She was best known for her role as Jessica Fletcher in “Murder, She Wrote.” She earned 11 Emmy nominations for the role but never won.
TV and Broadway icon Angela Lansbury has passed away at the age of 96. Lansbury had an illustrious movie and TV career and she was most known for her role as America’s favorite TV sleuth in “Murder, She Wrote.” The actor's family provided a statement confirming Lansbury's passing. “The children of Dame Angela Lansbury are sad to announce that their mother died peacefully in her sleep at home in Los Angeles at 1:30 AM today, Tuesday, October 11, 2022, just five days shy of her 97th birthday,” her family said in a statement, reported CNN.
"In addition to her three children, Anthony, Deirdre, and David, she is survived by three grandchildren, Peter, Katherine, and Ian, plus five great-grandchildren and her brother, producer Edgar Lansbury," the statement adds. "She was proceeded in death by her husband of 53 years, Peter Shaw. A private family ceremony will be held at a date to be determined," continued the statement.
She was born in London but after he father died and World War II was underway, the family moved and settled in the US, in 1940. Lansbury took to acting very early in life. Lansbury studied drama before moving to Los Angeles. She won a role as a cockney maid in Ingrid Bergman-Charles Boyer classic "Gaslight." She landed an Oscar nomination for her performance in her debut movie. She was just 17 years old at the time. She credited her mother for recognizing her talent. "It was thanks to my mother who recognized in me an ability to cut up, to make believe, to run around being somebody other than the little girl that I was," Lansbury told Masterpiece Studio podcast in 2018. "It made her realize that I was a natural, and she, bless her heart, made the decisions for me very, very, very young." She landed another nomination the following year, playing the role of singer Sibyl Vane in MGM's "The Portrait of Dorian Gray."
She was best known for her role as Jessica Fletcher in “Murder, She Wrote.” She earned 11 Emmy nominations for the role but never won. It was the role dearest to her. ”I had a lot of say in it, and I didn’t want the character to be quirky,” she told The New York Times in 2009. ”I wanted her to be real. I didn’t want to have to put on any kind of veneer for 24 hours a day, which is what a television schedule sometimes feels like.”
Sad news. Actress Angela Lansbury has died, according to a family statement. She was 96 years old, just five days shy of her 97th birthday. pic.twitter.com/apRsDzEaNP
— Jesse Rodriguez (@JesseRodriguez) October 11, 2022
She accepted an honorary Oscar in 2013 and also won five Tony Awards. She was also prolific on Broadway, making her debut in 1957. She played the voice of Mrs. Potts in the 1991 Oscar-nominated animated film “Beauty and the Beast” and also had a small role in the 2018 sequel “Mary Poppins Returns.” She first married actor Richard Cromwell but the wedding was short-lived. She then wed British actor Peter Shaw in 1949 and they were together until his death in 2003. They had two children.
References:
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/10/11/entertainment/angela-lansbury-dead/index.html
http://www.pbs.org/masterpiecepodcast
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/theater/theaterspecial/17mcgr.html
Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Frederick M. Brown
