The late American actress and singer Angela Lansbury is a familiar name across countless households, and the popular actress earned increasing fame throughout her decade-spanning career.
But for Lansbury, romantic life would be full of ups and downs and far from la vie en rose.
Her challenging love life began with the collapse of her first marriage to Richard Cromwell following his announcement that he was gay.
The devastating announcement of her first husband leaving her came merely one year following their marriage, but fortunately, Lansbury would be able to turn things around later and enjoy the blissful marriage everyone deserves.
Rise to Fame
While she began acting as early as the 1940s, Lansbury only truly rose to fame in the early 80s after gaining international recognition for her role as Jessica Fletcher from the popular crime series Murder She Wrote.
Indeed, Lansbury’s characterization of the wise mystery writer brought her much attention, and the show would become one of the longest-running and most popular detective drama series in television history.
From there, Lansbury would effortlessly go on to secure several other roles, quickly positioning herself as one of America’s top actresses.
But despite her tremendous professional success, Lansbury’s road had not been easy, beginning with a tumultuous childhood.
When she was just 9, her father passed away from cancer, an event the actress has described as both devastating and “the defining moment of her life”, with little ever coming close to affecting her as deeply.
Indeed, Lansbury’s grief following her father’s untimely death left her feeling completely demoralized. Her schoolwork suffered as a result. The grief paralyzed Lansbury for some time before she, at last, managed to pick herself up and looked to a career in acting.
Lansbury has, however, pointed to a silver lining in her father’s death; it forced her to grow up fast and become mature at an early age.
By 1946, she was nominated for an Oscar and won a Golden Globe award for her role in the American horror-drama film, The Picture of Dorian Gray. In addition, her characterization as Nancy Oliver in the American psychological thriller Gaslight earned her an Academy nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Despite her thriving career, Lansbury never left sight of what mattered most – supporting her mother and brothers. This family-positive attitude would follow her for the rest of her life.
An Un-regrettable Mistake
Despite being very mature and responsible, Angela was relatively naive when it came to her romantic life. The absence of a father figure during her childhood made her gravitate towards older men, eventually pushing her to marry her first husband, Richard Cromwell, who was 15 years her senior.
When discussing her role in Little Women, Angela drew parallels to her own life by comparing herself to the fictional Jo March, who also found comfort in marrying an older man at the end of Greta Gerwig’s 2019 interpretation.
“I understand younger women marrying older men,” she said. “It’s a father – she didn’t have the father, and now she’s looking for it.”
Lansbury was just 19 when she self-admittedly hastily tied the knot with Cromwell in a small and intimate civil ceremony. She found Cromwell, who had starred with Bette Davis and Henry Fonda in Jezebel, irresistibly attractive and glamorous.
Sadly, their marriage wouldn’t last, with Cromwell breaking the young star-in-the-making’s heart just about one year later. Lansbury came home one day to a note from her husband that read, simply: “Sorry. I can’t go on.”
The young, hurt and confused wife soon discovered through a publicist that her husband was gay, further cementing the tragic fact that there would be no way forward to remedy the breakup and reunite with Cromwell.
Despite her devastation, Lansbury and Cromwell remained friends until he died in 1960, and has expressed that she has no regrets about having married Cromwell.
“It didn’t injure or damage me in any way,” she told RadioTimes in 2017. “Bt it was a shock to me when it ended; I wasn’t prepared for that. It was just a horrible error I made as a very young woman. But I don’t regret it.”
A Second Chance at Love
In 1949, three years following her divorce with Cromwell, Lansbury embraced love once again, this time in the arms of agent and manager Peter Shaw.
In marrying Shaw, Lansbury also gained the role of loving stepmother to his son from a previous relationship, David, whom she took in as her own.
The couple went on to have two children of their own; first, in January 1952, when they welcomed their son Anthony, then about one year later in April 1953, with the arrival of their daughter, Deidre.
The couple would remain married for an incredible 54 years until Shaw’s death from congestive heart failure in 2003.
