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Angela Lansbury

Angela Lansbury Books

Actress

Angela Lansbury, born on October 16, 1925, is a renowned British-American actress. She is celebrated for her exceptional performances in theater, film, and television, particularly for her roles in 'The Man Who Would Be King' and 'Beauty and the Beast'. Lansbury's acting career spans several decades, and she has won numerous awards and accolades for her masterful acting skills and diverse character portrayals.

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“I'm not going to be dancing with the stars at this stage in my life. But I want to dance and bop around, and I did, and I can.”

Want I Can Stars Stage Dancing Dance Dancing With The Stars Bops

Author:Angela Lansbury

“Better to be busy than to be busy worrying.”

Book:Quick Quotations

Source: Quick Quotations

“Louis B. Mayer and I got along like a house afire. He never chased me around his desk or tried anything with me. Of course, he never gave me any good parts, either.”

Courses House Hollywood Desks Mayer

Author:Angela Lansbury

“The purpose of etiquette is to provide an easy set of rules which we can follow when we are in a hurry and want to make sure that we do not give offense to anybody.”

Want Giving Purpose Easy Offense Etiquette

Author:Angela Lansbury

“... because lifestyles are changing constantly the rules of etiquette are changing too -- a little slower than lifestyles perhaps, but still changing.”

Littles Stills Lifestyle Etiquette

Author:Angela Lansbury

“The collaboration really begins once the rehearsal starts. This is when the actor takes his place, because he becomes the one who is going to bring the words of the author off the page.”

Actors Pages Collaboration Rehearsal

Author:Angela Lansbury

“Unfortunately, because the theater is always a poor relation when it comes to making the nut, it's not easy to get the audience in to see a play, unless you have a name that is recognizable, that the audience wants to see and is prepared to pay the $125 to see.”

Want Play Names Easy Poor Pay Audience Relation Theater Prepared Nuts Easy To Get

Author:Angela Lansbury

“I had no idea that such a thing could happen. It never occurred to me.My son told me. He called me and said, "Darling, I just wanted you to know that you have been chosen to receive an honorary Academy Award." I was in the back of this car, and I said, "Oh," and burst into tears, of course, because it was so unexpected and quite wonderful. I thought it's been worth hanging around all these years.”

Knows Years Has Beens Said Ideas Happens Wanted Courses Wonderful Car Tears Son Chosen No Idea Unexpected My Son Awards Darling Academy Academy Awards Hanging Around Honorary

Author:Angela Lansbury

“All I knew how to do was to act. That's the only thing I had in my favor. That was the thing that propelled me forward.”

Author:Angela Lansbury

“As a kid, I just was a contract player at MGM Studios. They put me into goodness knows how many different roles.Some of them were wonderful and some of them were very just distasteful and awful because I was playing out of my age range and I was thoroughly uncomfortable, let's put it that way. So it took me many years to find my acting feet.”

Knows Way Years Different Kids Age Acting Roles Know How Player Wonderful Feet Goodness Studios Awful Range Uncomfortable Contracts Distasteful Mgm

Author:Angela Lansbury

“Well oddly enough, I liken the years at MGM, and I was there for about eight years, to doing stock, what we used to call repertory or stock, playing a whole bunch of different roles.”

Years Wells Different Enough Whole Used Roles Eight Bunch Mgm

Author:Angela Lansbury

“You learn a great deal that you can feed into your craft which gives you the experience that you actually need later on, when you start to get the really great roles. You've played that part to a certain degree in that picture, and you played that one in that, and so on. You add it all up, and you have that experience.”

Needs Giving Certain Deals Roles Degrees Add Crafts Really Great

Author:Angela Lansbury

“Actually the years when I was playing totally un - well, they were just roles that just went by the board, you wouldn't want to know. But anyway, I'm glad I had that chance to build my craft.”

Knows Want Years Wells Chance Roles Glad Crafts Boards

Author:Angela Lansbury

“I really wanted to go back to the theater, the live theater. That was the thing I had never had a chance to do, even though I had trained to be a stage actress.”

