Richard Cromwell (actor)

This is a page about the American actor Richard Cromwell. For the British ruler and prominent historical figure of the 17th century of the same name, see Richard Cromwell.

Marriage to Angela Lansbury

Mr. Cromwell was married once, briefly from 1945-1946, to the British-born actress Angela Lansbury, when she was 19 and Cromwell was 35. Cromwell and Lansbury eloped and were married in a small civil ceremony in Independence, California. Ms. Lansbury candidly discusses her first marriage to Cromwell, and its demise due to Cromwell's bisexuality, in her authorized biography, Balancing Act. In the book, Lansbury recounts the couple's friendship with Zachary Scott and his first wife, Elaine. By coincidence, both Lansbury and Cromwell have stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame that are each within walking distance of the other on Vine Street, near the old Huntington Hartford (now "Henry Fonda") Theater.

Related Topics:
Angela Lansbury - Independence, California - Bisexuality - Zachary Scott - Hollywood Walk of Fame - Vine Street

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Cromwell made just one statement to the press regarding his wife of nine months and one of her habits: "All over the house, tea bags. In the middle of the night she'd get up and start drinking tea. It nearly drove me crazy." (Source: Liza Wilson, The American Weekly).

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According to the biography: Angela Lansbury, A Life on Stage and Screen, (by Rob Edelman and Audrey Kupferberg, Birch Lane Press, 1996) Lansbury stated in a 1966 interview that regarding her first marriage, "it was a mistake" and that she learned from it. She stated: "I wouldn't have not done it." Also, "I was too young at nineteen. shouldn't have happened." Lansbury only began to admit publically the real reason of the failure of the marriage when the National Enquirer did a story in the '90s about Lansbury and "the secret of her first husband." Whatever the true circumstances of their union, Cromwell and Lansbury did remain friends until his death at the start of the 1960s.

Related Topics:
1996 - 1966 - National Enquirer

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