Co-starring Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman — who won best actress at the 1945 Oscar awards – “Gaslight” featured the 17-year-old Lansbury as the cockney maid Nancy Oliver, who was manipulated by Boyer’s murderous Gregory Anton (via Filmsite). Holding her own across from these legendary performers, Lansbury won acclaim and an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress in her film debut but lost out to Ethel Barrymore in “None But the Lonely Heart”.
Lansbury was so young while filming “Gaslight,” that scenes featuring her smoking were saved for the end of filming, when she had turned 18, according to PBS. The crew wasn’t even allowed to swear in front of her. “Of course the director was the great George Cukor and his language was really ripe and rare and marvelous,” she recounted to David Letterman (via Parade). “They literally covered my ears.” Perhaps because of Lansbury’s age, her role is also less vulgar than it was in the original 1940 British movie of the same name, in which the maid openly has an affair with Anton (per New York Times).
