Other roles Angela Lansbury could have feasibly played?

On Golden Pond

She was too young in 1981 - 55.

The Heiress, 1949, as the dowdy, downtrodden daughter of a bully who is flattered by the attention of a gorgeous man

She was lucky to be sold as a character actress. Her career lasted much longer.

Eve Harrington in All About Eve? She was great as the devious interloper in Gaslight.

Auntie Mame in "Mame"

The girl with the limp in The Visit

Mrs. Venable in Suddenly Last Summer

Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Debbie in Debbie Does Dallas

She looks a little bit like Nicole Kidman in that pic.

Trip to Bountiful

You’re trying to seduce me, Ms. Lansbury.

Dorothy Zbornak

Mary Poppins

Cristal Conners

Edna Garrett

Miss Marple

She was originally chosen to play Anita in "West Side Story," but a wise Gary Morton called her up and convinced her to turn it down.

Dorothy Stratton in Star 80.

^Stratten, dammit!

Annie Hall

She DID play Miss Marple in The Mirror Crack'd.

Miss Jane Pittman

Thatcher

The Bride in "Kill Bill, Parts I and II"

The twin elevator girls in The Shining

Ma Kettle.

But Marjorie Main did it better.

Desiree Armfeldt in A Little Night Music

She turned down the role of the nurse in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Wonder how she would have compared to Fletcher?

She nailed Fletcher ten years later.

Barbara Covett in Notes On A Scandal!

"Someone has died!"

Mrs. Pearce in My Fair Lady.

She is a character actress of minor consequence. She would have been fine as Sister Margaretta in The Sound of Music, too.

Angela will forever be a gay icon, not to mention beloved by the pubic. So sick of Betty White stealing all her thunder.

R33 Whose pubic beloved her?

She would have been a marvelous Milady de Winter in MGM’s The Three Musketeers, and she begged Louis B. Mayer to cast her, but he wouldn’t hear of it, and insisted she play the dignified Queen of France instead.

Lara Croft, Tomb Raider

The Creature from the Black Lagoon

Hello Dolly!

Miss Daisy

Miss Daisy Duke

Duke Ellington

Wow! She looks pretty with long hair. Her voice, though. I just identify the voice with “Murder, She Wrote.”

She would have been awesome in The Graduate, Bancroft played the role in a stilted manner.

Nomi Malone

Margaret White in Carrie (1976 version). Interesting fact: Brian de Palma's first choice for Margaret White was Joan Fontaine!

The Terminator

The Queen

Linda Lovelace, Deep throat.

[quote] The Heiress, 1949, as the dowdy, downtrodden daughter of a bully who is flattered by the attention of a gorgeous man

r2, Someone suggested that on the thread about The Heiress. Maybe you? At any rate I not only agreed but added that in later years she would also have been a great Aunt Penniman. So versatile.

[quote]Miss Daisy.

She played the part onstage in a national tour in Australia with James Earl Jones as Hoke. The show was video recorded and shown in the US on PBS. Lansbury and Jones were both wonderful.

I've also always thought she would have been a fabulous Fairy Godmother in the R&H Cinderella. I can hear her in my head singing Impossible.

I think rather than speculate on what role she could have played, why not cast her in an age appropriate re-make?

For your consideration,

“The Whales of August”

Starring

Angela Lansbury - in the Bette Davis role

Olivia de Havilland - in the Lillian Gish role

Estelle Parsons - in the Ann Sothern role

Christopher Plummer - in the Vincent Price role

OT, but coincidentally I was thinking about The Whales of August just earlier today and the well known Davis quote. Director Lindsay Anderson was trying to talk Lillian Gish through a close up when Davis interrupted him.

"You don't need to tell Miss Gish how to do a close up. She invented them."

Liza Elliot in Lady in the Dark, on screen or on stage when she was age appropriate.

Black Widow

OP, I've thought about that, too, OP, how odd it is that she was nominated for Oscars for two of her first three films and then I think only one more for the rest of her career for Manchurian Candidate, granted they were all for Supporting and as a young woman during that period she did not have the face to be a leading lady, though she did have the talent. Could she have played Eve Harrington in All About Eve or Stella in Streetcar? I'm trying to think of roles in the '40s and '50s that she might have done well.

