Angela Lansbury Dies Age 96

The actor, who is known to different generations and won acclaim for her work on stage and screen, is being remembered as a true talent.

Angela Lansbury at the 25th Anniversary celebration of Disney's 'Beauty and the Beast.'

Angela Lansbury, an award-winning star of stage and screen, and someone whose name is known by different generations, has died. She was 96.

Lansbury, born in London in October 1925, was the daughter of Moyna Macgill, an Irish-born actor who appeared in West End productions and in movies.

A huge fan of the big screen, Lansbury began studying music and acting as a teenager, and following the family’s move to the US during World War II, started studying performance on a scholarship in New York.

She joined her mother during touring appearances in Canada and started work in nightclubs. The family moved once more, to Los Angeles, and Lansbury was discovered by playwright and screenwriter John van Druten.

Right off the bat, Lansbury was acclaimed, earning an Oscar nomination as scheming Cockney maid Nancy in George Cukor’s 1944 thriller ‘Gaslight’.

Another Academy Award nomination followed with her third movie, 1945’s ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’, and her movie career was in full swing.

In her 75-year career, her film credits included a 1948 adaptation of ‘The Three Musketeers’, and titles including ‘The Court Jester’, ‘Blue Hawaii’, ‘The Manchurian Candidate’, ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told’, ‘The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders’, ‘Bedknobs and Broomsticks’, the 1978 version of ‘Death on the Nile’, ‘The Lady Vanishes’, ‘The Company of Wolves’ and Disney’s 1991 animated classic ‘Beauty and the Beast’.

Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Potts in 1991's 'Beauty and the Beast.'

More recently, she has been seen in the likes of ‘Nanny McPhee’, ‘Mr. Popper’s Penguins’ and ‘Mary Poppins Returns’.

Her stage career was almost more successful – bowing on Broadway in 1957’s ‘Hotel Paradiso’, she went on to appear in a variety of plays and musicals, winning seven Tony awards.

Plus, despite a host of guest roles on TV, she’ll likely forever be remembered for her long-running performance in CBS mystery series ‘Murder, She Wrote’, which became a massive hit.

Her role as the sleuthing author Jessica Fletcher started in 1984 and saw her notch up a record 12 Emmy nominations and four Golden Globe award wins. She reprised the role between 1997 and 2003 in four TV movies.

Lansbury’s family released a statement regarding her death.

“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 AM today, Tuesday, October 11, 2022, just five days shy of her 97th birthday,” the statement reads. “In addition to her three children, Anthony, Deirdre and David, she is survived by three grandchildren, Peter, Katherine and Ian, plus five great grandchildren and her brother, producer Edgar Lansbury. She was proceeded in death by her husband of 53 years, Peter Shaw. A private family ceremony will be held at a date to be determined.”