Dame Angela Lansbury whose career spanned eight decades and portrayed a range of characters from villainesses to sleuths to light comic roles in movies, on stage and on television, died at 96 years on Tuesday. Well-known for playing the crime-solving mystery writer in the long-running US television show Murder, She Wrote, Angela “died peacefully in her sleep” at home in Los Angeles. The news of her death was shared by her children in a statement. She was just five days shy of her 97th birthday, the statement also said.
The British actor kicked up her heels in the Broadway musicals Mame and Gypsy and solved puzzling murders as crime novelist Jessica Fletcher in the TV series Murder, She Wrote that was loosely based on author Agatha Christie. Her 75-year career included beloved musicals on stage, iron-fisted matriarchs on films and is also credited to have sung the theme song for the animated film Beauty and the Beast. She was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II for her contribution to the performing arts.
RIP Angela Lansbury. This is what stardom means, especially in the theater: she provided the most fabulous, irreplaceable joy. She was beloved as a person and an actress, and managed to be approachable, glamorous and heartbreaking. She'll be missed, celebrated and adored pic.twitter.com/8HVhQRFv4C
— Paul Rudnick (@PaulRudnickNY) October 11, 2022
Angela won five Tony Awards for her Broadway performances and a lifetime achievement award. She earned Academy Award nominations as supporting actress for two of her first three films, Gaslight (1945) and The Picture of Dorian Gray (1946), and was nominated again in 1962 for The Manchurian Candidate and her deadly portrayal of a Communist agent and the title character played by Laurence Harvey’s mother.
After almost seven decades after her first film, she was awarded an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement at the age of 88 in November 2013. Her other notable works include National Velvet (1944), The Dark At the Top of the Stairs (1960), Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) and The Mirror Crack'd (1980). She was also honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the BAFTA, a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award and five additional Tony Awards, six Golden Globes, and an Olivier Award. She was nominated for various Primetime Emmy Awards on 18 occasions, and a Grammy Award and was the subject of three biographies.
(Source: AFP)