She should play an old wrinkled bitch who solves crimes.... Murders to be exact.

The mother of James McAvoy and Paul Bettany in 'Wimbledon'.

The old lesbian bird lady from 'Home Alone 2' who Brenda Fricker played.

Lady Bracknell

The widow Paroo.

Talleah, Queen of Outer Space.

Dowager Countess Violet Crawley. The only bigger mugger than Maggie Smith is La Lansbury.

I'm sure there would have been a suitable role for her in the upcoming Diane Keaton film Poms.

So many possibilities, even in teen dystopian blockbusters.

R52, you left out the part which made Bette Davis” quote about Lillian Gish absolutely hilarious. The BITCH invented them!

Cher in Clueless.

Great suggestions guys! How about Cloris Leachman's role in The Last Picture Show?

Paul in "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help!"

Joanne in Company

Why would Bobby want to f*ck Stritch?

Nora in [italic]Pete's Dragon[/italic]

She actually would have been very amusing as Olenna Tyrell, the Queen of Thorns, on GAME OF THRONES.

Imagine how Lansbury would ruin this with her eye rolling and shoulder waving. Ugh.

Beth Fucking Jarrett.

Granny Clampitt

Belle Rosen

The Little Mermaid.

Seriously...Alice doesn't live here anymore. Ellen Burstyn was miscast, she was brittle and lacked warmth.

She would have had to give up [italic]Gypsy[/italic] for that.

Burstyn & Lansbury as Alice... PLEASE, BITCHES.

At least she would have sang the Hell out of "There's a New Girl in Town."

If Angela had be starting out as a young actress today they could have really found parts for her. She actually was very attractive, just not for the time. Today she would have looked like Jennifer Lawrence - big tits, nice lips, and big eyes. Angie's look was just too different at the time.

She could have played a witch in [italic]MacBeth[/italic]. That would have brought [italic]Bedknobs and Broomsticks[/italic] full circle.

Rizzo in GREASE

Helen Lawson

She would have had to give up [italic]Mame[/italic] for that.

Evelyn Mulwray, Chinatown

Shaft

Why has she never done a Muppet movie or TV show?

Dolly Levi instead of Babs.

Original 1982 Broadway Jennyanydots.

Someone suggested her for Miss Hannigan.

She so should have gotten this role when it became available.

Bea Asher. Queen of the Stardust Ballroom.

Except that Maureen Stapleton is a much better actress and she played it better than Lansbury could even dream of doing.

She would have been great in Gosford Park

Garth in Wayne’s World.

I want two versions of Dear Heart where Angie and Geraldine switch roles.

She would have been a great Mrs. Butterworth.

And imagine her with a cup of HIgh Point.

The old lady in [italic]Beavis and Butt-head Do America[/italic].

Mongo.

Lansbury was not well known until Mame on Broadway Mary Martin turned down Mame

If only Vadim had stayed with his original vision of BARBARELLA, before Jane mucked everything up!

Carole King in Beautiful.

Art films???

NUDIES!

Oddjob

Her audition for KLUTE was brilliant, apparently.

If only she'd dressed for the character a bit more....

Miss Jane Pittman

Doralee Rhodes

Amber Waves

Shelby Eatonton

I actually saw Angie at an appearance late last year and she remained sharp as a whip well into her 90s. As for coulda-woulda-shouldas, given that she's still in good health and has her wits about her, I'd love to see her cast in a small, but meaty role in prestige cable or streaming drama. Perhaps as a complex, complicated villain. I think, unfortunately, as sharp as she remains, her theatre days are probably behind her now.

[quote]r19 Dorothy Stratten in Star 80.

She tested for it, but came across as awkward in the centerfold shoot scene.

Miss Baby Jane Hudson

Her outlandish whorishness got her blackballed in Hollywood.

They couldn't get her to the set, she was so busy banging anyone who passed through her dressing room.

Peggy Olsen in a "Mad Men" actually filmed in the '50s. The Elizabeth Moss resemblance is remarkable.

