Tributes pour in for Dame Angela Lansbury after her death aged 96

Published

2 years ago

October 12, 2022

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Tributes have been pouring in for Dame Angela Lansbury after her death at the age of 96.

The actress, who starred in TV drama Murder, She Wrote, died peacefully in her sleep at home in Los Angeles early on Tuesday, her family said.

Born in London, she won five Tony Awards for her Broadway performances, was nominated for three Oscars, and in 2013 she received an honorary Academy Award for her lifetime achievement in film.

Her death has been met by an outpouring of tributes and praise for her acting talent by stars from across the industry.

American actress and Orange Is the New Black star Uzo Aduba called her “an icon of the stage”.

She tweeted: “She poured so much love into each of us.

“An icon of the stage, and legend across so many mediums but, we all knew…she was always one of us.”

Frozen actor Josh Gad said that Dame Angela had “touched four generations” with her work.

“It is rare that one person can touch multiple generations, creating a breadth of work that defines decade after decade. Angela Lansbury was that artist,” he wrote on Twitter.

Jason Alexander, who appeared in Seinfeld, praised her as “one of the most versatile, talented, graceful, kind, witty, wise, classy ladies I’ve ever met”.

He added: “Her huge contribution to the arts and the world remains always.”

Actor Harvey Fierstein tweeted: “Angela Lansbury – She, my darlings, was EVERYTHING!”

Catherine Zeta-Jones, who starred alongside Dame Angela in the Broadway musical A Little Night Music, said their time together will “forever be one of the joys of my life”.

Disney Animation Studios tweeted: “We join the world in mourning Disney Legend Angela Lansbury, who brought such incredible warmth and personality to Mrs Potts in Beauty and the Beast. Her unforgettable performance will forever be a classic.”

Playwright Paul Rudnick said Dame Angela “provided the most fabulous, irreplaceable joy” and was “beloved as a person and an actress, and managed to be approachable, glamorous and heartbreaking”.

West End star Elaine Paige said Dame Angela was “one of the last Golden Age of Hollywood stars & a Broadway & West End icon”.

Author Rebecca Makkai wrote: “A thing you should know: In September, 1987, Angela Lansbury headlined a show that packed the Chicago Theater with 2,400 people to raise money for AIDS research. It was the first major AIDS benefit in Chicago, and it raised $1 million.”

Dame Angela’s family links to senior politicians

Jon Craig

Chief political correspondent

@joncraig

Angela Lansbury, the grande dame of American TV crime drama, had close family links with senior British politicians, including top Tory Penny Mordaunt and a former Labour Party leader.

Dame Angela was the cousin of the grandmother of the Portsmouth North MP, who this year came close to making the final two in the race for the Tory leadership and is now Leader of the Commons.

But the Hollywood star was best known in political circles as the grand-daughter of George Lansbury, who was leader of the Labour Party from 1932 until 1935, when he was succeeded by Clement Attlee.

Dame Angela’s father, Edgar Lansbury, was also a prominent politician and supporter of the Suffragettes. A member of both the Communist Party and the Labour Party, he was mayor of Poplar and was jailed over an illegal rates rebellion.

George Lansbury was first elected to Parliament in 1910, but resigned his seat in 1912 to campaign for women’s suffrage – a cause Penny Mordaunt would have approved of – and he too was briefly imprisoned after publicly supporting militant action by the Suffragettes.

A Christian pacifist who was originally a radical Liberal, Lansbury became Labour leader with the party deeply split after the collapse of Ramsay MacDonald’s National government, but he never fought a general election as party leader.

He was ousted after a defeat in a bruising showdown at the 1935 Labour conference with Ernest Bevin, then transport and general workers union leader and later a giant in the Attlee government, over defence policy and opposition to fascism.

“My grandfather was a very large figure in my life as a child,” Dame Angela said in an interview in 1998. “He was an extraordinary individual who garnered the admiration and love of the British labour movement, which he led, and because he was the most charismatic figure, a very kind simple plain man. He never drank, he never smoked.”

Further afield, former Australia prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has revealed that Dame Angela was his cousin.
In a tweet featuring a picture of the two at the theatre in Sydney, he wrote: “You first dazzled me when I was 4 & you were Aunty Angela making a movie in Australia.
“In later years we always had politics & showbiz to talk and laugh about. Rest in Peace dear Angie.”

Entertainment

Could Saoirse Ronan finally win her first Oscar?

Published

31 mins ago

September 29, 2024

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Could Saoirse Ronan finally win her first Oscar?

Saoirse Ronan has become one of the Academy Awards’ anomalies after being nominated four times without taking home a statuette.

The American-born Irish star received her first Oscars nod at the age of just 13, when she featured in the best supporting actress category for her role in Atonement.

Since then, despite being shortlisted three times for best actress for Brooklyn, Lady Bird and Little Women, she has never won.

Now, the 30-year-old is set to compete in both the lead and supporting actress categories at the 2025 awards for her new films The Outrun and Steve McQueen’s Blitz.

If she secures one or both nominations, she would become the youngest actor to receive five, or six, nods.

Directed by Nora Fingscheidt, The Outrun, which is inspired by the life of writer Amy Liptrot, follows a Scottish woman struggling with alcoholism while living in fast-paced London.

