‘Murder, She Wrote’ Star Angela Lansbury Dies at 96

Angela Lansbury, whose eclectic 75-year career encompassed triumphs in musical theater, film, and television, has died. She was 96.

According to a statement from her family provided to NBC, it reads, “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. today, Tuesday, October 11, 2022, just five days shy of her 97th birthday.”

Born on Oct. 16, 1925 in London, Lansbury’s mother was an actress, while her father worked as a politician. He died when she was 9 years old, and not long after the onset of World War II, the family moved to the U.S. in 1940, settling in New York.

While in her teens, Lansbury was discovered by playwright and screenwriter John Van Druten, who offered her a role in the 1944 film Gaslight, which earned her an Oscar nomination for “Best Supporting Actress.” Her second came the next year for The Portrait of Dorian Gray, and again in 1962 as the mother who betrays her son and her country in The Manchurian Candidate.

As honored as she was in film and on stage, Lansbury achieved her greatest popularity on the small screen. 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 ran for 12 highly rated seasons, and earned Lansbury four Golden Globes. Between 1999-2003, she reprised the role in four telepics.

Lansbury made her Broadway debut in 1957, later starring in iconic Tony-winning roles in Mame, Gypsy, and Sweeney Todd,” and some of her other notable films include National Velvet, The Three Musketeers, and Blue Hawaii. However, 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. Potts in the 1991 classic Beauty and the Beast.

“Oddly enough, children recognize my voice,” she says in a 2012 interview with The Huffington Post. “They’ll hear me and say, ‘Mom, that’s Mrs. Potts!'”

She also played a small role in the 2018 sequel Mary Poppins Returns.

Although she was advancing in age, nothing stopped her from pursuing the craft she loved. Lansbury continued to work into her 80s and 90s, including a 2017 miniseries version of Little Women and starring in a 2015 Great Performances production of Driving Miss Daisy, opposite James Earl Jones.

“I love this industry and I love being in it,” Lansbury says in a 1998 interview with the Archives of American Television.

Twice married, Lansbury is survived by her children, Anthony Shaw, who directed many episodes of Murder, She Wrote, and writer Deirdre Shaw. She is also survived by her three grandchildren, Peter, Katherine and Ian; five great-grandchildren; and brother, producer Edgar Lansbury. A private family ceremony will be held at a yet-to-be-determined date.

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