Wanted Chance Stage Theater Actresses Live Theater

Author:Angela Lansbury

“When I opened up in "Gaslight," for instance, playing that narky maid, that all came about from my experience and my training up to that point, and so nothing was wasted.”

Training Instance Maids

Author:Angela Lansbury

“Everything I did actually helped to build the revenue, shall we say, of experience, which enabled me to play a variety of roles as I got older.”

Play Roles Variety Revenue

Author:Angela Lansbury

“I don't care whether it's a chance meeting or playing a role that you thought was totally wrong but you did it anyway. It will often turn out to be the thing that will lead you to the role which is sublime.”

Care Turns Chance Roles Meetings Don't Care I Don't Care Sublime Chance Meeting

Author:Angela Lansbury

“You just have to be open and ready, and let it all happen.”

Author:Angela Lansbury

“The thing I always say is that I wasn't going out reaching for roles, I wasn't fighting for roles - people came to me. They always came to me.”

People Fighting Roles Reaching Going Out

Author:Angela Lansbury

“Roles came to me. I was very, very lucky in that respect. Great directors, great writers, great producers - they saw something in me that they wanted for their picture or their play or whatever it was, whether it was Edward Albee or whether it was - or Peter Hall, directors. They would come to me, thank God. I was lucky. Lucky, lucky, lucky.”

Play Wanted Roles Saws Lucky Directors Producers Halls Thank God Peter Great Writers

Author:Angela Lansbury

“My mother was one of the most beautiful women, I have to say, of her generation. She was absolutely lovely. She was a very, extremely sensitive, Irish actress. She came from Belfast, Northern Ireland, and she came to London, and she was sort of discovered by several people.”

People Beautiful Mother Generations Actresses London Lovely Sensitive Ireland Beautiful Women Northern Ireland Belfast

Author:Angela Lansbury

“Now the Gielgud Theater is a very famous old theater, because it was originally called the Globe, and the Globe is where my mother made her very first professional appearance in London, was at the Globe Theater.”

Firsts Made Mother Theater Appearance London Globes Very Famous

Author:Angela Lansbury

“My memory about names and places now is dreadful. But lines, I can remember.”

I Can Remember Names Lines Memories

Author:Angela Lansbury

“They're great devotees of Noel Coward in England, of course, he's a favorite son, and so to play Coward in London is such fun, and anyway, the role is such a crazy lady. I just love doing that.”

Play Courses Fun Roles Crazy Son England London Coward Devotee Noel

Author:Angela Lansbury

“I played the Piccadilly Theater with "Gypsy" and also the Old Vic, and I've done other shows in London, but not for 40 years.”

Years Done Shows Theater London Gypsy

Author:Angela Lansbury

“I haven't been back to London for 40 years to do a play, so to play Madame Arcati there, she would be tickled to death knowing that that was what I was doing. I hope she would. She was a wonderfully unique and very special, very darling woman.”

Years Play Would Be Knowing Special Havens Unique London Darling

Author:Angela Lansbury

“I usually arrive at the first rehearsal with a vague memory of most of it. But the real work happens in rehearsal, oddly enough, because what happens is that you match the words to the movement, and once you know where you're moving, then the words that accompany that movement become not locked into your mind and your brain and your whole body.”

Knows Mind Firsts Real Enough Whole Body Happens Moving Memories Brain Movement Locked Vague Rehearsal Accompany Real Work

Author:Angela Lansbury

“It's better not to try to learn all the lines by rote. It's a very bad idea, in fact. You have to do it by using the process, and as I say, the process is to learn during rehearsals, and that's how you'll do it.”

Trying Ideas Facts Process Lines Rehearsal Bad Ideas

Author:Angela Lansbury

“I'm Angie to everybody, you've got to learn.”

Author:Angela Lansbury

“You learn the values that are inherent in the scene that the writer has written. You learn about who you as a character are in relation to those others who are working with you within that scene.”

