Angela Lansbury, 'Murder, She Wrote' and
'Beauty and the Beast' star,
dies at 96

Lansbury was a versatile actor who wowed generations of fans as a
murderous baker, a singing teapot, a Soviet spy and a small-town sleuth
among a host of memorable roles.





Angela Lansbury, a versatile actor who wowed generations of fans as a murderous baker, a singing teapot,
a Soviet spy and a small-town sleuth among a host of memorable roles, died Tuesday, her family announced.

She was 96.

“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,"
her family said in a statement.

The London-born actor took her life’s final bow as one of the most decorated players in stage history.

Lansbury won five Tony Awards, most recently in 2009 for best featured actress in a play for her work in
Noel Coward’s “Blithe Spirit.”

Her best known work on the Great White Way was probably as ghoulish pie maker Nellie Lovett, in “Sweeney Todd:
The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.” She cooked up a Tony for best musical actress in 1979 for that role.

Her other three Tony wins were for best actress in a musical for “Mame” in 1966, “Dear World” in 1969
and “Gypsy” in 1975.

Audra McDonald and Julie Harris are the only actors to win six Tonys; Harris’ sixth Tony was for lifetime
achievement.

"We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Angela Lansbury," according to statement by Actors' Equity,
the union representing live stage performers.

Lansbury earner her Actors' Equity card in 1957 with her work in  "Hotel Paradiso."

"A star of stage, TV and movies, Lansbury was an Equity member for an astounding 65 years. She leaves
behind a library of work to enjoy for many generations. We send our condolences to her friends and family."

Actor Eric McCormack, best known for his work on the long-running NBC sitcom "Will & Grace," fondly recalled
his time with Lansbury on Gore Vidal's "The Best Man" in 2012.

"So privileged I got to spend time with this incredible woman," he said in statement. "No one like her."







Lansbury took her singing skill from Broadway to the big screen, via an animator’s drawing board in the
1991 musical “Beauty and the Beast.”

She voiced the sentimental Mrs. Pott, which scored as one of the popular movie’s most beloved moments.

She took to the stage at Lincoln Center in New York in 2016 to celebrate the film’s 25th anniversary, and
brought the house down with a rendition of the title’s lead tune.

Referencing the lyrics to the "Beauty and the Beast" theme, NASA paid tribute to Lansbury by posting a photo
of a "cosmic rose."







The actor had already enjoyed a long and successful career when she took on the small-screen role that many
Americans will remember most — as mystery writer and amateur crime fighter Jessica Fletcher on the CBS Sunday
night hit “Murder, She Wrote.”

“Murder” ran for 12 seasons, from 1984 to 1996, with Lansbury playing a widowed mystery writer whose keen
observations always outwitted criminals and even the local police before the real killer would be unmasked
within the hour.




Angela Lansbury stars as mystery writer and crime solver Jessica Fletcher on the
CBS television crime drama series "Murder, She Wrote" in 1990.
CBS via Getty Images



The show was a staple of Sunday night TV at 8 p.m., and was one of CBS’ biggest hits in the 1980s.

It followed “60 Minutes” and, in the fall, the National Football Conference game. Lead CBS play-by-play
man Pat Summerall would famously tell viewers to stay tuned for “Murder ... She Wrote” with a dramatically
elongated pause.

“We found our audience and they were loyal to the end,” Lansbury said in a 1998 interview with the
television academy.

Shows like “Murder, She Wrote” ushered in a new era of television with more female players taking lead
roles on America’s small screen. The TV academy nominated Lansbury for 12 Emmys for “Murder,” although
she never took home the trophy.

Lansbury was inducted into the TV Hall of Fame in 1996.

“‘Murder, She Wrote’ has given me more worldwide attention than any other role I played in the movies or
on the stage,” she said in 2013 while receiving an honorary Academy Award. “It’s a wonderful thing to be
known in Spain, Portugal, in Paris, in France and Germany and everywhere.”

Lansbury became such an important TV figure that some fans might have forgotten what an important movie
career she had in the era of black-and-white film, and the three best supporting actress Oscar nominations
she received for three legendary works.

She played the maid in the 1944 classic “Gaslight,” about a woman, played by star Ingrid Bergman, who was
being manipulated to question objective truth. The term “gas lighting,” meaning to psychologically manipulate
with lies and false narratives, became a popular term in the 21st century American vocabulary, particularly
after Donald Trump was elected president.



Dame Angela Lansbury 1945




Dame Angela Lansbury

R.I.P. ... Thanks for all the entertainment...

You will be greatly missed