Award-winning actress Angela Lansbury is everyone’s cup of tea. And while she is probably best known to television audiences as Jessica Fletcher in the long-running detective series, “Murder, She Wrote,” it’s her performance as Mrs. Potts, the beloved teapot in the animated classic “Beauty and the Beast,” that Disney fans cozy up to most.
When the film was released, in 1991, film critic Leonard Maltin called Lansbury’s performance “…just charming.” He continued, “She expresses such warmth. To convey that with just your voice…there’s something tremendously appealing about the character and the way she plays it.”
Born in London, England, in 1925, Angela began studying acting at the Webber-Douglas School of Dramatic Art until World War II forced her family to escape the London Blitz and emigrate to the United States.
In New York, she enrolled in the Feagin School of Dramatic Arts and at 16, earned her first professional job performing in a cabaret act, in Montreal… read more
Award-winning actress Angela Lansbury is everyone’s cup of tea. And while she is probably best known to television audiences as Jessica Fletcher in the long-running detective series, “Murder, She Wrote,” it’s her performance as Mrs. Potts, the beloved teapot in the animated classic “Beauty and the Beast,” that Disney fans cozy up to most.
When the film was released, in 1991, film critic Leonard Maltin called Lansbury’s performance “…just charming.” He continued, “She expresses such warmth. To convey that with just your voice…there’s something tremendously appealing about the character and the way she plays it.”
Born in London, England, in 1925, Angela began studying acting at the Webber-Douglas School of Dramatic Art until World War II forced her family to escape the London Blitz and emigrate to the United States.
In New York, she enrolled in the Feagin School of Dramatic Arts and at 16, earned her first professional job performing in a cabaret act, in Montreal. Eventually, her family relocated to Los Angeles, and in 1944, director George Cukor cast the 17-year-old actress as the Cockney maid in “Gaslight.” The role not only won her a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), but an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
A year later, she received a second Oscar nomination for her performance as a music-hall singer in “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” From there, she went on to make more than 40 films, including “State of the Union” with Spencer Tracy, “The Harvey Girls” with Judy Garland," and “The Manchurian Candidate” for which she received her third Oscar nomination.
In 1966, Angela won her first (of four) Tony Awards for her performance as Mame Dennis in the hit musical “Mame.” She dazzled Broadway audiences with her interpretation of the madcap title role, displaying for the first time, the full-range of her extraordinary talents. Cut to 1971. In her musical-comedy motion picture debut, Angela mesmerized audiences as the delightful apprentice witch, Eglantine Price, in Disney’s fantasy “Bedknobs and Broomsticks.”
Twenty years later, she returned to Disney for “Beauty and the Beast,” in which (besides playing the voice of Mrs. Potts) she sang the Academy Award-winning title song by the same name, written by Alan Menken and the late Howard Ashman. She encored her popular animated role in Disney’s 1997 direct-to-video sequel “Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas.” Angela later served as a segment host, introducing “Firebird,” in the Studio’s millennial animated classic “Fantasia 2000,” a continuation of Disney’s original 1941 “Fantasia.” —Disney Legends
