How many people do you know who are still working as they turn 95?

The fabulous Angela Lansbury, born in England on October 16, 1925, turns 95 tomorrow. Happy Birthday, Angela!

The beloved star is best known for her portrayal of a mystery writer on the television program MURDER, SHE WROTE, but her official career actually began in 1944, when she was just seventeen years old, at the legendary Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in California.

But incredibly, that’s getting ahead of the story.

Angela has been my favorite actress since I was a child, but what intrigues me about her – even more than her fantastic career – is that Angela had an in-person front-row seat to more 20th Century history than just about anyone I’ve ever heard of. She was the granddaughter of George Lansbury, Member of Parliament and Leader of the Labour Party in the UK. Among many other accomplishments, George Lansbury made quite a few efforts to prevent World War II, which is really saying something. Angela’s father Edgar Lansbury was also a politician, and her mother was the actress Moyna MacGill. Imagine being able to grow up in London and have access to both the leaders of government and the West End theatrical community. The collection of people the child was able to meet could only have been incredible.

Hitler proved to be unstoppable, of course, and the chaos of war came to Europe in September of 1939. Angela was in London at the beginning of the Blitz. The young girl was a witness to the bombing. Her widowed mother signed up to escort evacuated children, including Angela and her brothers, across the Atlantic Ocean on a ship that had no choice but to sail through treacherous waters patrolled by Nazi submarines. It’s terrifying to think how dangerous that voyage was. The SS Duchess of Atholl, the very ship the Lansbury family sailed on, was torpedoed on its journey back to the United Kingdom.

Not long after reaching North America, Angela first attended The Feagin School of Drama in New York City before joining her mother and brothers in the Los Angeles area. Word got out that MGM was looking for a British actress for the movie GASLIGHT. Teenage Angela had been working in a department store with her mom. She was sent to MGM for a screen test.

Well, the rest is history. She won the part, got a contract, and even was nominated for an Academy Award.

Angela turned 18 on the set of her first movie. Her childhood had managed to encompass peacetime England, wartime England, the London Blitz, what could only have been a terrifying crossing of the Atlantic, the American home front in New York City, and then, the magic of Hollywood and MGM Studios while it was still in its golden era. The biggest stars of the decade were there at the same time; Angela worked with Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman in GASLIGHT and was even cast in NATIONAL VELVET as Elizabeth Taylor’s sister.

I don’t mean to sugar-coat these events. War is dangerous. Hollywood wasn’t all glamour and fun. It still isn’t. Yet it’s always intrigued me that Angela Lansbury grew up in the places she did, meeting the people that she met, at such an extraordinary moment in time. Who else knew members of British Parliament and Louis B. Mayer, and all before the age of eighteen?

It’s a cause for celebration that Angela Lansbury, now a Dame of the British Empire and also a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors, top honors in both of the countries where she’s made her mark, is still working, involved in a new project, and continues to be entertaining us, even yet, as she turns 95. Happy Birthday, Miss Lansbury! And a big BRAVA for all you do!