Did you know she was only 58 or 59 when she started doing MURDER SHE WROTE?

I was a kid, but I assumed she was a few years older.

Shelley Winters' role in A Place in the Sun

Jane Wyman's role in Johnny Belinda

Susan Hayward's role in Smash-Up

I saw The Reluctant Debutante last week: she looked good, but I'd never have guessed she was only 33.

Kay Kendall was even younger but looks matronly in that shot

Their gowns were better than the script.

I think she could have played most of the roles Olivia DeHavilland and Deborah Kerr played

R114 she always played/looked older than her years. In "Manchurian Candidate" she plays the mother of Laurence Harvey, who was only three years younger. 1925/1928

Saucy minx!

How about Regina in “The Little Foxes”? Or Martha in “Eho’s Afraid Of Virginia Wolf?”

She would have been awesome as Anne Romano in One Day at a Time.

"DAMMIT, Schneider! DAMMIT, Julie!"

I can see her doing the Madge the Manicurist role in the Palmolive ads?

Guighi

Basic.

Instinct.

She would have done a fine job as any of the corpses on MIDSOMER MURDERS.

Marie Barone in Eerybody Loves Raymond.

Edna Garrett in Diff'rent Strokes

Mammy Yokum in Li'l Abner.

Perhaps one of Woody Allen films coming up.

Baby Jane

She would have been great as Serial Mom.

Game of Thrones, my darlings. WHY didn't they find a role for her????

They did. She was one of the dragons. Incredibly versatile actress!

As Mary on Little House she would have brought some gravity to losing her sight and her baby.

Oh, YES ... Mary Ingalls is INDEED “the one that got away”

Pity.

She’s had a huge career in a wide variety of notable roles. She can carry her own in musicals and dramatic roles as well. She played the chillingly evil mother in the Manchurian Candidate. By many measures she’s had a bigger career than Maggie Smith and other British actresses of her generation.

She was a fucked up Frisbee player, she cheated.

Uma Thurman's roles in Pulp Fiction & the Kill Bill films.

Jayne's parts in "The Girl Can't Help It."

R80. You are too generous.

Poor Angela was incapable of any glamour with her facial deformity— she had a golfball in each cheek!

She should have done more musicals when she was at MGM

[italic]The Reluctant Debutante[/italic] looks like something that should have been a musical.

Medea.

Not many actresses can do OTT roles like Medea. And not many audiences are willing to pay money for it.

Parts of the audience would be tittering under their breath. I'd be tittering through Lansbury's Medea and I suspect I'd be tittering through Maggie Smith doing Ingmar Bergman's production of Hedda Gabler at the National.

Look at the Pasolini film of Medea and see how he slyly he tricks us to accept this madwoman and her OTT behaviour.

Honestly, she might have done very well in the Sada Thompson role in "Family".

Lansbury has had a long and healthy career due to her good sense and hard work. She has done all she could possibly do with her physical shortcomings.

But, R134 It's unfair to compare Lansbury with Maggie Smith and other British actresses of her generation.

1. Lansbury has more money and stability because she appeared (and co-owned) that long-running, weak-minded lady detective TV series.

2. The US entertainment industry has more money and stability than Britain's.

[quote]r139 She should have done more musicals when she was at MGM

Sure, if you liked dubbing - -

Better than autotune which makes literally anything that uses it unlistenable.

R138 has a golf ball for a brain.

Lansbury looked old as a young girl. That was a benefit as she got better when she was an old lady.

The three actresses Disney considered for MARY POPPINS were Angela, Bette Davis and Mary Martin.

Any of the three would have been better than Julie Andrews, and closer to Travers' original.

Sorry - Bea Lillie was another finalist. So, four actresses.

And the fact that Angie is in the sequel and not Julie confirms that.

R140 That Bea Lillie was a strange stick.

She might have been fun in a 1920 cabaret but that movie "On Approval" was unwatchably bizarre.

She excels in those mercurial, sassy, sour on life wife roles from the 60s .

I meant Tyler Perry's Medea.

