Angela Lansbury, best known for her role as Jessica Fletcher in the TV series Murder, She Wrote, as well as numerous film and theatre roles, has died at the age of 96. Her family said she died in her sleep on Tuesday, just five days before her 97th birthday.
Lansbury was born in London in 1925 to Irish actress Moyna Macgill and politician and timber merchant Edgar Lansbury, who died when she was nine years old. Following the Blitz, Lansbury, two of her siblings, and her mother relocated to the United States, where she studied at the Feagin School of Drama and Radio in New York. She went on to receive an Oscar nomination for her first film role, in the 1944 film Gaslight, when she was 19 years old, and starred in the hit film National Velvet, as well as a steady stream of other MGM productions during the 1940s.
Lansbury rose to prominence again in the 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate, but it wasn’t until 1966, when she took the lead role in the musical Mame, that she achieved widespread acclaim. A lead role as Rose in Stephen Sondheim’s Gypsy West End transfer followed, as did roles in hit films and additional musical theatre productions, including Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd.
Many will remember her best for her role as Jessica Fletcher in the US crime drama Murder, She Wrote. The whodunit drama ran from 1984 to 1996 and made a global star of the actor who played its lead, a crime writer and want tobe detective. She also executive produced the show through Corymore Productions, a company she founded with her late husband Peter Shaw, who died in 2003. Lansbury was also known for her role as Mrs Potts in the 1991 Disney film Beauty and the Beast.
Lansbury won five Tony Awards, six Golden Globes, an Olivier Award, an Honorary Oscar, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from BAFTA during her career. Queen Elizabeth II made her a dame in 2014.
In an interview with the US magazine Parade in 2019, she stated that she was not yet ready to retire: “Yes, I do [think about it] on some days.” Oh, no, goodness gracious, I think. I can’t bring myself to do this today. But I continue to do it. I’ll reach a point where I’ll say, “I’m giving up now.” I’m putting that person in the closet, and I’m going to spend the rest of my life with my family.”
She is survived by children Anthony and Deidre and stepson David, plus three grandchildren, five great-grandchildren and her brother, Edgar.
May she rest in peace.