According to the living legend, the two had had a “perfect” marriage full of love, joy and a most solid partnership – the kind so many couples are never fortunate enough to experience.
Losing Shaw thus filled the Murder, She Wrote star with unbearable grief and left a huge void in her life, something she has referred to as one of the “hardest tragedies” of her life.
“Suddenly it happens, and that special person is gone,” she said, adding that returning to work helped her learn to cope with her grief. “I said, ‘All right, enough already. Get off your ass and start moving forward.’”
The Offspring
Lansbury always emphasized the importance of balancing work life with family life. She viewed her career as important, but ultimately, nothing was more important than her family and, more specifically, her beloved children.
The Academy-nominated actress never lost sight of that, and whenever it was challenging to take care of both, she luckily had her devoted husband step in.
“We made all decisions jointly and we helped and supported each other constantly,” she told Mail Online. “My career was important to me but our children, Anthony and Deidre, always came first.”
Lansbury expresseed regret when at any given time, she struggled to put her kids first due to her work and was away from them for prolonged periods of time.
“It was a big mistake, she said. “You have to be with your children.”
Lansbury compared Shaw’s dedication to that of her father, who she said was an excellent father who always focused on his children and made them his first priority.
“My father didn’t have any hobbies at all — family was his hobby,” she told Closer Weekly.
Despite their best efforts, in the 1960s, things took a challenging turn for Lansbury and Shaw, when they discovered that their children Anthony and Deidre – barely teens – were hanging out with the “wrong crowds” and had been led into drugs.
To make matters even worse, daughter Deidre was making friends among mass murderer Charles Manson’s cult.
According to Lansbury, she and Shaw were indeed in the dark about what was happening. While they both personally lacked experience with drug use or cults, they knew with certainty that something had to be done to remedy the situation – and fast.
For Lansbury, the tangible solution was to move to Ireland in order to extract the children from the harmful entourage that had surrounded themselves with.
“It was somewhere my children wouldn’t be exposed to any more bad influences,” Lansbury said.
Shaw accepted, and the family made the big cross-Atlantic move from Los Angeles to Ireland. Luckily, their drastic decision paid off as the children soon found themselves in new surroundings and with new, much healthier habits and experiences.
The Final Outcome
Today, Lansbury’s children are all over 60 years old and thriving in their respective lives.
Stepson David went on to become the president of Corymore Productions, his late father’s company. Under his leadership, the company signed a major development deal with Universal Television in 1996.
Son Anthony has followed in his parent’s footsteps and pursued a career in entertainment. In 1977, he appeared in two productions, A Bridge Too Far and The Spy Who Loved Me. In addition to acting, he has directed 68 episodes of Murder, She Wrote.
Anthony is now retired and, also following closely in his mother’s footsteps, dedicating himself entirely to his family, which includes his beloved wife Lee Spear Webster and their three children, Peter, Katherine and Ian.
Deidre has gone down a different path, choosing the restaurant business instead. Alongside her husband, chef Enzo Battara, she owns Los Angeles Italian restaurant Enzo and Angeles. The couple have passionately been cooking together for over two decades.
During her last years in life, Lansbury enjoyed the fruits of her labor – the most notable of all being her children and grandchildren whom she said all brought her both pride and immense joy
“And of course I’m doing all the spoiling,” she said, referring to her grandkids. “If there’s one thing I want more time for at this stage of my life, it’s them.”
As recently as 2018, Lansbury, who was made dame by Queen Elizabeth II, starred in Mary Poppins Returns.
And during the 2022 Tony Awards, she received the 2022 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre.
Sadly, the legendary actress passed away on October 11, 2022.
“The children of Dame Angela Lansbury are sad to announce that their mother died peacefully in her sleep at home in Los Angeles at 1:30 AM today, Tuesday, October 11, 2022, just five days shy of her 97th birthday,” her family said in a statement.
What a beautiful life story, full of ups and downs but eventually the kind of rewards that make everything worth it! Share Angela Lansbury’s story if it inspires you to live life to the fullest, too!
