Rupert Everett on Angela Lansbury — Page 2

Very good points.

I do think Ed Sullivan died off partly because of other factors--it wasn't it's death that caused those factors (if that made sense), but it definitely was one of the last times you saw that kinda thing in the mainstream (i'd be curious to know what the ratings rank was of Sullivan for its last years).

Of course before tv, radio variety shows (as well as things like all those radio versions of films and plays using New York actors) served a similar function. I have no idea if all of this was also partly effected by the extreme rise of a teen/youth culture (of course teens became something of a force to be dealt with by WWII, but...). And films themselves, up though the 60s, predominently adapted plays, often with at least some of the stage stars amongst Hollywood names, if they were adaptations--I've heard it argued more often than books, which became a much larger source over plays by the 70s.

My moher was born in 1948, but never had a TV until she was married in the 70s, and while her parents went to New York to see shows maybe every five years, she didn't closely follow them at all. Still, she knew all about the Julie Andrews thing you mention--which I assume was big news everywhere, etc. She says she dragged her friends to Mary Poppins (who all were at the age where they felt silly seeing a family movie) becaue she had heard how Julie deserved My Fair Lady.

(I have to admit, I even remember in the late 80s when the local mall CD stores I went to had seperate sections for cast albums and soundtracks--although they weren't massive, but now at the remaining CD shops we still have, you simply never find that).

"it took a trifle such as MURDER, SHE WROTE to make Lansbury a truly national star."

Oh Dear, you do realize that Angela Lansbury was a world wide famous movie star with three Academy Award nominations starting with her very first picture and again the very next year, before she ever stepped foot on a Broadway stage don't you? The reason her show was so successful was because fans of her generation embraced her again.

Everett made his biggest splash with the play and film Another Country between the age of 21-24, and has never topped that splash (although he has done respectable work).

He's tried everything, from a flop album to a flop novel, but he'll always be strictly B-list at best.

That kind of almost-top-level career can make anyone bitter and petty.

Oh Dear, you do realize that Angela Lansbury was a world wide famous movie star with three Academy Award nominations starting with her very first picture and again the very next year, before she ever stepped foot on a Broadway stage don't you? The reason her show was so successful was because fans of her generation embraced her again.

Dude, I not only "realize" it, I have given evidence for the sort of middling stardom Angela enjoyed before she had a hit TV show.

She was a brilliant character actress who absolutely deserved her Oscar nominations. But she was not a huge box office draw until MAME, and even then only in certain cities.

She herself has talked about how MURDER SHE WROTE brought her to an entire new level of stardom, so I don't know why you are trying to argue the point. The TV series succeeded because (a) Lansbury was brilliant, of course; (b) it was generally classy for TV, and (c) it appealed to a demographic that doesn't go out much to the movies. It was most certainly not a case of fans of GASLIGHT flocking to the telly!

What about American Bandstand? (I mostly kid).

I do like when they show the Ed Sullivan's attempts at filming psychedelic rock acts though, like the "trippy" clip of Light My Fire that they invariably show at PBS pledge breaks. (Ugh, it drives me crazy that so little of the great Broadway Sullivan stuff is available. I have 14 VHS tapes of the stuff that a kind person made me back when I was a teen, but haven't bothered to try to convert them yet--and I own the brief DVD they did release, promising a second volume that never happened. Blugobo.com used to have a lot of it, but the Ed Sullivan rights owners had it all taken down which is infuriating when they don't do anything with it themselves).

I think it's absolutely true that Angela Lansbury didn't become a household name until Murder, She Wrote. Was she given the role due to her performance as Miss Marple in The Mirror Crack'd? One of the last of that series of all star Agatha Christie theatrical movies that happened--most critics said she was still too young for the role, but in Murder, SHe Wrote the character in so many ways seems like an American Marple.

(And now I'm eager to watch Another Country again. I do think Everett briefly became an almost Hollywood star with My Best Friend's Wedding. I was a young teen at the time, and remember that suddenly everyone knew who he was).

The show producers wanted Doris Day, when she declined they went to Jean Stapleton, who just lost her husband and also turned them down.
Then they offered the role to Angela Lansbury, because they loved her stage work, but Lansbury also got the offer star in Norman Lear's sitcom co-starring Charles Durning and was seriously considering to do it instead. At the end she went with Murder, She Wrote and the rest it history.

Here's an interview with Ms. Lansbury, her co-stars and show creators talking about the show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZLCZq5m1P8

Angela Lansbury has enjoyed a very unique career.

Yes, she was nominated for an Academy Award for her first and third films for two years in a row (which made her youngest 2-time Oscar nominee ever by the age of 20, a record she still holds) and was put in a lot prestigious films during her 8 years contract with MGM.

But unfortunately, it was a wrong studio for young Lansbury since they had no idea what to with her. She was beautiful and charismatic enough to be a leading lady and could have had a film career similar to Rosalind Russell's, Susan Hayward's or Shelley Winters', yet, Louis B. Mayer, knowing that she could do it all she, cast her in all those roles playing characters twice her real age starting with Judy Garland's The Harvey Girls (1946), where she played a saloon madam (the role was first intended for Ann Sothern and Lucille Ball).

Lansbury begged Louis B. Mayer to let her play the Lady DeWinter part in The Three Musketeers, that Lana Turner didn't want to do anyway, but he refused, insisting that she was better suited for the thankless part of Queen Anne. All of her leading roles in the 40's and 50's were made on other studios.

So prior to coming to Broadway, she was a respected and well-know character actress, but not a movie star, in a sense that she has never carried a motion picture.
I doubt that if it wasn’t for her tremendous Broadway success Ms. Lansbury would have gotten leading roles in Disney's Bedknobs and Broomsticks or Something for Everyone (underrated film and one of the best film roles). She has made only 8 films since 1970 until committing to Murder, She Wrote for 12 seasons, but they were all either leading parts of supporting roles in all-star films like Death on the Nile.

Murder, She Wrote has brought Ms. Lansbury fortune and truly universal fame, which she richly deserves.

It’s very interesting how her career has almost always been on the rise: first as 3-time Oscar nominee, then as a Broadway and TV superstar. Now she enjoys a well-deserved and earned status of a beloved living legend that has achieved so much that there is basically nothing left to proof, yet Ms. Lansbury, fortunately for all of us, is still active as ever and I’m sure has quite a few surprises left up her sleeve.

"She has made only 8 films since 1970 until committing to Murder"

Take the "to" out of this phrase and you could be talking about Robert Blake.

Indeed. That comedy pilot was never picked up to series while Murder, She Wrote run for 12 years and became the longest running detective show in US history.