people.com Open in urlscan Pro
2a04:4e42::649  Public Scan

Form analysis
2 forms found in the DOM

GET /search

<form class="general-search__form" role="search" action="/search" method="get">
  <div class="general-search__input-group input-group">
    <label for="general-search__search-input" class="type--cat-bold">Search</label>
    <input type="text" name="q" id="general-search__search-input" class="general-search__input" placeholder="What are you looking for?" required="required" value="" autocomplete="off">
    <button class="general-search__button type--squirrel button--contained-standard-square">
      <svg class="icon icon-search ">
        <use xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="#icon-search"></use>
      </svg>
    </button>
    <button class="general-search__close" aria-role="button" aria-label="Close search bar">
      <svg class="icon icon-close ">
        <use xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="#icon-close"></use>
      </svg>
    </button>
  </div>
</form>

GET /search

<form class="fullscreen-nav__search__form" role="search" action="/search" method="get">
  <div class="general-search__input-group input-group">
    <label for="fullscreen-nav__search__search-input" class="type--cat-bold">Search</label>
    <input type="text" name="q" id="fullscreen-nav__search__search-input" class="general-search__input" placeholder="What are you looking for?" required="required" value="" autocomplete="off">
    <button class="general-search__button type--squirrel button--contained-standard-square">
      <svg class="icon icon-search ">
        <use xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="#icon-search"></use>
      </svg>
    </button>
  </div>
</form>

Text Content

Skip to content
PEOPLE
 * Search
   Please fill out this field.
 * Magazine
    * Subscribe
    * Manage Your Subscription
    * Give a Gift Subscription
    * Get Help

 * Newsletter
 * Sweepstakes
 * Subscribe

Search
Please fill out this field.
 * News
   News
    * Crime
    * Human Interest
    * Politics

 * Entertainment
   Entertainment
    * Celebrity
    * TV
    * Movies
    * Music
    * Country
    * Awards
    * Sports
    * Theater
    * Books

 * Royals
 * Lifestyle
   Lifestyle
    * Style
    * Fashion
    * Beauty
    * Parents
    * Home
    * Health
    * Food
    * Travel
    * Pets
    * Tech

 * PeopleTV
 * Shopping
   Shopping
    * People Tested

 * Podcasts
   Podcasts
    * Me Becoming Mom
    * People Every Day
    * People in the '90s
    * Cover-Up

 * Subscribe

 * Magazine
   Magazine
    * Subscribe
    * Manage Your Subscription
    * Give a Gift Subscription
    * Get Help

 * Newsletter
 * Sweepstakes

Follow Us
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 

 * News
   * Crime
   * Human Interest
   * Politics
 * Entertainment
   * Celebrity
   * TV
   * Movies
   * Music
   * Country
   * Awards
   * Sports
   * Theater
   * Books
 * Royals
 * Lifestyle
   * Style
   * Beauty
   * Fashion
   * Parents
   * Home
   * Health
   * Travel
   * Pets
   * Food
   * Tech
 * PeopleTV
 * Shopping
   * People Tested
 * Podcasts
   * Me Becoming Mom
   * People Every Day
   * People in the '90s
   * Cover-Up

