Angela Lansbury

Angela Lansbury, who enjoyed an eclectic, award-winning movie and stage career in addition to becoming America's favorite TV sleuth in "Murder, She Wrote," ...

Generations of children revered Lansbury for her Disney roles, first in the 1971 movie musical “Bedknobs and Broomsticks,” and later as the voice of Mrs. After the series ended, Lansbury starred in several “Murder, She Wrote” TV movies. They stayed together until his death in 2003 and had two children, Anthony – who directed many episodes of “Murder, She Wrote” – and Deirdre. Lansbury also amassed 11 Emmy nominations for her role as Jessica Fletcher in “Murder, She Wrote,” but never won. Born in London, her mother, Moyna MacGill, was an actress, and father Edward Lansbury a politician. Not yet 20 years old, Lansbury garnered her first Oscar nomination for her movie debut, “Gaslight,” in 1944.

She was a Hollywood and Broadway sensation, but she captured the biggest audience of her career as the TV sleuth Jessica Fletcher.

Ms. But Ms. Though she never won an Oscar or an Emmy, Ms. Lansbury remained active on television (she returned to her signature role in four made-for-television “Murder, She Wrote” films) and in movies, notably the Disney animated hit “Beauty and the Beast” (1991), in which she was the voice of the talking teapot Mrs. For all her stage success, Ms. “We left everything behind,” Ms. She returned to Broadway in 1960 as the alcoholic single mother of a pregnant teenager in “A Taste of Honey.” With the expiration of her MGM contract in 1951, Ms. She was Laurence Harvey’s sinister mother in “The Manchurian Candidate” (1962), a role that won her a third supporting actress Oscar nomination. Of the 11 movies she made after “Dorian Gray,” perhaps her most notable role was in “State of the Union” (1948), with Ms. She received a second Oscar nomination in 1946, for her supporting performance as a dance-hall girl in “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” Lansbury was the winner of five Tony Awards for her starring performances on the New York stage, from “Mame” in 1966 to “Blithe Spirit” in 2009, when she was 83, a testament to her extraordinary stamina.

Lansbury's acting career extended over an extraordinary seven decades. She says she knew early on that she'd never be "groomed to be a glamorous movie star" ...

"Being Jessica was second nature to me because she embodied all of the qualities that I like about women," Lansbury said. She told Fresh Air's Terry Gross that she was "happily trapped" in the role of Jessica Fletcher, the mystery novelist who solved a murder every week. That way of acting a song served Lansbury very well when she starred as Mama Rose in the 1974 revival of Gypsy, and as the cold-blooded Mrs. "And, lo and behold, when she walked down that staircase in gold-lamé pajamas, in 1966, she was 40 years old and Broadway embraced her in a way that it has embraced few actresses in its storied history." Lansbury got the acting bug as a teenager, playing Audrey in a student production of As You Like It. Angela Lansbury was destined to become an actress; born in London, England in 1925, her mother was a leading lady of the British stage.

Angela Lansbury, who starred on stage and screen in projects as varied as "Murder, She Wrote" and "Beauty and the Beast," has died at 96.

It’s a shame that, when she was at the height of her popularity, CBS did not let her re-create any of her great Broadway triumphs in a TV movie – but she did, at least, get to shine in such TV work as "The Blackwater Lightship," "Little Gloria," "Happy at Last," and "Mrs. Potts in the 1991 animated "Beauty and the Beast." The happily murderous piemaker in "Sweeney"? If that was her peak, we can be thankful, because it’s the only one of her stage performances that was preserved on film, as a TV special. The sweet but unrelenting crime-solver in "Murder"? The bon vivant bohemian in "Mame"? "I remember the first day I arrived there … The manipulative, power-mad mother in "Manchurian"? The snooty, dismissive maid in "Gaslight?" In the ‘60s, when her film work became less satisfying, she reinvented herself as a Broadway musical star – moving from well-respected film actor to extravagantly praised stage icon in almost an instant. “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 a.m. I became 18 on the set, and everybody gave me a cigarette.

Actress Angela Lansbury, whose 75-year career encompassed triumphs on the big screen, in musical theater and on television, died on Tuesday. She was 96.

She reprised the role in a direct-to-video “Beauty” sequel and a video game. Lansbury’s indelible work in “The Manchurian Candidate” bolstered her somewhat dormant rep as one of Hollywood’s most versatile performers. She made memorable appearances in such ‘50s dramas as “The Long, Hot Summer” (1958) and “The Dark at the Top of the Stairs.” During her pact at the studio, she was loaned out to Paramount for the melodrama “The Private Affairs of Bel Ami,” which reunited her with “Dorian Gray” director Arthur Lewis, and Cecil B. Her instant success in “Gaslight,” which won her a best supporting actress Golden Globe, led to her MGM contract. Potts in the animated smash “ After the onset of the Nazi Blitz, Lansbury’s mother moved her and her younger brothers to the U.S. Queen Elizabeth II appointed her a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2014. Two years later, she took the title role in “Mame,” the musical adaptation (by Jerry Herman, Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. In 1964, she appeared in Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents’ “Anyone Can Whistle.” The tuner was a quick flop, lasting only nine performances, but it would be the last time she would fail on the Great White Way. (It was a hit 1958 movie vehicle for Rosalind Russell.) Lansbury appeared in the long-running smash for nearly two years, taking just a two-week break, and she notched a Tony Award as best actress in a musical. In 1984 she stepped into a role originally offered to Jean Stapleton: the flinty crime-solving mystery novelist Jessica Fletcher on CBS’ “Murder, She Wrote.” The show became appointment TV for its fans on Sunday nights, and ran for 12 highly rated seasons.

Angela Lansbury, the scene-stealing British actor who kicked up her heels in the Broadway musicals "Mame" and "Gypsy" and solved endless murders as crime.

In 2000, Lansbury withdrew from a planned Broadway musical, “The Visit,” because she needed to help her husband recover from heart surgery. Potts in “Beauty and the Beast” and sang the title song. She was back on Broadway in 2012 in a revival of “The Best Man,” sharing a stage with James Earl Jones, John Larroquette, Candice Bergen, Eric McCormack, Michael McKean and Kerry Butler. “The only thing I ever had confidence in is my ability to perform,” she said. She was offered a sitcom with Charles Durning or “Murder, She Wrote.” The producers had wanted Jean Stapleton, who declined. She was just 19 when her first film, “Gaslight,” earned her an Oscar nomination, but MGM didn’t know what to do with the new contract player. In 2009 she collected her fifth Tony, for best featured actress in a revival of Noel Coward’s “Blithe Spirit” and in 2015 won an Olivier Award in the role. “Murder, She Wrote” and other television work brought her 18 Emmy nominations but she never won one. “Murder, She Wrote” stayed high in the ratings through its 11th year. For consolation, CBS contracted for two-hour movies of “Murder, She Wrote” and other specials starring Lansbury. “I had to lay down the law at one point and say ‘Look, I can’t do these shows in seven days; it will have to be eight days.'” She was a key person in welcoming me to the community.