LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess) — Angela Lansbury, an award-winning actor of stage and screen, best known to modern audiences for her turn as a small-town sleuth in the television series “Murder, She Wrote,” died on Tuesday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 96.
As reported by the New York Times, Lansbury’s passing was announced by a statement from her family.
“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 11, 2022, just five days shy of her 97th birthday,” her family said in the statement.
Lansbury first made a name for herself on the big screen, appearing in films such as Gaslight (1944), Blue Velvet (1944), The Reluctant Debutante (1958) Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), and Death on the Nile (1978).
She made her Broadway debut in 1957 when she was cast as Marcelle in Hotel Paradiso at the Henry Miller Theatre and was soon recognized by the New York Times as the “First Lady of Musical Theatre.”
Other notable theatrical roles include her 1966 turn as Mame Dennis in the Broadway musical Mame, which won her first Tony Award. She would go on to win five more Tonys, including for her performance as Countess Aurelia, in a musical adaptation of Jean Giraudoux’s The Madwoman of Chaillot.
In 1983, Lansbury was offered the lead role in CBS’ crime drama “Muder, She Wrote” in which she portrayed small town mystery writer Jessica Fletcher who solves murders in her spare time as an amateur sleuth.
The show ran for 12 seasons and 4 made for television movies that proved to be very popular with viewers.
Over the course of her career, Lansbury received an Honorary Academy Award, a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award, six Golden Globes, and an Olivier Award. She also was nominated for numerous other industry awards, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress on three occasions, and various Primetime Emmy Awards on 18 occasions, and a Grammy Award.
In 2014, Lansbury was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.
