty and the Beast (1991), singing the Oscar-winning title song. She was created DBE by Queen Elizabeth II in 2014.