Remembering Angela Lansbury and other dear departed

One of my unforgettable moments at the cinema was watching Angela Lansbury in that revelatory scene with Laurence Harvey in John Frankenheimer’s The Manchurian Candidate.

To this day, I still cannot (get) over how Lansbury was so casual, but so major, major creepy.  I do say that for one of the few or maybe the only time in her career, Meryl Streep’s performance in the remake, haute couture wardrobe and all, is only a back-seater compared to Lansbury’s.

And I thought then, how could she be the same actress who sang and danced vaudeville style to How’d You Like to Spoon with Me in the Jerome Kern biopic Till the Clouds Roll By which I watched again and again in black and white TV ages ago. But she was that versatile.

The original Manchurian Candidate was also in black and white. As was the Ingrid Bergman starrer Gaslight, where a very young Lansbury was the intrigera maid.

There was color in her later appearances, as Elvis Presley’s Mom in Blue Hawaii or likewise for Warren Beatty in All Fall Down. She hardly played lead roles, but her presence was always reassuring. You were watching a great actress no matter the size of the role.

It was in the theater where Lansbury found roles worthy of her talent. In fact, she was honored with six Tony Awards including one for Lifetime Achievement. Hotel Paradiso, 1957; Mame, 1966; Dear World, 1969; Gypsy, 1974; and Sweeney Todd, 1979.

Despite the music by the great Stephen Sondheim, I have always had something against the throat-slashing barber Sweeney Todd (yucky!) but although she fed people those special doubly yucky meat pies as Mrs. Lovett, I would have loved watching Lansbury originate the sweet Not While I’m Around in the show.

Another area where Lansbury found stardom was television. She played Jessica Fletcher, a mystery writer who solved crimes every week from 1984 to 1996 in the engaging Murder, She Wrote. Not only was the series one of the longest running in the history of television, it was also the only one with a female lead to top the list. I still watch the reruns on cable.

And then there was Disney. If the ingenues are referred to as Disney princesses, then maybe the matured actresses should be called Queens. Lansbury was certainly one. She starred as the kind-hearted witch in the box-office hit Bedknobs and Broomsticks in 1971.

In 1991, she returned to lend her voice to Mrs. Potts in Disney’s animated feature Beauty and the Beast, where she sang the original version of the theme. It was bruited about that she recorded the song in one perfect take and her rendition has become the benchmark that the later Mrs. Potts’s subsequent versions aspired to emulate. They still do.

Lansbury was born to an upper-class family in London on Oct. 16, 1925. Her family relocated to America during World War II and it was there that she started her acting career.  She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in 2014.  She passed away last Oct. 11 at the age of 96.

Here are some of the other artists that music lost this past year.

Mon Legaspi, 54, bassist of rock bands Wolfgang, The Dawn, and others last Oct. 4, of cardiac arrest.

Loretta Lynn, 90, last Oct. 4, legendary country music star, popularly known as the Coal Miner’s Daughter, who released almost a hundred albums.

Olivia Newton-John, 73, star of the film version of the musical Grease. Among her hit songs were Physical, I Honestly Love You and Hopelessly Devoted to You.

Jun Lopito, 64, guitarist of The Jerks, also played with the Juan de la Cruz Band last March 29. He was the son of comedian, radio and TV host Lopito.

Joni James, 91, singer of memorable tunes like How Lucky You Are, Why Don’t You Believe Me, You’re My Everything and others from the ‘50s, died last Feb. 20.

Marilyn Bergman, 93, last Jan. 8. One of the all-time great lyricists. Among her works are It Might Be You, Windmills of Your Mind, The Way We Were and The Promise.

Stephen Sondheim, 91, last Nov. 26, 2021, one of the greatest composers of American theater.  Among his works are Sweeney Todd, Passion, A Little Night Music, Company, Into the Woods and the lyrics for West Side Story.

Heber Bartolome, 73, last Nov. 15, 2021, singer, songwriter, poet and painter. He formed the folk group Banyuhay and is best known for the song Tayo’y Mga Pinoy.