50 free Angela Lansbury trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Angela Lansbury worked for nearly eighty years, from a teenage Oscar nomination for Gaslight to a Broadway comeback in her eighties. These trivia questions about Angela Lansbury cover the MGM years, her Tony-winning run in Mame, Gypsy and Sweeney Todd, twelve seasons as Jessica Fletcher, and the voice of a singing teapot. Every answer is sourced, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which city was Angela Lansbury born in 1925?
London
She insisted she was born in Regent's Park, central London, not Poplar in the East End as often reported.
Q 02Her mother, the actress Moyna Macgill, was born in which city?
Belfast
Macgill appeared regularly in London's West End and in several films before the family moved to America.
Q 03Her 1944 film debut, which earned an Oscar nomination, was which thriller?
Gaslight
She was still a teenager when she was cast in the George Cukor mystery after meeting co-writer John van Druten at a party.
Q 04In her 1944 debut film, who played the tormented heroine Paula Alquist?
Ingrid Bergman
Bergman won the Best Actress Oscar for the role; Lansbury played the insolent maid Nancy.
Q 05Who directed her 1944 debut film?
George Cukor
Cukor was known as a "woman's director" and guided Bergman to an Oscar in the same film.
Q 06Her 1945 film The Picture of Dorian Gray adapted a novel by which author?
Oscar Wilde
The film earned her a Golden Globe and a second Oscar nomination in as many years.
Q 07She lost the 1945 supporting-actress Oscar to Anne Revere, her co-star in which film?
National Velvet
National Velvet also starred a young Elizabeth Taylor; Revere played her mother.
Q 08Which studio held Lansbury under contract until 1952?
MGM
MGM cast her in 11 more films after her two Oscar-nominated debuts, often in roles older than her real age.
Q 09In The Harvey Girls (1946), whose voice dubbed her singing?
Virginia Reese
She played Em, a honky-tonk saloon singer, in the Oscar-winning Western musical opposite Judy Garland.
Q 10In what year did she marry actor and producer Peter Shaw?
1949
The marriage lasted until Shaw's death in 2003, and he later ran her production company with her.
Q 11When they met, Peter Shaw had just left a relationship with which star?
Joan Crawford
Shaw was an aspiring MGM actor when they were introduced at a party in the Ojai Valley in 1946.
Q 12In The Manchurian Candidate (1962) she played which character?
Eleanor Iselin
She was only three years older than Laurence Harvey, who played her son; biographers call it her finest film performance.
Q 13Who directed The Manchurian Candidate?
John Frankenheimer
The film brought her a third Best Supporting Actress nomination; she never won a competitive Oscar.
Q 21Her third Tony came for playing which role in Gypsy?
Rose
She first played Mama Rose in London, then toured the US, winning Chicago's Sarah Siddons Award along the way.
Q 22In the 1979 Sweeney Todd she played Mrs. Lovett opposite which actor in the title role?
Len Cariou
She stayed in the role for 14 months and won her fourth Tony Award for it.
Q 23Who directed the original Broadway production of Sweeney Todd?
Harold Prince
She said she leapt at the role because of Stephen Sondheim's "extraordinary wit and intelligence".
Q 14Her first Tony Award came for the title role in which 1966 musical?
Mame
The role involved more than 20 costume changes and 10 songs, and made her a Broadway superstar at 40.
Q 15Who wrote the score for Mame?
Jerry Herman
Herman later wrote Dear World for her too, earning her a second Tony.
Q 16The novel Auntie Mame, basis of the musical, was written by whom?
Patrick Dennis
Patrick Dennis was a pen name of Edward Everett Tanner III; the 1955 novel was a huge bestseller.
Q 17Who was the director's first choice to play Mame before Lansbury?
Rosalind Russell
Russell had played Mame in the 1958 non-musical film but declined the stage musical.
Q 18Who was cast instead of Lansbury in the film version of Mame?
Lucille Ball
Lansbury had hoped for the part, but the studio wanted an established box-office name.
Q 19Dear World, which won her a second Tony, adapted which Jean Giraudoux play?
The Madwoman of Chaillot
She played Countess Aurelia, a 75-year-old Parisian eccentric, while still in her early forties.
Q 20In which 1971 Disney film did she play the apprentice witch Eglantine Price?
Bedknobs and Broomsticks
It was her first lead in a screen musical, and she promoted it on shows like the David Frost Show.
Q 24Who replaced her as Mrs. Lovett after her 14-month run?
Dorothy Loudon
Loudon was fresh from her Tony-winning turn as Miss Hannigan in Annie.
Q 25Her first stage musical was a short-lived Sondheim show. Which one?
Anyone Can Whistle
Written by Arthur Laurents and Stephen Sondheim, it closed after just nine performances in 1964.
Q 26On Murder, She Wrote she played which amateur sleuth?
Jessica Fletcher
The role ran for twelve seasons and brought her four Golden Globes and 12 Emmy nominations.
Q 27Her Murder, She Wrote character lived in which fictional town?
Cabot Cove
The town is in Maine, though the exteriors were filmed in Mendocino, California.
Q 28Before turning to mystery writing, her Murder, She Wrote character had been a what?
School teacher
The character was described as a retired school teacher from a small Maine town.
Q 29Murder, She Wrote aired on which US network?
CBS
It ran from 1984 to 1996 and was followed by four made-for-television films.
Q 30In what year did the final episode of Murder, She Wrote air?
1996
The finale ended with Lansbury voicing a "Goodbye from Jessica" message to viewers.