From MAME to BLITHE SPIRIT- Revisit Angela Lansbury's Tony Award-Winning Roles!

In last week's Olivier Awards- translation, the British version of the Tony Awards, or for film fans, it's the British stage version of the Oscars- an acting legend won the first Olivier of her career, but she's certainly no awards novice. With five Tony Awards under her belt, Angela Lansbury shared the record for the performer with the most Tonys until just two years ago. While most Americans know her as the lovable sleuth, Jessica Fletcher, in the hit television series, MURDER, SHE WROTE, Broadway fans remember her from MAME, SWEENEY TODD, and GYPSY, to name just a few. So in celebration of her newest award, take a look back at this acting legend's Tony Award-winning roles!

In 1966, Lansbury had her first major stage role as Mame Dennis in Jerry Herman's musical, MAME. She received much critical acclaim for the role, and Stanley Kauffmann of the New York Times wrote, "Miss Lansbury is a singing-dancing actress, not a singer or dancer who also acts... In this marathon role she has wit, poise, warmth and a very taking coolth." For that, she received her first Tony Award, for Best Lead Actress in a Musical. Watch her perform "Open a New Window" at the 1971 Tony Awards!

Just three years later, she won Best Actress in a Musical again, for her portrayal of Countess Aurelia in DEAR WORLD. In the video, watch her Tony Award acceptance speeches from '69, '74, '79, and '09. How many of the Tony presenters can you name?

She won her next Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical... again (because that was the official Angela Lansbury award at that point) for her portrayal of Rose in the 1974 revival of GYPSY. She actually beat out both Bernadette Peters and Ann Reinking for the Tony. Watch her perform "Everything's Comin' Up Roses" to open the 1989 Tony Awards!

Richard Eder of the New York Times called her next Tony Award-winning performance a "triumph" as she originated the role of Mrs. Lovett in Sondheim's SWEENEY TODD in 1979. And yet again, the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical went to Ms. Lansbury. So during the '70s, I'm betting anyone who saw Lansbury's name listed in competition for a Tony Award just threw her hands in the air and gave up, as I'm sure they do now with Audra McDonald. Watch this original Broadway cast performance of "Worst Pies in London"!

Besides appearing in the short-lived play A LITTLE FAMILY BUSINESS and a MAME revival, she took a break from Broadway for over 20 years, though who knows why. I think it had something to do with a random TV show about murder and writing... Heard of it? Anyway, she sailed back on to the Broadway stage and earned her first Best Actress in a Play Tony nomination for DEUCE. Both she and Vanessa Redgrave were nominated against each other, but in an anti-climactic end to this stage legend face-off, Julia White took home the award.

In 2009, she won Tony Award number five. And by the numbers, that's exactly 30 years since her last Tony win, for those of you playing along at home. This time it was Best Featured Actress in a Play for BLITHE SPIRIT for which, (spoiler alert) she just won the Olivier Award at the age of 89. So not only is she one of the performers with the most Tony Awards to her name, she is also one of the few actors to win a Tony and an Olivier for the same role (she joins people like Lea Salonga, Jonathan Pryce). Watch her discuss her love for the role of Madame Arcati!

Fun Fact: Lansbury has won multiple Lifetime Achievement Awards, not surprisingly, but what is surprising is that her first one came in 1988 at age 63. It was the George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement at UCLA Spring Sing. Just to put that in perspective, this was before she'd won her 5th Tony Award, voiced Mrs. Potts in BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, or won her Olivier Award.

BONUS: She sang the Oscar-nominated title song from the Julie Andrews film, THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE, upon which the 2002 Broadway show was based, at the 1968 ceremony. Check out her performance below!

Bottom line, Angela Lansbury is brilliant and needs to be crowned queen of the stage. Basically.

Follow Sally Henry on Twitter: @BwayGinger