Subscribe


 * Entertainment
   
 * Movies
   


ANGELA LANSBURY, SCREEN AND BROADWAY ICON, DEAD AT 96


THE ACTRESS WAS PERHAPS BEST KNOWN FOR PLAYING DAUNTLESS MYSTERY NOVELIST
JESSICA FLETCHER ON CBS' MURDER, SHE WROTE

By Stephen M. Silverman
and
Dave Quinn
Dave Quinn
 * Instagram
 * Twitter

Dave Quinn is an Editor for PEOPLE, working across a number of verticals
including the Entertainment, Lifestyle and News teams. He joined in 2006 as a
Writer/Reporter where he became known for his Bravo and Broadway exclusives
across print and digital. Dave is the author of the No. 1 New York Times
best-selling book, Not All Diamonds and Rosé: The Inside Story of the Real
Housewives from the People Who Lived It. He's appeared on many broadcasts
including ABC's Good Morning America, Bravo's Watch What Happens Live with Andy
Cohen, E!'s Daily Pop, NBC's New York Live and PEOPLE's own Reality Check, as
well as a number of podcasts like Bitch Sesh, Everything Iconic, Watch What
Crappens, Hot Off the Mess, Mention It All, and PEOPLE Every Day. Prior to
working at PEOPLE, Dave was the chief Theater Reporter for NBC New York and
co-host of Entertainment Weekly's acclaimed TV Recaps series.

People Editorial Guidelines
Published on October 11, 2022 03:29 PM
 * Share
 * Tweet
 * Pin
 * Email

Loading

00:05
00:15

×
Playback Speed
Normal
Subtitles/CC
Off
Audio Description
Off
Browser Video Settings
Off
0.25
0.5
0.75
Normal
1.25
1.5
2

Off

English
This setting only applies to the current video. Adjust Settings for all videos.

Off

English
This setting only applies to the current video. Adjust Settings for all videos.

Control your viewing experience for this browser

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subtitles and Closed Captions


Always show captions

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Audio Description


Always play description

�
Playing on Chromecast

Share: Angela Lansbury, Screen and Broadway Icon, Dead at 96
×
Direct Link
You might like
×
Angela Lansbury, Screen and Broadway Icon, Dead at 96
George Clooney and Wife Amal Hit the Red Carpet for 'Ticket to Paradise' Los
Angeles Premiere
Celebrities Are Owning the Mustache
The Amazing Life of Queen Elizabeth II
Blake Lively Is a Delight To Fans Both On And Off-Screen
Over a Decade Later, the Cast of ‘High School Musical’ Are All in This Together
Bindi Irwin and Daughter Grace Warrior Are One Adorable Pair
Jonas Brothers Heat Wave! Behind the Scenes of PEOPLE's Cover Shoot
Kate Middleton's Fashion During The Queen's Platinum Jubilee
The Queen's Platinum Jubilee Celebrations Are Underway in London! See All the
Royal Arrivals
Prince William Takes the Salute at the Colonel's Review — the Last Rehearsal
Before Trooping the Colour
Heidi Klum and Daughter Leni Are One Stylish Pair
Blake Lively Has Show-Stopping Reversible Gown Moment for Met Gala Date Night
with Ryan Reynolds
Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker Have True Romance!
Fashion Goals: Joshua Jackson and Jodie Turner-Smith
Reese Witherspoon and Her Lookalike Daughter Ava Phillippe Have the Sweetest
Relationship
SKIP ADS

Angela Lansbury, the London-born actress who for seven decades brought a
commanding, ladylike presence to stage, screen and television — especially over
the 12 years she played dauntless mystery novelist Jessica Fletcher on CBS'
Murder, She Wrote — has died. She was 96.



"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," her family says in a
statement obtained by PEOPLE.



"In addition to her three children, Anthony, Deirdre and David, she is survived
by three grandchildren, Peter, Katherine and Ian, plus five great grandchildren
and her brother, producer Edgar Lansbury," the statement adds. "She was
proceeded in death by her husband of 53 years, Peter Shaw. A private family
ceremony will be held at a date to be determined."



Born Angela Brigid Lansbury, the future character actress (the voice of Mrs.
Potts in Disney's animated Beauty and the Beast) and leading lady (Broadway's
eccentric aunt in the musical Mame) was the daughter of Belfast-born actress
Moyna MacGill and her second husband, lumber merchant Edgar Lansbury. "A true
Irish beauty" is how Lansbury described her mother in a 1993 PEOPLE profile.


