Angela Lansbury, who played famous roles in cinema, television, and the stage throughout the course of her long career, has passed away at the age of 96. She had a very varied career in the industry, becoming one of the most famous faces by playing everything from a soviet spy to an amateur writer/detective to a singing teapot. Ali Velshi wrote on Twitter that she had passed away. She was about to be 97 in just a few days.
It is with great sadness that the children of Dame Angela Lansbury share the news that their mother passed away at 1:30 AM PST on Tuesday, October 11, 2022, at her home in Los Angeles, California, only five days before her 97th birthday. Lansbury’s mother was a mainstay on the West End stage, and this exposed her to the performing arts at a young age. She’d go on to win five Tonys herself, just like her famous mom did before her, and become an equally respected figure in the theatre world.
Beginning in 1957 with Hotel Paradiso, she went on to star in other critically acclaimed shows such as Gypsy, Dear World, and Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. She continued her stage career for many years despite her growing fame on TV, most recently winning a Tony for her performance in Blithe Spirit in 2009. This year, at the 75th Annual Tony Awards, she was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her remarkable theatrical career. At the tender age of seventeen, she was cast in her debut picture, 1944’s Gaslight, where she made an immediate impact.
In the years after her debut, she would go on to get three Oscar nominations for her work in films including The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945). Audiences were introduced to the actress’s remarkable vocal range in 1991, thanks to the Disney animated classic Beauty and the Beast, in which she voiced the role of Mrs Potts. She had a lengthy career on the big screen, and she was recognised with a special Oscar.
Lansbury has received acclaim for her performances on both the big and small screens, but she may be most remembered for her role as an amateur detective on the television series Murder, She Wrote.
She wowed viewers for 264 episodes as mystery writer Jessica Fletcher. Although the show was created with Jean Stapleton in mind, Angela Lansbury ended up becoming a household celebrity and Emmy award nominee thanks to her performance as a murder victim in the episode. Whether she was known as a legendary theatrical giant or a ground-breaking super detective, Lansbury left an indelible mark on the business.