Lansbury to Receive Booth Lifetime Achievement Award

The New York Times reports that theatre and film legend Angela Lansbury, currently on Broadway in Terrence McNally's Deuce, will be honored with The Players Club's Edwin Booth Lifetime Achievement Award.

Named after the great American classical actor, the award will be presented to Lansbury at The Players Club's Gramercy Park home on June 24th.

Lansbury, recently nominated for her turn in Deuce, garnered Tony Awards for her performances in Sweeney Todd, Mame, Dear World and Gypsy. She has also been seen on Broadway in Sondheim's Anyone Can Whistle, Hotel Paradiso, A Taste of Honey, The King and I, a 1983 revival of Mame, and A Little Family Business. A long-time film star, her screen credits include National Velvet, The Harvey Girls, The Court Jester, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, The World of Henry Orient, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and The Pirates of Penzance; she received Oscar nods for her performances in Gaslight, The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Manchurian Candidate. Lansbury starred in the title role of Jerry Herman's telemusical "Mrs. Santa Claus," but is best known to TV audiences for her role as detective Jessica Fletcher on "Murder, She Wrote." 

"In 1888, Edwin Booth, America's pre-eminent Shakespearean actor, and 15 other incorporators, including Mark Twain and General William Tecumseh Sherman, founded The Players. Modeled after London's famed Garrick Club, The Players was the first American 'gentleman's club' of its kind.  Its purpose: 'The promotion of social intercourse between members of the dramatic profession and the kindred professions of literature, painting, architecture, sculpture and music, law and medicine, and the patrons of the arts...' Today, men and women from a variety of professions in the arts, business, and commerce enjoy The Players' unique spirit of conviviality and tradition that truly makes it 'a certain club,'" according to the organization's website.

Visit www.theplayersnyc.org for more information.

Photo by Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.