The late Dame Angela Lansbury worried she didn't have the "chocolate-box looks" wanted of Hollywood starlets, before she went on to enjoy huge success.
The Murder, She Wrote star scooped up numerous awards for her talent throughout her decades-long career and became one of the biggest names in showbusiness.
In her youth, Angela had dreamed of being cast as a romantic leading lady but was instead given roles 20 years older than she was.
At 22 years old, the actress had already played the 35-year-old wife of Walter Pidgeon in If Winter Comes and a snooty 45-year-old publisher in State of the Union.
"I kept wanting to play the Jean Arthur roles, and Mr. [Louis B.] Mayer kept casting me as a series of venal b*****s.
"I played so many hags 20 years older than myself in those early films that now everyone thinks I'm 80 years old!
"I never had those chocolate-box looks they wanted for romantic leads in those days," she said in a 1984 interview with PEOPLE.
Angela didn't seem upset with the roles she was given and recognised the benefits of getting jobs based on her skills rather than her appearance.
She said she enjoyed "a longevity of career that has outlasted many of the leading ladies who relied on their looks."
Angela is best known for her role as amateur detective Jessica Fletcher in the hit-US drama series Murder, She Wrote, which ran for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996.
For her role in the much-loved programme, she was nominated for ten Golden Globes, winning four of them along with nominations for 12 Emmy Awards.
It was in 1991, Angela made her major break onto the big screen when she voiced Mrs. Potts in the musical Beauty and the Beast.
In 2016, she wowed audience members at the film's 25th anniversary celebrations in New York when she sang a rendition of the title’s lead tune. The song, which won numerous awards, went down as one of Disney's most beloved moments.
Angela passed away peacefully at the age of 96 at her Los Angeles home on Tuesday, just days before her 97th birthday, her family confirmed.
"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 a.m. today, Tuesday, October 11, 2022, just five days shy of her 97th birthday," her family said in a statement.
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