Some sad news to report this evening as legendary actress Angela Lansbury has passed away at the age of 96, her family have announced.
“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 11th, 2022, just five days shy of her 97th birthday,” reads the official statement on the actress’ passing.
Born in London in 1925 and moving to the United States during her teenage years to escape the Blitz, Lansbury began her acting career in the 1940s and would enjoy huge success on stage and screen, both big and small, winning multiple Tony and Golden Globe Awards, an Olivier Award, and an Honorary Academy Award, along with a further three Oscar nominations.
In film, her credits included the likes of Gaslight (1944), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Bedknobs and Boomsticks (1971) and the Agatha Christie adaptations Death on the Nile (1978) and The Mirror Crack’d (1980).
The latter saw her portraying Miss Marple, a role Lansbury was contracted to reprise in a further three films, and while these never materialised the actress would go on to gain global recognition as another detective, the mystery writer and amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote. The hit series ran for twelve seasons from 1984 to 1996, with Lansbury returning for four TV movies between 1997 and 2003.
Along with Murder, She Wrote, Lansbury also lent her voice to the character of Mrs. Potts in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, where she also performed the Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy-winning title song. Later film appearances included roles in Nanny McPhee (2005), Mr. Popper’s Penguins (2017), Mary Poppins Returns (2018) and her final screen appearance Buttons (2018).
