Angela Lansbury to Receive 2022 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre | Playbill

Tony Awards Angela Lansbury to Receive 2022 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre

Lansbury also received Tonys for her performances in Mame, Sweeney Todd, Gypsy, Dear World, and Blithe Spirit.

Angela Lansbury in Mame, Blithe Spirit, and Sweeney Todd

Five-time Tony winner Angela Lansbury will receive the 2022 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre at the 75th annual ceremony June 12.

Lansbury previously received Tony Awards for her performances in the title role of Mame (1966 Tony for Best Actress in a Musical), Countess Aurelia in Dear World (1969 Tony for Best Actress in a Musical), Rose in the first Broadway revival of Gypsy (1975 Tony for Best Actress in a Musical), Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd (1979 Tony for Best Actress in a Musical), and Madame Arcati in the most recent Broadway revival of Blithe Spirit (2009 Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Play) as well as nominations for her work in Deuce and the 2009 revival of A Little Night Music.

The stage and screen star held the record as the most Tony-winning actor in history until Audra McDonald won her sixth in 2014 for Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill. Lansbury's Lifetime Achievement Tony brings her total to six, though McDonald will retain her record for the most wins in competitive performance categories. Late director and producer Harold Prince, who directed Lansbury in Sweeney Todd, is still the all-time record holder across multiple categories, with 21 Tonys awarded over his career, including a 2006 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement.

“Angela Lansbury’s contributions to the stage are insurmountable,” said Charlotte St. Martin, president of The Broadway League, and Heather Hitchens, president and CEO of the American Theatre Wing, in a joint statement. “From her groundbreaking role in Mame to her iconic performances in Deuce and Sweeney Todd, and, most recently, in the revival of A Little Night Music, Ms. Lansbury has given us a lifetime of unforgettable performances, and it is a great honor to present her with the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award.”

READ: 2022 Tony Award Nominations: A Strange Loop, MJ, Paradise Square Lead the Pack

Lansbury's other Broadway credits include Gore Vidal's The Best Man, Hotel Paradiso, A Taste of Honey, Anyone Can Whistle, The King and I, and A Little Family Business.

The beloved stage and screen star may, however, be best known for her work as TV sleuth Jessica Fletcher on the long-running Murder, She Wrote, garnering 12 Emmy Award nominations. Her numerous film credits include Gaslight, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and The Manchurian Candidate, all of which brought the Kennedy Center Honoree Academy Award nominations.

Lansbury also provided the voice for Mrs. Potts in the 1991 blockbuster Disney film Beauty and the Beast and played Miss Price in another Disney favorite, 1971's Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

Lansbury is the recipient of the National Medal of Arts, the Kennedy Center Honors, the Silver Mask for Lifetime Achievement from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, as well as a BAFTA/LA Britannia Award for Lifetime Achievement in Television and Film. A recipient of an Honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement in Motion Pictures, she is a member of the Theatre and Television Halls of Fame, and in 2014 Queen Elizabeth II named her a Dame Commander of the British Empire.

WATCH: 11 Angela Lansbury Videos Getting Us Through

Tony-nominated director and choreographer Graciela Daniele received the Lifetime Achievement Tony at the 74th annual ceremony.

Lansbury joins previously announced 2022 Tony honorees Robert E. Wankel, receiving the Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award; James C. Nicola, receiving a Special Tony Award; Chicago's Court Theatre, receiving the Regional Theatre Tony Award; and Asian American Performers Action Coalition, Broadway For All, Emily Grishman, Feinstein's/54 Below, and United Scenic Artists Local 829, each receiving a Tony Honor. See the full list of this year's Tony Award nominees here.

Following last year's two-part broadcast shared by CBS and Paramount+, the 2022 Tony Awards will include an hour of exclusive programming streaming on Paramount+ June 12 from 7 PM ET, followed by the three-hour awards ceremony airing live on CBS and streaming simultaneously on Paramount+ (for premium-level subscribers only) from 8 PM ET, making this year's ceremony the first in Tony Awards history to be available live nationwide. The broadcast will also be available to stream on demand on Paramount+ for all membership tiers following the live stream. Oscar winner Ariana DeBose will host the awards ceremony, with the initial hour set to be hosted by POTUS' Julianne Hough and American Buffalo's Darren Criss.

Celebrating More Than 60 Years of Angela Lansbury on the Stage

 
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