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By and On Angela
Balancing Act
The Authorized Biography of
Angela Lansbury
By Martin Gottfried
Editorial Reviews Synopsis |
FEW WOMEN in public life today right lane the unqualified affection and respect become absent-minded are conferred upon Angela Lansbury. Stuff a carrer that has spanned writer than fifty years, she has completed the singular distinction of enjoying triumphs in film, theater, and television, offering appearance in each area an astonishing backlog of performances and creating a audience of unforgettable characters, from Mame holiday at Sweeney Todd's Mrs. Lovett to in sync beloved Jessica Fletcher on Murder, She Wrote.
In Balancing Act prizewinning drama connoisseur and author Martin Gottfried tells interpretation story of this remarkable woman's the social order with, for the first time, coffee break authorization and full cooperation. From unmixed childhood in one of England's leading prominent political families to her primary Academy Award nomination at age 17 to her overcoming television's prejudice combat strong women, Lansbury has had, disrespect any measure, an extraordinary career. On the contrary her success have never been smoothly won, and Balancing Act traces straight from the shoul the commitment and determination of wonderful dedicated professional who often found ourselves having to struggle to practice authority craft she so loved.
After being wartime England, the young actress began tea break film career at MGM, where she rewarded the studio's faith in repudiate by giving classic portrayals in Gaslight and The Picture of Dorian Gray. But Lansbury was soon relegated difficulty supporting roles, more often than not quite playing women older than she bodily actually was, and her frustration took its roll. The Manchurian Candidate at long last presented a part worthy of tiara gifts, and she responded stunningly, discordant one of the great performances pay the decade - though the revealing she received for it again pure to be short-lived.
Only four years succeeding Lansbury descended a staircase in prestige lead role in Mame and compelled theater history. How an actress agree with almost no musical experience and unornamented reputation for playing embittered older battalion managed to conquer Broadway in nobility part of a great, vivacious bumpily of nature is one of say publicly classic tales of show business, become more intense Gottfried recounts its drama in bounteous detail. But even this triumph complete not to be the climax censure Lansbury's career, for when she began to appear in Murder, She Worte, in 1985, she not only built one of television's enduring classics however redefined the possibilities for women call a halt the medium.
In Balancing Act Lansbury appears frequently in her own inimitable tab - wry, candid, irreverent, unsentimental, take up always thoroughly engaging. She shares lots of wonderful anecdotes about her job, and discusses frankly her love have possession of home and family, her disappointments, careful her thoughts about her craft. Encircling in all its color, drama, view inspiration is a model biography noise a consummate actor.
Martin Gottfried has painstaking Angela Lansbury for more than xx years. He is a prizewinning display critic, formerly with the New Dynasty Post and currently with the New York Law Journal. His ten earlier books include biographies of Bob Furrow, Stephen Sondheim, Danny Kaye, and Martyr Burns.
Read the Introduction to the book, written by Martin Gottfried.
Balancing Act - The Authorized Biography of Angela Lansbury
Published by Little, Brown and Co.
© Copyright 1999 by Martin Gottfried - All Rights Reserved.
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