Editing Angela Lansbury (section)

===Childhood: 1925–1942===
Angela Brigid Lansbury was born to an [[upper-middle-class]] family on October 16, 1925.{{sfnm|1a1=Bonanno|1y=1987|1p=3|2a1=Edelman|2a2=Kupferberg|2y=1996|2p=3}} Although her birthplace has often been given as [[Poplar, London|Poplar, East London]],{{sfn|Edelman|Kupferberg|1996|p=3}} she rejected this, stating that while she had ancestral connections to Poplar, she was born in [[Regent's Park]], [[central London]].{{efn|In a 2014 interview for [[BBC Radio 4]], she stated: "I want to make one thing clear: I was not born in Poplar, that's not true, I was born in Regent's Park, so I wasn't born in the East End, I wish I could say I had been. Certainly my antecedents were: my grandfather, my father." (mins 3–4).<ref Name=Frontrow>{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03srj0y |title=Interview with Mark Lawson |website=[[BBC Radio 4]] |date=February 3, 2014 |access-date=January 25, 2016 |archive-date=September 8, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160908204624/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03srj0y |url-status=live}}</ref>}} Her mother was [[Belfast]]-born Irish [[Moyna Macgill]] (born Charlotte Lillian McIldowie), an actress who regularly appeared on stage in London's [[West End theatre|West End]] and who also appeared in several films.{{sfnm|1a1=Bonanno|1y=1987|1pp=3–4|2a1=Edelman|2a2=Kupferberg|2y=1996|2pp=5–10|3a1=Gottfried|3y=1999|3p=8}} Her father was the wealthy English timber merchant and politician [[Edgar Lansbury (politician)|Edgar Lansbury]], a member of the [[Communist Party of Great Britain]] and former mayor of the [[Metropolitan Borough of Poplar]].{{sfnm|1a1=Bonanno|1y=1987|1p=4|2a1=Edelman|2a2=Kupferberg|2y=1996|2p=3}} Her paternal grandfather was the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] leader [[George Lansbury]], a man whom she felt "awed" by and considered "a giant in my youth".{{sfnm|1a1=Bonanno|1y=1987|1pp=4–5|2a1=Edelman|2a2=Kupferberg|2y=1996|2pp=15–20|3a1=Gottfried|3y=1999|3pp=9–10}} Angela had an older half-sister, Isolde, from Macgill's previous marriage to [[Reginald Denham]].{{sfnm|1a1=Bonanno|1y=1987|1p=5|2a1=Edelman|2a2=Kupferberg|2y=1996|2p=3|3a1=Gottfried|3y=1999|3p=7}} In January 1930, Macgill gave birth to twin boys, [[Bruce Lansbury|Bruce]] and [[Edgar Lansbury (producer)|Edgar]], leading the Lansburys to move from their Poplar flat to a house in [[Mill Hill]], [[north London]]; at weekends, they would stay at a farm in [[Berrick Salome]], Oxfordshire.{{sfnm|1a1=Edelman|1a2=Kupferberg|1y=1996|1p=4|2a1=Gottfried|2y=1999|2pp=11–15}}

{{Quote box|width=25em|align=left|quote=I'm eternally grateful for the Irish side of me. That's where I got my sense of comedy and whimsy. As for the English half–that's my reserved side ... But put me onstage, and the Irish comes out. The combination makes a good mix for acting.|salign=right|source={{spaced ndash}} Angela Lansbury.{{sfnm|1a1=Bonanno|1y=1987|1p=3|2a1=Edelman|2a2=Kupferberg|2y=1996|2p=4|3a1=Gottfried|3y=1999|3pp=10–11}}}}

When Lansbury was nine, her father died from [[stomach cancer]]; she retreated into playing characters as a coping mechanism.{{sfnm|1a1=Edelman|1a2=Kupferberg|1y=1996|1p=12|2a1=Gottfried|2y=1999|2p=21}} Facing financial difficulty, her mother entered a relationship with a Scottish colonel, Leckie Forbes, and moved into his house in [[Hampstead]]. Lansbury then received an education at [[South Hampstead High School]] from 1934 until 1939,{{sfnm|1a1=Edelman|1a2=Kupferberg|1y=1996|1pp=11–12, 21|2a1=Gottfried|2y=1999|2pp=26–28}} where she was a contemporary of [[Glynis Johns]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Sturgis |first=John |date=May 14, 2023 |title=Glynis Johns – Britain's oldest living star of stage and screen is still shining |url=https://www.express.co.uk/celebrity-news/1770097/Glynis-Johns-damehood-mary-poppins |work=[[Daily Express]] |access-date=July 30, 2023}}</ref> She nevertheless considered herself largely self-educated, learning from books, theatre and cinema.{{sfnm|1a1=Edelman|1a2=Kupferberg|1y=1996|1p=14|2a1=Gottfried|2y=1999|2p=24}} Lansbury became a self-professed "complete movie maniac", visiting the cinema regularly.{{sfn|Edelman|Kupferberg|1996|pp=13–14}} Keen on playing the piano, she briefly studied music at the Ritman School of Dancing, and in 1940 began studying acting at the [[Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art|Webber Douglas School of Singing and Dramatic Art]] in [[Kensington]], [[List of sub regions used in the London Plan|west London]], first appearing onstage as a lady-in-waiting in the school's production of [[Maxwell Anderson]]'s ''[[Mary of Scotland (film)|Mary of Scotland]]''.{{sfnm|1a1=Bonanno|1y=1987|1p=6|2a1=Edelman|2a2=Kupferberg|2y=1996|2p=22|3a1=Gottfried|3y=1999|3pp=28–31}}

That year, Lansbury's grandfather died, and with the onset of [[the Blitz]], Macgill decided to take Angela, Bruce and Edgar to the United States; Isolde remained in Britain with her new husband, the actor [[Peter Ustinov]]. Macgill secured a job supervising 60 British children who were being evacuated to North America aboard the ''Duchess of Athol'', arriving with them in [[Montreal]], Canada, in August 1940.{{sfnm|1a1=Bonanno|1y=1987|1p=7|2a1=Edelman|2a2=Kupferberg|2y=1996|2pp=24–25|3a1=Gottfried|3y=1999|3pp=31–35}} She then proceeded by train to New York City, where she was financially sponsored by a [[Wall Street]] businessman, Charles T. Smith, moving in with his family at their home at [[Mahopac, New York]].{{sfnm|1a1=Bonanno|1y=1987|1p=9|2a1=Edelman|2a2=Kupferberg|2y=1996|2pp=25–26|3a1=Gottfried|3y=1999|3pp=35–36}} Lansbury gained a scholarship from the [[American Theatre Wing]] to study at the [[Feagin School of Dramatic Art|Feagin School of Drama and Radio]], where she appeared in performances of [[William Congreve]]'s ''[[The Way of the World]]'' and [[Oscar Wilde]]'s ''[[Lady Windermere's Fan]]''. She graduated in March 1942, by which time the family had moved to an apartment on Morton Street, [[Greenwich Village]].{{sfnm|1a1=Bonanno|1y=1987|1pp=8–9|2a1=Edelman|2a2=Kupferberg|2y=1996|2p=26|3a1=Gottfried|3y=1999|3pp=36–41}}