Angela Lansbury, a titan of both the stage and cinema, has died aged 96. According to a statement put out by her family, she died in her sleep at her home in Los Angeles.
Lansbury was one of the few remaining actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood - she acted in films alongside Judy Garland (in 1946’s The Harvey Girls) and Ingrid Bergman (in 1944’s Gaslight, her first film role).
Over her eight-decade career, Lansbury earned six Golden Globes, five Tony Awards, an Olivier Award and was made a Dame. Readers of a certain age may remember her iconic role as Miss Eglantine Price in 1971’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks, or recognise her voice in 1991’s Disney film Beauty and the Beast (she played the endearing teapot, Mrs Potts).
But despite a glittering career on both the screen and on the stage, Lansbury became best known for playing the novelist-detective Jessica Fletcher in the TV show Murder, She Wrote, which ran for an astonishing 12 years from 1984 and 1996. Her final film role was in this year’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, where she played herself.
The actor was married twice, first to actor Richard Cromwell in 1945, when she was just 19 years old (and he was 35). They divorced just one year later but reportedly remained good friends. Her second husband was the producer Peter Shaw, who she married in 1949. They stayed together until he died in 2003 and had two children together.
Famously, the actor said that she moved her family to Ireland from the US in the Sixties, after her daughter Deirdre fell in with a crowd that was being led by Charles Manson.
Here are five more facts to know about the legendary actor.
1. Although she lived in America for most of her life, Lansbury was born in London
She was born into an upper-middle-class British and Irish family that was involved in politics. Her father was a socialist politician while her paternal grandfather was the leader of the Labour party from 1932 to 1935. Her father died when she was nine years old and her mother took her to Canada when the Blitz began in 1940.
Apparently, Lansbury bagged her first performing job when she was just 16 years old. She had pretended she was three years older and she was hired by a Montreal nightclub to sing Noël Coward songs.
2. She was destined for greatness
Nothing says ‘talent’ like earning an Oscar nomination for your first-ever film role, and that is exactly what happened to Lansbury. The actor’s first role on the silver screen was in the George Cukor-directed Gaslight. She was nominated for an Academy Award two more times - once for her role in 1945’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and for her role in 1962’s The Manchurian Candidate.
In 2013 she was awarded an Academy Honorary Award for her long career in cinema.
3. Despite the accolades, it took several decades before Lansbury became truly famous
Although the actor had already starred in 30 films, in over 15 TV shows, had been nominated for Oscars and had acted on the stage twice (both times on Broadway) at this point, Lansbury apparently only found international recognition after her role in The Manchurian Candidate in 1962. Her fame was bolstered again in 1966 when she played eccentric aunt Mame Dennis in the musical Mame at the Winter Garden Theatre, Broadway (which was an adaption of Patrick Dennis‘s 1955 novel).
Subsequently, she also starred in Stephen Sondheim’s Gypsy: A Musical Fable in 1973 in both London and on Broadway, in Hamlet at the National Theatre in London in 1975 and in Sondheim’s 1979’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
4. She’s still best known for playing Jessica Fletcher
Lansbury is still best known for playing author-turned-detective Jessica Fletcher in the American TV series Murder, She Wrote. The show ran from 1984 and 1996 on CBS and told the story of a writer who ends up trying to solve a series of murders. According to USA Today Weekly, a whopping 30 million people tuned in to watch the show every week at its peak. She was nominated for ten Golden Globe Awards for the role (and won four).
5. She loved to work
Even when Lansbury passed the 90-year-mark, she showed no signs of slowing down, and perhaps that was the secret to her long life. The actress had been a chain smoker when she was young and suffered from arthritis as she grew older.
Her last acting role on stage was in 2019’s The Importance of Being Earnest - a stage reading at the American Airlines Theatre on Broadway. She also had roles in 2018’s Mary Poppins Returns, in 2018’s Buttons: A Christmas Tale and in the upcoming whodunnit sequel Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.
In an interview with Parade magazine in 2019, she spoke about retiring, saying: “Yes, I do [think about it] on some days. There’s going to come a point, where I’ll think, I’m folding up now. I’m putting that person away in the closet and I’m going to just live out my remaining years with the family”.
