Dame Angela Lansbury Passes Away At 96 Years Old
Angela Lansbury would have been 97 in five days, but fate had other plans. The iconic American and Irish-British actress passed away peacefully last Tuesday morning, surrounded by the children in her Los Angeles home.
Angela became a household name after her impressive roles in the movies Murder, She Wrote, and Beauty and the Beast. Her family released a statement following her death, sharing the time their mother had died, which was 1:30 in the morning.
She was a Hollywood legend and had established a powerful name on Broadway. In her eight decades in the industry, she made successful movies alongside some of Hollywood’s best performers.
Dame Angela Lansbury left London during the war when she was 14. She and her mother, who was also an actress, ended up in New York. Four years later, she was already holding her own and showing the world what she could do alongside the big names of Hollywood, Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman, in the thriller movie Gaslight, released in 1944.
Clearly, her sudden rise to stardom overwhelmed Angela because she mentioned in one of her interviews that she had just been wrapping holiday presents in a department store. Next thing she knew, she was starring in and creating movies with Ingrid Bergman.
Her performance in Gaslight was just a preview of what she could do and achieve as an actress. She signed a contract with MGM and received three Oscar nominations for the Best Supporting Actress category. A year later, she was nominated at the Oscars, yet again, for her role as Sibyl Vane in the 1945 film, The Portrait of Dorian Gray.
And there was no stopping her thriving career because she continued to shine on the stage and in films, where she eventually worked with other industry icons like Katharine Hepburn and Gene Kelly.
Angela further cemented her name and acting prowess in Hollywood when she played the role of Jessica Fletcher, an amateur detective and mystery writer, in the crime drama series Murder She Wrote.
She played the role beautifully from 1984 until 1996; 12 seasons of impressive acting led her to be nominated for a whopping 10 Golden Globes. With four wins, she holds the record for most Best Actress wins in a TV series. She also achieved a similar feat with the most Emmy Award nominations—a total of 12 for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.
Not only is Angela known for her acting skills but also her voice rendition, bringing to life the character of Beauty and the Beast‘s Mrs. Potts in the Disney animated film released in 1991.
Her Broadway feat was impressive, no doubt, as she was nominated and brought home several Tony awards.
Although her first marriage failed, lasting less than a year, Angela found love when she married Peter Shaw. The two were married in 1949 and stayed married for 53 years until Peter died in 2003 due to heart failure.
Angela’s Hollywood life was well-lived. It was a life she shared with the public, being a constant in TV series, movies, and Broadway shows. Like she once said, “Bringing humor and bringing happiness and joy to an audience is a wonderful opportunity in life, believe me.”
This is precisely what Angela did!
