After the news broke of Angela Lansbury’s death aged 96 on Tuesday (11 October), tributes from fellow celebrities poured in.
The Murder, She Wrote and Beauty and the Beast star died “peacefully in her sleep”, just five days shy of her birthday, her family have announced.
Seinfeld actor Jason Alexander led the tributes on Twitter, remembering her as “one of the most versatile, talented, graceful, kind, witty, wise, classy ladies I’ve ever met”.
“Her huge contribution to the arts and the world remains always,” he added.
“Rest in peace, Angela Lansbury,” former professional American basketball player Rex Chapman wrote alongside a video of the actor singing Beauty and the Beast’s “Tale as Old as Time”.
Star Wars actor George Takei wrote that Lansbury “graced the stage for decades, winning five Tony Awards and brought the sleuthing Jessica Fletcher into our living rooms for a dozen years”.
“A tale old as time, our beloved Mrs Potts will sing lullabies to us now from the stars. Rest, great soul,” he honoured.
“She, my darlings, was EVERYTHING!” tweeted Mrs Doubtfire actor Harvey Fierstein.
Across her decades-long career, the London-born actor won five Tony Awards. Most recently, she was honoured with the prize in 2009 for her performance in Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit.
She previously won a Tony for best musical actress in 1979 for her roles as Nellie Lovett in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and for Mame (1966), Dear World (1969), and Gypsy (1975).
On-screen, Lansbury famously lent her voice to the heartwarming character of Mrs Pott in the 1991 musical Beauty and the Beast.
