Dame Angela Lansbury’s ‘final role is a cameo in the Knives Out sequel’

Dame Angela Lansbury will reportedly grace the screen one last time during a cameo role in the forthcoming film ‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery’.

The Murder, She Wrote actress passed away on October 11 at the age of 96, just five days before her 97th birthday. 

And the late star is said to have filmed a cameo scene for the film prior to her death, with the murder mystery set to premiere in November.

Final scene: Dame Angela Lansbury will reportedly appear on screen for the last time during a cameo in the Knives Out sequel… following her death at age 96 on October 11

According to People, the brief cameo even nods to her Murder, She Wrote heyday – and also features the late Stephen Sondheim.

The duo are on a Zoom call with Daniel Craig’s detective character, Benoit Blanc for the scene, according to the publication.

Knives Out 2 will focus on the mystery of tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton) as he invites his friends for a getaway on his private Greek island. When someone turns up dead, Detective Benoit Blanc (Craig) is put on the case.  

Angela’s three children revealed this week that the Irish-British and American actress passed away peacefully at her home in Los Angeles early on the morning of Tuesday 11 October. 

Appearance: And the late star is said to have filmed a cameo scene for the film prior to her death, featuring a Zoom call with Daniel Craig’s character (Craig pictured in Knives Out)

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) 

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 17, 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. 

Career: Having moved to New York at the tender age of 14 from 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

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‘I was wrapping Christmas gifts in a department store one minute, then playing opposite Ingrid Bergman the next. It was little short of a miracle,’ Lansbury once told the Daily Mail of her swift ascent to stardom.  

The job would ultimately earn her a contract with MGM, as well as 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 it 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.

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.’

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). 

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 

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. 

Personal life: Lansbury was married twice during her life, first to actor Richard Cromwell (seen together), who was 16 years her senior, in 1945, however the union lasted less than one year – although the pair are said to have remained friends until his death in 1960

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Wedding bells: In 1949, Lansbury wed for a second time, tying the knot with actor and producer Peter Shaw in a ceremony at St. Columba’s Church, London (pictured)

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 her 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 the earliest years of her career, Lansbury’s personal life somewhat mirrored the drama of the movies that first catapulted her to the spotlight, with the actress eloping with then-35-year-old actor Richard Cromwell when she was just 19 years old. 

Happy couple: She and Peter (seen together right) were together for more than 50 years until his death in 2003

The 1945 marriage lasted less than a year; Cromwell left Lansbury before their first anniversary, unceremoniously ending their union by leaving a note for the actress to find when she returned home for the day. 

‘Sorry,’ it read. ‘I can’t go on.’ 

Lansbury was left devastated and confused by the sudden breakdown of her marriage – that is until someone at the studio informed her that Cromwell was gay. 

‘So I may have been mature in some ways but I was also a greenhorn, as they say,’ Lansbury recalled to the Daily Mail. 

‘He was such an attractive man, so full of fun. He knew all the old movie stars; he was a great friend of Joan Crawford, for instance.

‘He showed me a world full of colors I’d never seen. So why he wanted to marry me, I’ll never know. My theory is that he fell in love with Sibyl in The Picture Of Dorian Gray. I was absolutely shattered when he left, although we found a way to remain friendly right up until his death from liver cancer in 1960.’ 

The actress went on to wed actor Peter Shaw in 1949, and that marriage would go on to last 53 years, until his death from heart failure in 2003. 

Together, the pair welcomed two children – son Anthony, born in 1952, daughter Deirdre, born in 1953 – and Lansbury also became stepmother to David, Shaw’s son from a previous relationship.

Lansbury once described their relationship as ‘perfect’, and she was left heartbroken by his death, saying at the time: ‘We had the perfect relationship. Not many people can say that. He was everything to me: we were partners at work as well as husband and wife and lovers. I don’t know how we had such a long marriage, but the simple fact was that we were devoted to one another.’

Shaw and Lansbury had two children together – son Anthony (right), born in 1952, daughter Deirdre (left), born in 1953 – and the actress also became stepmother to David, Shaw’s son from a previous relationship