Angela Lansbury is finally getting her due. Months after receiving a long-delayed Honorary Oscar for her film work, she was named a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II. She received the honor and met the Queen on Tuesday.
The palace announced back in December that Lansbury, 88, would be receiving the honor. She is among a record 611 women who made it on the Queen’s New Year’s Honors List. Over 1,000 people in total were honored for their contributions to the British commonwealth.
“To meet the Queen under these circumstances is a rare and lovely occasion,” Lansbury said before the meeting at Windsor Castle, notes the BBC. She said that the honor was very different from her 2013 Oscar.
“[The Oscar] is for my work in motion pictures and this is for the overall accomplishments of my life as an actress,” Lansbury said. “It has afforded me the joy of working in America and also in England a great deal.”
Lansbury is currently on the stage in the West End. She was born in the U.K., but moved to the U.S. during World War II. She made her feature film debut in George Cukor's suspense classic Gaslight (1944), which earned her the first of three Oscar nominations. She was also nominated for The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) and The Manchurian Candidate (1965).
To most, though, she is best remembered for her role on TV’s Murder, She Wrote, which ran from 1984 to 1996.
According to The Express, Lansbury can currently be seen on the stage in a revival of Blithe Spirit by Noel Coward.