She turned down the lead role in the lesbian drama THE KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE.

I wonder what her hangup was.

^. That was a ghastly, despressing movie. Lansbury might have made it bearable.

Dear NY Theatre Queens, did you see Miss Lansbury on stage?

Did she use microphones?

Was she capable of holding a tune?

Bette did The Nanny (playing British with a Bette Davis accent), where she terrified the children in the house where she worked. So much better than Mary Poppins.

Love Bette but she would have been all wrong as Mary Poppins

Angie was right to hold out for [italic]Bedknobs and Broomsticks[/italic]. It was she who lent a sense of realism to an inherently fantastical premise.

R158 - never got to see Angie on Broadway, but did catch her in the national tour of Blithe Spirit a few years ago at the Ahmanson in LA when she was on the verge of turning 90. Her energy was boundless. In fact, she acted circles around the otherwise accomplished cast of British stage actors and her wit and comedic timing remained razor sharp.

Indeed. I saw it in San Francisco. A moment I'll cherish until my dying day.

The Rose

Do you know if she used a microphone?

I'm guessing that being raised in the movie business she wouldn't have been trained to project her voice.

R165 - I don't recall. I think all live theatre users sound design and audio amplification these days -- especially for a tour of a play that's playing big houses like the Ahmanson. She certainly had no trouble being heard in that big barn the night I was there.

As for Lasnbury's experience, you do realize she's been working in the theatre since the 1960s, right? Those five Tonys weren't for Murder She Wrote.

Angie’s straight husband was hot when he was young.

[quote] Those five Tonys weren't for Murder She Wrote.

But that show is still the best show from 1984 about a woman named Angela.

Angela only needed one Tony.

R169: Bah. There was nothing funny or believable about their relationship. In real life, she'd probably end up in a domestic violence shelter sooner or later.

Shortly before MSW, Angela L. got an offer from Embassy, that show's producers, to play a maid on a sitcom pilot. She hated the script and turned it down. She should have been Ricky's grandma on [italic]Silver Spoons[/italic] but the character was dead.

[quote]Angie’s straight husband was hot when he was young.

What about her bisexual one, Richard Cromwell, who decided not to spend the rest of his life a beard?

Sweeney Todd, Pirates of Penzance, Mame, Gypsy, A Little Night Music, The King and I, many live musicals.

She never did A Little Night Music.

R172: She did [italic]The King and I[/italic] on stage and [italic]The Pirates of Penzance[/italic] on screen.

R173 it’s listed in her bio on Wikipedia.

Was that before or after Bernadette Peters, her co-star from Don Bluth's [italic]Anastasia[/italic], was in it?

Coco from Fame.

Mom on [italic]Futurama[/italic]

I saw her in small role in A Little Night Music and in a Gore Vidal play. Lansbury also introduces a one night Anyone One Whistle concert.

R173, that is wrong. She played Madame Armfeldt opposite CZJ on Broadway in that threadbare little revival.

She was good as a bitchy maid in Gaslight.

[quote]Sorry - Bea Lillie was another finalist. So, four actresses.

No, Walt refused to consider Bea Lillie, to the furor of PL Travers. It was a major part of the great enmity between them. Travers had wanted Lillie to play Poppins since the 1930s, when Lillie had been signed to play the part in a London stage adaptation which fell through at the last minute when the financing fell apart.

She wanted to play Lolita but Gary Morton talked her out of it

She would have made a perfectly nice dragon in something.

Maybe that movie with Helen Reddy in the 70s? I don'y know.

Perfect example of how a strong work ethic can get you very far even if you're not very gifted.

She would have been great as Old Yeller.

Snobby next door neighbor on the Golden Girls.

R181 She was delightfully slutty as the maid. She made a perfect contrast to high-minded Ingrid.

Lansbury could play Carlotta Vance in DINNER AT EIGHT, but Marie Dressler already did it better.

She would have made a good Oompa Loompa.

Annie

The Iron Giant, but then along came Vin.

Kay on The Brady Bunch

Nana in Peter Pan

Could she have been the Dowager Countess?

Kay Thompson parts.

How about "My House In Umbria"