Angela Lansbury's Life in Pictures


Frederick M. Brown/Getty

Eager to direct her daughter's future, Moyna took the young Angela to plays at
London's Old Vic and enrolled her in a school for the arts and dance, until the
family — Angela and her younger (by five years) twin brothers, Edgar and Bruce,
who both later became successful producers, and a half-sister — found itself all
but broke when the senior Edgar died in 1934. Angela was 9.



For more on Angela Lansbury, listen below to our daily podcast PEOPLE Every Day.





The war only compounded the family's situation, so in 1940 the Lansburys moved
to New York, where Moyna rebooted her acting career and went on tour while
Angela babysat her siblings. Relocating her brood to Los Angeles and now working
in a department store, Moyna helped land her daughter a screen test at MGM —
which catapulted the 17-year-old into her Oscar-nominated movie debut as the
cockney maid in the Ingrid Bergman-Charles Boyer classic 1944 thriller Gaslight.



Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay
up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to
compelling human interest stories.



CBS via Getty

"It was thanks to my mother who recognized in me an ability to cut up, to make
believe, to run around being somebody other than the little girl that I was,"
Lansbury told Masterpiece Studio podcast in 2018 of getting into show business.
"It made her realize that I was a natural, and she, bless her heart, made the
decisions for me very, very, very young."



The next year brought another Oscar nomination, this time for the role of singer
Sibyl Vane in MGM's The Picture of Dorian Gray, which had been hot on the heels
of Lansbury's having played the sister of a very young Elizabeth Taylor in the
beloved National Velvet.



Still, being under contract to the biggest Dream Factory on the planet did
little to boost the teen's self-confidence, especially with the gorgeous Ava
Gardner, Lana Turner and Hedy Lamarr working on adjoining soundstages.



"I was a young woman looking for glamor and attention, and I didn't really get
it," Lansbury told PEOPLE. "So what did I do? I got married at 19."



The groom was handsome leading man Richard Cromwell, who turned out to be gay,
something Lansbury didn't learn until they separated nine months later. "My
first great, great romance. It was a terrible tragedy," she said, adding that
the two remained friends until his death from cancer in 1960.




A NEW START

Shortly after the divorce, she met Peter Shaw, a British actor who later became
a prominent Hollywood agent. They were married in London in 1949, with Moyna
serving as matron of honor.



Movie, live TV and Broadway roles followed, including the role of Elvis
Presley's mother in the 1961 hit, Blue Hawaii — even though Lansbury was barely
10 years older than Elvis.



A more substantial maternal role, as Laurence Harvey's monster of a mother in
1962's The Manchurian Candidate (this time, she was only three years older than
her screen son), established Lansbury's reputation as a character actress, as
well as earned her a third Oscar nomination.



Four years later, she landed on the cover of Life magazine as the toast of
Broadway in Mame, and earned the first of five Tony awards, a record matched
only by Julie Harris and then finally broken in 2014, by Audra McDonald.




FAMILY TOOK PRECEDENCE

Problems of a highly personal nature — the Shaw children, Anthony (born in 1952)
and Deirdre (in 1953), were both on hard drugs, the parents discovered — forced
a 1971 family move to County Cork, Ireland, which, Lansbury said, "was one of
the last places on earth that was fairly drug-free."



Donaldson Collection/Getty

Commuting between Ireland, London and New York for the next decade until the
kids were clean, Lansbury bounced back professionally in 1978, when she created
the iconic role of murder accomplice Mrs. Lovett in the operatic Stephen
Sondheim Broadway musical Sweeney Todd.



Besides winning another Tony, Lansbury's path was paved to the role for which
she will probably be best remembered and certainly most loved, Jessica Fletcher.
Debuting in 1984, Murder, She Wrote put Lansbury front and center for 256
episodes, earning her an impressive 12 Emmy nominations — though, strangely,
never a win.



