Angela Lansbury Receives Her Honorary Oscar

[Lzcutter]

Last night at the Academy's Governor's Ball, Angela Lansbury, Steve Martin, and costume designer Piero Tosi (with an unexpected surprise appearance by Claudia Cardinale) received their special Academy Awards. Angelina Jolie became the youngest recipient of the Jean Hersholt award.

But it was Lansbury, from the sounds of things, that brought the house down. And guess who she asked to present the award to her?

From the Hollywood Reporter:

The beloved 88-year-old three-time Oscar nominee -- for Gaslight, The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Manchurian Candidate, all in the supporting actress category -- whose fans have lobbied the Academy for years to give her an honorary Oscar, at long last got one. (She became the oldest actress to ever receive the prize, surpassing Myrna Loy by three years.)

Emma Thompson, her adoring costar in Nanny McPhee (2005), recalled her being a good sport when she had to have a pie thrown in her face for a scene in that film. Then, a James Earl Jones-narrated video reviewed highlights of her career, including the fact that she started out making $500 a week at MGM; became the youngest two-time acting Oscar nominee in history at age of 20; acted opposite everyone from Katharine Hepburn to Orson Welles to Judy Garland; and decided to leave movies almost entirely after finding herself repeatedly cast as mothers, which resulted in the beginning of a magnificent new career of Broadway and on television in the hit show Murder, She Wrote. Geoffrey Rush, with whom she appeared in a 2009 play on the Great White Way, called her "the living definition of range" and asked rhetorically, "When they talk about the Golden Age of Hollywood, aren't they just talking about you?"

Then emerged Robert Osborne, the film historian and host of the Turner Classic Movies channel, who complimented the Academy's Board of Governors on "one of the best decisions they've ever made" and told Lansbury, "Nobody deserves this golden boy more than you... Ms. Lansbury, here is your Academy Award at last."

Lansbury took the stage to the loudest standing ovation of the night, tearing up before mustering the words, "This is amazing." She said she'd asked Osborne to speak because virtually all of her collaborators have passed away -- "They were long gone, and I was still around" -- and because, she said, she owes a debt to TCM and Osborne "for keeping me alive all these years." She closed, "You can't imagine how happy and proud I feel," but guaranteed that it was much better than how she felt "shivering with hope and then disappointment" all those years ago when she previously thought she might leave an Academy gathering with an Oscar.

For more on the on the evening, go here: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/g ... air-656780

[moira finnie]

Thanks for posting this, Lynn. This is very moving and well-deserved. Here is Robert Osborne at his considerable best honoring his friend:

[youtube][/youtube]

[Western Guy]

You darn near want to stand up and cheer watching this presentation of an overdue and so deserved Honorary Oscar to a fantastic lady and superlative actress.

And who better than Mr. Osborne to present her with the award.

Bravo, is all I can say!

[Vecchiolarry]

Hi,

This is certainly a very well deserved hounour. The only thing that could have made it better is her mother being there too... Moyna MacGill was one of the treasures of my childhood and I wish she could have seen this years ago........

Does this mean that Angela won't be on the Oscars next year? Or do they troop everyone out to be properly seen by billions? I hope so.
Angela was on TCM this morning singing "Would You Like to Spoon with Me" swinging out from the stage over the audience in "Till the Clouds Roll By" about Jerome Kern....

Larry

[Rita Hayworth]

Fantastic and she rightly deserving so - she is one of my favorite actress both films and television and her work as an actress is noteworthy as you can be - I will be watching the Robert Osborne's You Tube later - bookmarked it for a good reason and there is no one is best as Mr. Osborne to give her HONORARY OSCAR and I truly believe that TCM kept her alive all these years and finally she got the recognition that is rightly deserved.


I was thrilled that she got her "Oscar" ...

[Professional Tourist]

Here is Miss Lansbury's acceptance:

[youtube][/youtube]

[Vienna]

Thanks a million for posting the videos of Robert Osborne and Angela Lansbury. Angela deserved her Oscar.

[feaito]

Since I live in Chile, sometimes I'm at a certain loss of what's going on with the Oscars and some other events that take place in the USA, so I was so happy when I knew that Angela Lansbury was honored with this long overdue Oscar. Yesterday I watched on youtube the clips of Robert Osborne's speech on presenting the award to her and I could see the emotion in his face and the tears in his eyes. That's why I admire and like so much Robert Osborne, he LOVES his job and its subject matter. This puts him so above his peers. There couldn't have been a more perfect choice for presenting to her the Award; and Angela Lansbury's accceptance speech, so heartfelt, so moving, such class and honesty. Full of real sentiment. Perfection.

[mongoII]

AT LAST!