Character Values Written Scene Relation Inherent

Author:Angela Lansbury

“Psychologically, you learn the values that are inherent in the dialogue, and you learn to apply it to the way you read the lines. That's acting. You're not yourself saying those lines, you're somebody else.”

Way Values Lines Acting Dialogue Inherent

Author:Angela Lansbury

“The older I get, the more I realize how much I have missed because I was so busy entertaining that audience and so busy pursuing a career.”

Realizing Careers Audience Busy Entertaining

Author:Angela Lansbury

“I can't say that I pursued a career. I really didn't, it just sort of happened.”

I Can Careers Happened Pursued

Author:Angela Lansbury

“I very seldom said no, and I was aided and abetted by my husband, who realized that the one thing I could do was to be a very good actress, by his note.”

Said One Thing Husband Notes Very Good Actresses My Husband

Author:Angela Lansbury

“I just went along for the ride. It was a God-given gift. It is. So you can't say well, you wasted your life because you spent all of it acting, but I think gosh, I've never been to China, I've never been to Japan. I've never been to Yellowstone Park.”

Thinking Wells Given Acting China Parks Japan Along For The Ride Yellowstone

Author:Angela Lansbury

“I honestly consider that the greatest gift to me, is the reaction that I get from my work. That is a given which I never, ever take for granted. But to be given that by audiences, individuals, on the street, in the theater, is an extraordinary feeling.”

Feelings Individual Given Audience Streets Theater Extraordinary Honestly Reactions Granted Greatest Gifts

Author:Angela Lansbury

“I can't say that I deserve longlife; I don't. I've just been around long enough. They say, "My God, she's still here."”

Long Stills I Can Enough Deserve

Author:Angela Lansbury

“I honestly feel that "Murder, She Wrote" stands alone, as many of the other great shows of the past 35, 40 years do. It stands alone, and it's still on. It's still all over the world, "Murder, She Wrote," Jessica Fletcher and "Murder, She Wrote."”

World Feels Years Stills Shows Past Murder Honestly Stand Alone Jessica

Author:Angela Lansbury

“I'd been out of the movies for years, I had had a wonderful stage career, yes, in musicals and so on, but you don't really make any money in the theater.”

Years Careers Wonderful Stage Theater

Author:Angela Lansbury

“I'm the bionic woman. I have a very strong constitution, and I take excruciatingly good care of myself.”

Care Strong Constitution Very Strong Bionics

Author:Angela Lansbury

“My daughter used to sit and watch Murder, She Wrote. I tried to watch with her, but I fell asleep.”

Used Watches Daughter Murder My Daughter

Author:Angela Lansbury

“It was an extraordinary experience to have backup singers like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. I have never experienced anything quite like it before and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.”

World Trade Extraordinary Singers Choir Backup Backup Singers

Author:Angela Lansbury

“Clint Eastwood is an extraordinary director because he knows the value of a buck. He knows where it will show on the screen.”

Knows Shows Values Directors Extraordinary Screens Bucks

Author:Angela Lansbury

“Believe me, it jabs you. When you're on the side of buses and New York loves you, you love to go out there every night. It's like a race. Curtain opens, out you go, and New York is yours.”

Believe Night Sides Race Love You New York Bus Every Night Believe In Me Curtains

Author:Angela Lansbury

“Actors are not made, they are born.”

Made Actors Born

Author:Angela Lansbury

“Im in a very enviable position, being able to work like this 45 years later. Its always beginning! I never have a sense of finishing up, just new things beginning. When I die, theyre going to carry me off a stage.”

Years Able Dies Stage Position New Things Finishing Finishing Up

Author:Angela Lansbury

“The theater is magical and addictive.”

Author:Angela Lansbury

“Here I am, I still go on, you know, like the tides.”

Knows Stills Goes On Tides Here I Am Tidy

Author:Angela Lansbury

“A sitcom. I hate that word.”

Hate I Hate Sitcom

Author:Angela Lansbury

“I don't think about going back to the theater.”

Thinking Theater

Author:Angela Lansbury

About the Author

Born: October 16, 1925
Known for: Actress
Quotes: 61

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