“For those women who were known for their beauty, it is darn difficult,” she said of the ageist casting from which many of her fellow female actors suffered. “But I was playing older parts when I was terribly young because I wasn’t a big-screen beauty.”
Worstall’s Law of Acting being – if she’s fugly she can.
She was still pretty hot in Samson and Delilah, although she was overshadowed by Hedy Lamarr.
She was a bit like the young Prunella Scales with those hamster cheeks.
Watch her in Samson and Delilah especially as Semadar, Delilah’s warrior “older” sister. Hedy Lamarr was nearly 20 years older than Lansbury.
Ah, Hedy Lamarr, the actress who is fairly well known for having a Patent to her name for a frequency hopping, spread-spectrum communication system.
Wonder how many of todays actresses have the brains to go along with the beauty?
I think she was pretty unique at the time too in that respect.
Worstalls law of acting should make it clear that the point of being a starlet (are you pretty? Then you’re a starlet) is to put yourself out there and then marry a rich bloke. It is not, under any circumstances, to attempt a career as an actor, which is a mugs game and you will end up in porn. Amazing how many totties don’t understand that.
Joanne Lumley can’t act for toffee, and she’s getting on a bit. Yet she still gets parts.
It’s a mystery to me.
Julie Newmar, the original Catwoman, (not really “todays actress” but still around AFAIK) patented some lingerie designs. Does that count?
One thing not mentioned about aging actresses is the obvious: Lots of them got work because they had looks. Talent was optional. Think Sharon Stone or Kim Basinger. They were stunningly beautiful, even by Hollywood standards, so they worked. Once each got a bit rough around the edges, it became apparent that neither could act their way out of a paper bag. So the work dried up.
Whether Angela Lansbury was a looker didn’t matter… she could act. Women who can act will continue to work, women who cannot, won’t.
The other part of the equation is managing your career. Lansbury managed her career very, very well. Neither Stone nor Basinger did.
“Once each got a bit rough around the edges, it became apparent that neither could act their way out of a paper bag”
But unfair to Kim Basinger. She deserved her Oscar for LA Confidential
I really liked Helen Mirren in The Debt. Drew Barrymore also continues to get roles and has her own daytime show now. Angelina Jolie could very well continue to get starring roles, but has proven herself to be a very good film director. Same story with female musicians who later become producers.
It seems many of these women who deem themselves past their prime are simply confirming a Patrice O’Neal bit:
https://youtu.be/yauS_XKlqwM?t=97
Got my maths wrong earlier. AL was already in her early twenties and HL was in her mid 30s.
If you want to watch a really good Angela Lansbury film, try The Court Jester , the Danny Kaye vehicle from 1955. Songs, script and a great cast – Kaye as the hero, Lansbury as the Princess, Cecil Parker as her father, the evil King, Mildred Natwick as Lansbury’s witch of a maid, Basil Rathbone as the King’s adviser and chief baddie, giving it everything as if he were still playing opposite Errol Flynn, a lovely Glynis Johns as Kaye’s love interest.
And best of all, Natwick, Kaye and Johns rattling through the legendary “vessel with the pestle” routine at high speed. Great fun. I might even watch it again tonight…
But unfair to Kim Basinger. She deserved her Oscar for LA Confidential.
The director said he cast her because she was beautiful. And that was all she had to do in LA Confidential. Be beautiful. She got the Oscar because everyone in Hollywood was shocked she didn’t find a way to fuck the part up.
If you want to see Basinger’s norm, watch her in ‘The Natural’ or ‘9 1/2 Weeks’ . Embarrassingly bad.
Basinger was alright in Batman. I agree with Dennis about 9 1/2Weeks, the audience laughed and jeered all the way through it when I saw it at the pictures.
Drew Barrymore went off the rails and managed to get back on them again . Strangely, She was probably saved by Wes Craven casting her to be sliced up in Scream.