Angela Lansbury to receive special Tony for lifetime achievement
Angela Lansbury is bringing her shine back to the Great White Way.
The 96-year-old British actress will be honored with a special Tony for lifetime achievement in theater at next month's ceremony, the organizers announced Monday.
“Angela Lansbury's contributions to the stage are insurmountable,” Charlotte St. Martin, president of The Broadway League and Heather Hitchens, president and CEO of the American Theatre Wing, said in a joint statement.
“From her groundbreaking role in `Mame' to her iconic performances in `Deuce' and `Sweeney Todd,' and most recently, in the revival of `A Little Night Music,' Ms. Lansbury has given us a lifetime of unforgettable performances, and it is a great honor to present her with the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award.”
Past recipients include Chita Rivera, Andrew Lloyd Webber, James Earl Jones and Stephen Sondheim.
Lansbury, best known for her on-screen roles, debuted on Broadway in 1957 in “Hotel Paradiso,” then returned to the stage in “A Taste of Honey.” But it was her 1966 role in “Mame,” Jerry Herman's musical adaptation of the novel “Auntie Mame,” that brought Lansbury her first taste of stardom.
Throughout the decades, she also appeared in “The King and I,” “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” and “Deuce,” which earned her a Tony nomination for best leading actress in a play in 2007.
In total, Lansbury has won five Tony Awards, for “Mame,” “Dear World,” “Gypsy,” “Sweeney Todd” and “Blithe Spirit,” as well as six Golden Globes, an Olivier Award and an honorary Oscar. In 2014, Queen Elizabeth II named her a Dame Commander of the British Empire.
According to Variety, she was the recipient of the National Medal of Arts, the Kennedy Center Honors, the Silver Mask for Lifetime Achievement from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, as well as a BAFTA/ LA Britannia Award for Lifetime Achievement in Television and Film.