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Iconic actress Dame Angela Lansbury has died at the age of 96, just five days before her 97th birthday.
The Irish-British and American actress, famed for her roles in Murder, She Wrote and Beauty and the Beast passed away peacefully at her home in Los Angeles early on Tuesday morning, her three children revealed.
A statement from her family read: ‘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.’
Lansbury became a legend in Hollywood and on Broadway during a career that spanned an impressive eight decades and saw her taking on roles alongside some of the industry’s best-known stars when she was just a teen – with the actress landing her first major movie job just four years after she fled wartime London at the age of 14.
Having moved to New York with her actress mother after leaving their home in the UK, Lansbury dedicated herself to her love of drama, and she burst onto the film scene in spectacular fashion at the age of 18, when she landed her first role in the 1944 thriller Gaslight, which saw her holding her own on the big screen alongside Hollywood heavyweights like Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer.
The job would ultimately earn her the first of three Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actress – the second of which came one year later for her role in The Portrait of Dorian Gray – and marked the beginning of an illustrious career on the stage and screen, during which she would star alongside a number of industry icons, including Gene Kelly and Katharine Hepburn.
However, to many TV lovers, Lansbury, who is survived by her three children and three grandchildren, was best known for her portrayal of mystery writer and amateur detective, Jessica Fletcher in the hit American crime drama series, Murder She Wrote, which ran for 12 seasons from 1984 until 1996.
Iconic actress Dame Angela Lansbury has died at the age of 96, just five days before her 97th birthday. The star enjoyed incredible success in Hollywood and on Broadway during her eight-decade career, but was perhaps best known to TV lovers for her role as amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher in the CBS series Murder, She Wrote (pictured)
Having moved to New York at the tender age of 14 after fleeing war-torn London, Lansbury threw herself into acting – and quickly began to gain recognition, first for her role in the 1944 thriller Gaslight (left), then for her work in 1945’s The Portrait of Dorian Gray (right), both of which earned her Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actress
The actress (seen in 2018) died peacefully in her sleep at her Los Angeles home on Tuesday morning. She is survived by her three children and three grandchildren
For her role on the program, Lansbury was nominated for ten Golden Globes, winning four, earning her the record for the most Golden Globe nominations and wins for Best Actress in a television drama series.
She was also recognized for her work on the hit show with 12 Emmy Award nominations – once again making history for achieving the most Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, despite never winning the award.
The series itself received three Emmy nominations for Outstanding Drama Series, as well as six Golden Globe nominations in the same category, with two major wins.
In addition to her work on the hit CBS series, Lansbury also earned global fame through a wide variety of other roles on the stage and the screen.
Even Lansbury’s voice earned her recognition the world over, after she lent it to Beauty and the Beast character Mrs. Potts in Disney’s 1991 animated movie Beauty and the Beast
Even her voice earned her recognition the world over, after she lent it to the iconic Beauty and the Beast character Mrs. Potts in Disney’s 1991 animated movie Beauty and the Beast.
In 2013, she received an Honorary Academy Award in recognition of her 80 year acting career, having been nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress on three separate occasions for her roles in Gaslight (1944), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), and The Manchurian Candidate (1962).
Beyond the big and small screens, Lansbury became a legend on the stage, having trod the boards of Broadway in a number of different productions, with her work on the Great White Way earning her five Tony Awards, as well as a lifetime achievement award.
Having earned Oscar nods for two of her first three roles on the big screen, it seemed to many that Lansbury was destined to become one of Hollywood’s greatest leading ladies – however she later revealed that her mature demeanor prompted producers to pigeonhole her as older characters.
In 1948, when she was just 23, her hair was streaked with gray so she could play a fortyish newspaper publisher with a yen for Spencer Tracy in State of the Union.
Speaking to the New York Times in 2009, Lansbury noted that she ‘wasn’t very good at being a starlet’ and ‘wasn’t cut out’ for the bright glare of the spotlight that came with life as one of Hollywood’s glamorous leading ladies.
‘I wasn’t very good at being a starlet,’ she confessed. ‘I didn’t want to pose for cheesecake photos and that kind of thing. It was very difficult. I tried to fit in, but I really wasn’t cut out for it.’
The actress also noted that she wasn’t skilled at playing the industry game, joking at the time that she ‘maybe’ should have ‘slept with’ more people or even ‘played’ MGM producer and co-founder Louis B. Mayer in order to get ahead.
‘I don’t know what I did wrong,’ she continued. ‘Maybe I didn’t sleep with enough people. I think that had something to do with it. I really do. Maybe I didn’t play Louis B. Mayer the way I might have.’
During her 80-year career, Lansbury also bewitched Broadway audiences, winning five Tony Awards, including Best Actress nods for her roles in productions like Sweeney Todd in 1979 (left) and Blithe Spirit in 2009 (right)
Although she never won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, despite being nominated three times, she was awarded an honorary Oscar in 2013 (seen) in recognition of her incredible career
Over the years, Lansbury won a slew of major awards, including multiple Golden Globes (seen left in 1990 after winning the gong for Best Actress in a Television Series Drama) and she also received several lifetime achievement awards, including a Screen Actors Guild award in 1997 (right)
Her stardom came in middle age when she became the hit of the New York theater, winning Tony Awards for Mame (1966), Dear World (1969), Gypsy (1975) and Sweeney Todd (1979).
She was back on Broadway and got another Tony nomination in 2007 in Terrence McNally’s Deuce, playing a scrappy, brash former tennis star, reflecting with another ex-star as she watches a modern-day match from the stands.
In 2009 she collected her fifth Tony, for best featured actress in a revival of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit and in 2015 won an Olivier Award in the role.
But it was arguably her role on Murder, She Wrote – which began in 1984 – that earned her the most fame during her career, although the actress would later reveal that it started out as one of her toughest thanks to a ‘relentless’ filming schedule that saw her working 12 to 15 hours a day.
‘I was shocked when I learned that had to work 12-15 hours a day, relentlessly, day in, day out,’ she recalled. ‘I had to lay down the law at one point and say ‘Look, I can’t do these shows in seven days; it will have to be eight days.'”
CBS and the production company, Universal Studio, agreed, especially since Murder, She Wrote had become a Sunday night hit. Despite the long days – she left her home at Brentwood in West Los Angeles at 6 a.m. and returned after dark – and reams of dialogue to memorize, Lansbury maintained a steady pace. She was pleased that Jessica Fletcher served as an inspiration for older women.
‘Women in motion pictures have always had a difficult time being role models for other women,’ she observed. ‘They’ve always been considered glamorous in their jobs.’
In the series’ first season, Jessica wore clothes that were almost frumpy. Then she acquired smartness, Lansbury reasoning that, as a successful woman, Jessica should dress the part.
Murder, She Wrote stayed high in the ratings through its 11th year. Then CBS, seeking a younger audience for Sunday night, shifted the series to a less favorable midweek slot. Lansbury protested vigorously to no avail.
As expected, the ratings plummeted and the show was canceled. For consolation, CBS contracted for two-hour movies of Murder, She Wrote and other specials starring Lansbury.
Murder, She Wrote and other television work brought her 18 Emmy nominations but she never won one. She holds the record for the most Golden Globe nominations and wins for best actress in a television drama series and the most Emmy nominations for lead actress in a drama series.
In a 2008 Associated Press interview, Lansbury said she still welcomed the right script but did not want to play ‘old, decrepit women’.
‘I want women my age to be represented the way they are, which is vital, productive members of society.’
‘I’m astonished at the amount of stuff I managed to pack into the years that I have been in the business. And I´m still here!’
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