Angela Lansbury was born to actress Moyna MacGill and her businessman-husband Edgar Lansbury. Angela was inspired by her mother's acting career and decided to become an actress herself. She then joined Ritman School of Dancing and later attended Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. After her father's death, Angela along with her mother fled to Canada during World War II. They both later moved to Hollywood where Angela took up work with Bullocks Wilshire department store.
At one of the parties hosted by her mother Moyna MacGill for British emigrant artists, Angela Lansbury happens to meet the casting director Mel Ballerino, who secured her the role of a cunning insolent maid in "Gaslight" [1944] starring Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer. Her intense magnificent debut performance has earned her her first Oscar nomination. Angela then went on to receive two more Oscar nominations: one for "The Picture of Dorian Gray" [1945] based on Oscar Wilde's novel with the same name and another for "The Manchurian Candidate" [1962] starring Frank Sinatra.
Angela Lansbury continued to give stunning performances in over seventy-five movies and a number of television sitcoms and plays winning accolades, laurels, awards and honors in a career that spanned over six decades. Apart from three Oscar nominations, Angela received eighteen Emmy nominations, fifteen Golden Globe nominations of which she won six Golden Globes and several other awards.
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