![]() The troubled marriage ended in a divorce in 1946. In 1945, Lansbury married actor Richard Cromwell (1910-1960), who was 15 years older than she. She earned 500 dollars per week, and chose to continue using her own name instead of a stage name. This helped secure Lansbury's first film role at the age of 17, and a seven-year contract with the film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He suggested that young Lansbury would be perfect for the role of Nancy Oliver, the film's conniving cockney maid. Through her mother, Lansbury was introduced to screenwriter John Van Druten (1901-1957), who had recently completed his script of "Gaslight" (1944). Her weekly wages were only 28 dollars, but she had a secure income while her mother was unemployed. Lansbury helped financially support her family by working for the Bullocks Wilshire department store in Los Angeles. Their first home there was a bungalow in Laurel Canyon, a neighborhood in the Hollywood Hills. The family moved to Los Angeles, where Moyna was interested in resurrecting her film career. Lansbury returned to New York City in August, 1942, but Moyna Macgill soon moved herself and her family again. Lansbury was 16 years old at the time, but lied about her age and claimed to be 19 in order to be hired. Lansbury secured her first paying job in Montreal, singing at the nightclub Samovar Club for a payment of 60 dollars per week. She soon followed her mother in her theatrical tour of Canada. ![]() In 1942, Lansbury moved with her family to a flat located in Morton Street, Greenwich Village. ![]() She appeared in performances organized by the school. From 1940 to 1942, Lansbury studied acting at the Feagin School of Dramatic Art, located in New York City. Lansbury was interested in continuing her studies, and secured a scholarship from the American Theatre Wing. She and her children (including Angela) moved into Smith's house in Mahopac, New York, a hamlet in Putnam County. Macgill secured financial sponsorship from American businessman Charles T. Isolde was already a married adult, and was left behind in England. Macgill moved to the United States to escape the Blitz, taking her three youngest children with her. When the Blitz started, Moyna Macgill had reasons to fear for the safety of her family and few remaining ties to England. Also in 1940, Lansbury's paternal grandfather, George Lansbury, died from stomach cancer. The play depicted the life of Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587, reigned 1542-1567), and Lansbury played one of the queen's ladies-in-waiting. She made her theatrical debut in the school's production of the play "Mary of Scotland" (1933) by Maxwell Anderson (1888-1959). In 1940, Lansbury started her acting education at the Webber Douglas School of Singing and Dramatic Art, located in Kensington, West London. Angela learned how to play the piano, and received a musical education at the Ritman School of Dancing. She regularly visited the local cinema, and imagined herself in various roles. During these years, she became interested in films. From 1934 to 1939, Angela was a student at South Hampstead High School. The widowed Moyna Macgill soon became engaged to Leckie Forbes, a Scottish colonel. Angela reportedly retreated into "playing characters", as a coping mechanism to deal with the loss. In 1935, Edgar Lansbury died from stomach cancer. They spend their weekends vacationing in a farm located in Berrick Salome, a village in South Oxfordshire. In 1930, they moved to a house located in the Mill Hill neighborhood of north London. During the first five years of Angela's life, the Lansbury family lived in a flat located in Poplar. ![]() Lansbury's mother was Irish film actress Moyna Macgill (1895-1975), originally from Belfast. He was the second Communist mayor in British history, the first being Joe Vaughan (1878-1938). Edgar served as Honorary Treasurer of the East London Federation of Suffragettes (term 1915), and Mayor of Poplar (term 1924-1925). Her father was socialist politician Edgar Isaac Lansbury (1887-1935), a member of both the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and the Labour Party. A prominent family of the upper middle class living in the Regent's Park neighborhood of London. ![]()
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