In a bid to maintain her sobriety, she returns home to Orkney and finds herself in the process.

“Nora really wanted us to have our input in terms of who these characters were and situations that we would find them in”, Ronan told Sky News.

“We had a script that was written and the structure of it was there, but we were sort of able to fill in the gaps a little bit.”

The Scottish drama marks the first time Ronan has worked as a producer on a project and she says she took a lot from the experience.

She said: “There is a lot going on behind the scenes that actors are protected from, and sometimes I think it would be valuable for an actor to know the drama that exists when they’re not around.

“I think it might make people behave a little bit better and to know that it is sort of like a domino effect when there’s one thing that’s out of place, it really will affect everything else by you not getting on to a call at a certain time.”

She said it gave her a new appreciation for the craft.

“It’s very difficult to get an independent movie made and to try and source the money needed to just even pay people is difficult sometimes.

“So, yes, it’s just having an awareness of and the graft involved and that has definitely made me appreciate the movies that I’m on so much more where I am just an actor and I don’t have to worry about any of that stuff at all.”

The film also stars The Lazarus Project’s Paapa Essiedu as her boyfriend Daynin.

Battling with the person she has become, her character Rona returns to the Orkney Islands to try to reconnect with nature.

The Oscar nominee said sea swimming at a remote location was therapeutic for the cast and crew.

“We finished [shooting] on Papa Westray, where we had to have a micro crew. There’s 90 inhabitants on the whole island.

“We stayed in people’s homes because there’s no hotels or anything like that. We ate together every night. We walked to work like it was a very stripped back experience in terms of filmmaking.

“And I think that was sort of felt like art imitating life a little bit after all the chaos of the beginning of the shoot. To have that at the end was wonderful.”

The Outrun is in cinemas now.

Entertainment

Lana Del Rey marries alligator tour guide boyfriend

Published

21 hours ago

September 28, 2024

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Lana Del Rey marries alligator tour guide boyfriend

Pop star Lana Del Rey has married her alligator tour guide partner in Louisiana, according to reports.

The singer, 39, and Jeremy Dufrene, 49, are said to have obtained a marriage licence in Lafourche parish on Monday and had their wedding three days later.

Footage obtained by the Daily Mail appears to show Del Rey, whose real name is Elizabeth Woodridge Grant, wearing a white dress where Mr Dufrene works as a tour guide in Des Allemandes, south of New Orleans.

Del Rey has not commented on the reported wedding.

She met Mr Dufrene in 2019, posting pictures of her on one of his tours with the caption: “Jeremy lemme be captain at Arthur’s Air Boat Tours x.”

Arthur’s Air Boat Tours gives guided tours through the local swamps, where its website says visitors are likely to see “300 species of birds” and “alligators up close and personal”.

Mr Dufrene’s profile page says he previously worked seven days a week at a chemical plant – when he would “shrimp on vacation days”.

“After a little convincing by his family, he got his captain’s licence and started running tours,” it adds.

“Jeremy’s a great airboat captain and loves interacting with wildlife & customers.”

The couple were pictured together at Reading and Leeds festival this summer where Del Rey headlined.

She previously dated Scottish singer Barrie-James O’Neill for three years and was last linked to a police officer called Sean Larkin.

Entertainment

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs: Woman accuses rapper of further sexual assault allegations in new lawsuit

Published

22 hours ago

September 28, 2024

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Sean 'Diddy' Combs: Woman accuses rapper of further sexual assault allegations in new lawsuit

Sean “Diddy” Combs was hit with further sexual assault allegations after a woman filed a lawsuit in New York.

In the fresh civil case, the woman – identified by the pseudonym Jane Doe – claims she was repeatedly raped and drugged at the music mogul’s homes and became pregnant after one of the encounters.

It follows a series of similar legal cases brought by women against Combs, 54, who was arrested at a hotel in New York last week on sex trafficking, drug possession and firearms offences.

The latest lawsuit was filed on Friday against Combs, his companies and several associates, and seeks undisclosed damages for physical injuries, severe emotional distress, humiliation, anxiety and other harm.

The woman claims she met Combs abroad in 2020 and that the assaults and harassment continued through to July this year.

She says she was often coerced and harassed into travelling to Combs’ homes in New York, Los Angeles and Miami and other cities, and during every visit the rapper would make her “perform a show” for him.

In one encounter alleged to have taken place in July 2022, the woman claims she blacked out after being forced to take drugs that included ketamine.

She later allegedly took a pregnancy test and told Combs it was positive. She said an associate of the music producer repeatedly demanded her to get an abortion. The lawsuit states she had a miscarriage.

The woman, who is being represented by lawyers Marie Napoli and Joseph Ciaccio, also alleges Combs and his associates tracked her location and monitored her conversations.

She claims Combs discouraged her from working and gave her an “allowance” that he used to control her.

“No one is above the law. Fame and wealth do not protect Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs from serious allegations of sex trafficking and abuse,” Ms Napoli said in a statement.

Combs has been facing civil allegations including rape, sexual assault, and forced drugging since November 2023.

He has pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking but remains jailed, having been denied bail. His attorney said he is innocent and will fight to clear his name.

A lawyer for Combs did not respond to the allegations made in Friday’s lawsuit when contacted by the Associated Press news agency.