Dame Angela Lansbury smiled for the camera and posed with fellow veteran actors at a red carpet event, in the last public pictures taken of the actress before her death.
The screen legend's children announced she had died peacefully at her LA home this afternoon, aged 96, after a glittering career on stage and screen.
Dame Angela was known for playing crime novelist Jessica Fletcher in the long running TV series Murder, She Wrote, Broadway musicals Mame and Gypsy, and for voicing Mrs Potts in the Disney animation Beauty and the Beast.
The screen legend also starred in Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and Sweeney Todd.
The last public pictures of Dame Angela were taken in October 2019, at film do in LA.
Aged 93, and wearing a long red cardigan and cream trousers, the Broadway star attended the Robert Osborne Celebration of Classic Film event at The Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills.
Dame Angela smiled in solo shots, but was also pictured linking arms with actress Eva Marie Saint, and next to Carole Cook, Diane Baker and Robert J. Wagner, on the red carpet.
The actress continued appearing on screen well into her eighties and nineties.
In 2014 she returned to a London stage for the first time in almost 40 years to star in a West End production of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit.
She played the role of Aunt March in the 2017 BBC adaptation of Little Women, based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott.
She also had a cameo part in the 2018 Mary Poppins sequel Mary Poppins Returns, in which she featured as an elderly colourfully-dressed balloon seller.
In 2013, Dame Angela was given an honorary Academy Award for her lifetime achievements in the film industry and was also awarded a lifetime achievement award by Bafta in 2002.
Tributes from across the world of entertainment have been paid to Dame Angela.
Star Trek actor George Takei penned a heartfelt tribute, writing on Twitter : "Angela Lansbury, who graced the stage for decades winning five Tony awards and brought the sleuthing Jessica Fletcher into our living rooms for a dozen years, has passed.
"A tale old as time, our beloved Mrs. Potts will sing lullabies to us now from the stars. Rest, great soul.”
Will and Grace actor Eric McCormack, who starred with Dame Angela in a play, and described her as an "incredible woman", adding there was "no one like her," on Twitter.
West End star Elaine Paige said Dame Angela was “always so kind and generous” when the pair had met, describing her as “one of the last Golden Age of Hollywood stars”.
“So upset to hear the news that the legendary Dame Angela Lansbury has died,” Paige tweeted, sharing a picture of the pair together.
“One of the last Golden Age of Hollywood stars & a Broadway & West End icon.
“Always so kind & generous when I met her. She will will be sadly missed. RIP dearest Angela.”