"It's awfully hard to tell the difference between the two," Peter Shaw told
PEOPLE when asked to compare his wife to Fletcher. (Shaw, 84, died in 2003.)
"Angela has that marvelous gumption, and that's one of the nice things that
Jessica has."



Gumption, indeed. After she solved her last TV murder, Lansbury embarked on
numerous other projects, on television and on Broadway. And although that Emmy
continued to elude her (in all, she was nominated 18 times), she did receive a
1996 Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award, a 1997 American National Medal
of the Arts, a 2000 Kennedy Center Honor, and, in a 2014 ceremony at Windsor
Castle, was officially made Dame Angela by Queen Elizabeth — at the time she was
playing the spiritualist Madame Arcati in a London production of Noel Coward's
Blithe Spirit.



Jack Mitchell/Getty

Lansbury was awarded the Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre in
June, marking her sixth Tony Award overall.



The Broadway legend won four Tonys between the time she appeared as Mame Dennis
in 1966's Mame and Mrs. Lovett in 1979's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet
Street. She went on to win a fifth Tony for 2009's Blithe Spirit, her first Tony
for her performance in a play versus a musical.



"It has been an outstanding life, especially for me," Lansbury told her peers
when she received the SAG honor. "And the great news is, girls, the
opportunities are out there for us at all ages. I mean, look at some of the
exquisite work of the women in film today. I feel absolutely galvanized to keep
going and strike out for new career goals ... After all, a career, as far as I'm
concerned, is still a work in progress."



Steve Parsons - WPA Pool/Getty

At 92, the actress still had no plans to slow down. After starring in PBS's
Little Women miniseries where she worked with director Vanessa Caswill, the
first female director she'd collaborated with in her 80-year career, Lansbury
was asked if the show would be her final act.



"Well I wouldn't say it's my swan song. It's not the last thing I'll do. I'm
already doing other things but it's been said this would be my swan song. But it
isn't," said Lansbury, who played the Balloon Lady in 2018's Mary Poppins
Returns.



She added, "I know at 92 I should be thinking in terms of swanning out, but I
don't know if you have the energy and the enthusiasm and the interest, I don't
think you ever really stop."





Related Articles

Angela Lansbury Wanted to Play Romantic Leads in Her Youth but Said She Didn't
Have 'Chocolate-Box Looks'



Angela Lansbury Was 'Very Proud' to Be Made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth



Remembering Angela Lansbury's Life in Pictures



Angela Lansbury's Marriage and Family with Late Husband Peter Shaw: 'My Dear
Loving Husband'



Celebrities React to Angela Lansbury's Death: 'She, My Darlings, Was Everything'



How Angela Lansbury Landed Her 'Murder, She Wrote' Role, Which Was Written for
Another Star



Angela Lansbury Receives Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre Award at 2022 Tonys



Angela Lansbury to Receive Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre Award at 2022
Tonys



Louise Fletcher, 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' Oscar Winner, Dead at 88



Celebrities Who've Died in 2021



Helen Mirren's Extraordinary Life and Career in Photos



Where Is the Cast of Rodgers & Hammerstein's 'Cinderella' Now?



Remembering Anne Heche's Life in Photos



Patti LuPone Pays Tribute to Broadway Understudies and COVID Safety Officers at
2022 Tonys



'Harry Potter' Cast: Where Are They Now?



The 'Sex and the City' Cast: Where Are They Now?


PEOPLE
Newsletter

Follow Us
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 

 * News
   
 * Entertainment
   
 * Royals
   
 * Lifestyle
   
 * PeopleTV
   
 * Shopping
   
 * Podcasts
   

 * About Us
 * PEOPLE Tested
 * Editorial Policy
 * Careers
 * Privacy Policy
 * Contact Us
 * Terms of Use
 * Advertise

PEOPLE is part of the Dotdash Meredith publishing family. We've updated our
Privacy Policy, which will go in to effect on September 1, 2022. Review our
Privacy Policy
Newsletter Sign Up

Newsletter Sign Up