British actress Angela Lansbury has died aged 96. That’s what her family thinks British and American let the media know. She was best known for the series Murder, She Wrote. Lansbury has starred in major Hollywood films since 1944 and was seen as one of the last remaining stars of Hollywood’s golden age.
“The children of Dame Angela Lansbury are saddened to announce that their mother passed away peacefully in her sleep today, Tuesday, October 11, 2022, at her home in Los Angeles, just five days before her 97th birthday,” the family said in a statement.
Lansbury played the role of Jessica Fletcher in the worldwide viewed American detective series from 1984 to 1996 Murder, She Wrote and was also known as the voice of the teapot in the Disney movie Beauty and the Beast.
Hollywood and Broadway
But before that, Lansbury, who had emigrated from London to the United States at a young age, had already had a long career as an actress. In 1944 she made her film debut as a cheeky girl in gaslight and was immediately nominated for an Oscar. Later she played in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) with Ingrid Bergman, in Blue Hawaii (1961) as Elvis Presley’s mother, in The Manchurian Candidate (1962) with Frank Sinatra and as Miss Marple in The Mirror Crack’d (1980) based on a book by Agatha Christie.
Yet she never won an Oscar or Emmy despite the total of 21 nominations for both awards. She did receive an oeuvre prize at the Oscars in 2013 and she won six Golden Globes for her many film and television work. Lansbury was also active on Broadway, playing Mrs. Lovett in Stephen Sondheim’s famous musical Sweeney Todd.
The funeral of the deceased actress will take place privately on a date yet to be determined.