Oct. 11 (UPI) — British TV, film and stage legend Angela Lansbury, whose career spanned nearly 80 years, died Tuesday. 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 to NBC News and People.
“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,” the statement continued. “She was proceeded in death by her husband of 53 years, Peter Shaw.”
Best known for playing crime-solving, mystery writer Jessica Fletcher in the TV drama, Murder, She Wrote, from 1984-1996, Lansbury was one of the last stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age — a BAFTA and Golden Globe winner, who also received the honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement in Motion Pictures.
Lansbury appeared in more than 70 movies, including the classics Gaslight (1944), National Velvet (1944), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), Samson and Delilah (1949), The Court Jester, (1955), The Long, Hot Summer (1958), The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Mame (1966), Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), Death on The Nile (1978), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Anastasia (1997), Nanny McPhee (2005) and Mary Poppins Returns (2018).
The actress made her stage Broadway debut in 1957 in Hotel Paradiso, followed by A Taste of Honey (1960) and Anyone Can Whistle (1964). She won her first of five competitive Tony Awards for Mame in 1966. The subsequent wins were for Dear World (1969), Gypsy (1974), Sweeney Todd (1979) and Blithe Spirit (2009). Her other Broadway credits include Deuce (2007), A Little Night Music (2009) and Gore Vidal’s The Best Man (2012).
She was honored with the 2022 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2022, although she was not present to accept it as the coronavirus was still tearing through the New York theater community.
“Angela Lansbury’s contributions to the stage are insurmountable,” Charlotte St. Martin, president of The Broadway League, and Heather Hitchens, president and CEO of the American Theatre Wing, said in a joint statement about why she was chosen for the distinction.
“From her groundbreaking role in Mame to her iconic performances in Deuce and Sweeney Todd, and most recently, in the revival of A Little Night Music, Ms. Lansbury has given us a lifetime of unforgettable performances, and it is a great honor to present her with the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award.”
Lansbury also was a recipient of the National Medal of Arts and the Kennedy Center Honors, and Queen Elizabeth II named her a Dame Commander of the British Empire.