Dame Angela Lansbury

Angela Lansbury and Penelope Keith are two very worthy actresses to become Dames in the New Year's Honours list (CLICK). Angela Lansbury was born in London. Her family moved to the USA in 1940 to escape the war. She became an American citizen in 1951. Younger viewers will know her as the fictional writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher in the long-running US TV series Murder, She Wrote (1984 - 1996) in which she played "an American Miss Marple" (CLICK). Arguably her finest role was as Laurence Harvey's evil Communist mother in John Frankenheimer's brilliant The Manchurian Candidate (1962). Her portrayal won her an Oscar nomination and in 2007 her character was selected by Newsweek as one of the ten greatest villains in cinema history. The photo shows her in that role. The Manchurian Candidate is a must-see film.