Angela Lansbury: legendary actress can still deliver standing ovation performance

There is nothing like a dame -- especially one who's been in theater for 70 years

Lansbury's Mrs. Lovett in "Sweeney
Todd," won her a Tony award.

STORY By CHRISTENE MEYERS
PHOTOS from theaters and movie studios

Queen Elizabeth II makes Angela Lansbury a dame of the empire. 

HOW MANY actors can say they've been in show business 70 years?
Not many can claim being on the planet that long, let alone being in the spotlight and remembering the lines.

Lansbury shows pretty legs
in a studio shot in the 1950s.

Lansbury toured "Driving Miss
Daisy" internationally.

                                                                    ANGELA Lansbury can. At nearly 90,
the spirited actress is still touring internationally.
Recently, we saw her at the lovely Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles starring in Noel Coward's "Blithe Spirit." She's on a tour that would leave most younger actors breathless.  She toured "Driving Miss Daisy" a few years back with the same vigor and energy.
Drama critic and celebrity biographer Martin Gottfried (who penned "Balancing Act," about Lansbury's life), says Lansbury's greatest regret is that she never starred in a motion picture.

Lansbury with her sons in 1957.

Lansbury has a fondness for dogs. 

SHE HAD many wonderful character parts in films, though, including "The Manchurian Candidate" and "Gaslight," and she

Angela Lansbury's Madame
Arcati -- the actress does some
amusing little physical bits. 

has managed to keep all her balls in the air in her "balancing act." She grew up in England but escaped to the United States during World War II. Her mother was an actress, and Angela followed in her footsteps, gaining early success with "The Picture of Dorian Grey."  She also portrayed the mother

of the character played by Elvis Presley in "Blue Hawaii."
BESIDES HER break-through Broadway role (the title character in "Mame") and her conniving accomplice in "Sweeney Todd" (both Tony winners), she gained international fame in the hit TV show,
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"Murder She Wrote." She voiced an endearing animated character for "Beauty and the Beast," and had a long marriage complete with children, dogs and a well adjusted domestic life.

Angela Lansbury kicks up
her heels in "Mame."

She moved to County Cork, Ireland, 30 years ago, but returns to the U.S. to tour.  At the moment, she's playing the leading role of the eccentric medium, Madame Arcati, at the National Theater in Washington, D.C. these days. The Washington Post reported that the still sprightly actress, star of TV's popular "Murder, She Wrote," booked a table for family and friends at the Old Ebbitt Grill downtown.  She wore a silk scarf with shamrocks, but passed on the green beer. Instead, she had a small glass of wine with her crab cakes, clam chowder and sorbet.

Cookie follows favorite actors and performers, attempting to see
every production in which they appear. It's a habit since childhood.

I FELL for Lansbury at the movies then followed her stage career, with the good fortune to see her "Mame," Mrs. Lovett and earlier this year Madame

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Arcati. She still kicks up her heels as the medium, with amusing little physical bits that leave the audience howling.
"Everyone loves you, everyone loves the success, and enjoys it as much as you do," she reflects. And it lasts as long as you are on that stage and as long as you keep coming out of that stage door."

Sir Elton John, appearing days ago at the Colossseum
in Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, where he delivered a SRO show.

NEXT UP: Sir Elton John delivers a fantastic live performance at the Colosseum in Las Vegas at Caesars Palace.  And we're front and center in orchestra seats. He dazzled for two hours, leaving the stage only to change his cape oradd a jacket.  What a show! Coming next. Remember to explore, live and learn, and check us out for features on the arts -- movies, TV, museums and books. Visit us weekends at www.lilianslastdance.com