Happy Birthday Angela Lansbury

She was beautiful then ...

     October 16 was Angela Lansbury’s 86^th birthday.  I’ve been a huge fan of hers for the longest time.  My Sunday night ritual in elementary school was to get all my class things ready for the next day, get into my pjs, watch ‘Murder She Wrote’ while having a late night snack, and then go to bed.  It was great.  But it wasn’t till a bit later that I realized what a genuinely diverse actress she was.


     I remember thinking how cool it was to “see” her on the big screen in ‘Beauty and the Beast.’  ‘Tale as Old as Time’ is still one of my favorite songs, and hers is the best rendition.  I also saw her in kid friendly movies, such as ‘Bedknobs and Broomsticks’ and ‘National Velvet.’  However, my tastes did eventually move past that.  Once I discovered she’d been in a number of movies I scarfed up all that were available, no matter how small her role.  Sometimes this was good (it introduced me to ‘Gaslight’ and Charles Boyer) other times not so great (The Three Musketeers, but maybe I was too young for it?).  

And is beautiful now.

I’ve never been able to see her on Broadway, but if she does one more play I promise I will drop everything I’m doing, forget about the expense, and buy a front row ticket to see her.  I think actors, or movies, or books, or any person or thing that you discover as a child stays with you in a much deeper way than if you’d become a fan at a later age.  I’ve been enamored of Angela Lansbury since I was about seven years old, and I’m glad I happened to make such a wise choice at such a young age. 

          Angela Lansbury

          Is turning six and eighty

          And I like her – very.

          I knew her first as Fletcher, J.B.

          But she’d done a lot of roles previously

          Which were wide and vary

          Sometimes sweet, sometimes scary.

          She even was an Oscar nominee.

          Then on Broadway boards she did tarry

          In Sweeney Todd, Mame and Gypsy

          Which won her a many devotee

          A fact you cannot query

          So to this actress legendary

          We wish a birthday most happy!