Posted in: CBS, streaming, TV | Tagged: Angela Lansbury, beauty and the beast, cbs, disney, Murder She Wrote, the manchurian candidate

Murder, She Wrote Star & Legend Angela Lansbury Passes Away, Age 96

Published Tue, 11 Oct 2022 15:25:13 -0500

by Ray Flook

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We're sad to report that the icon of stage and large & small screens for decades, Dame Angela Lansbury (born Angela Brigid Lansbury), has passed away at the age of 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," the family shared in an official statement to the media. "In addition to her three children, Anthony, Deirdre & David, she is survived by three grandchildren, Peter, Katherine & Ian, plus five great-grandchildren and her brother, producer Edgar Lansbury. She was preceded in death by her husband of 53 years, Peter Shaw. A private family ceremony will be held at a date to be determined."

While Lansbury's stage & screen experience can and should be the foundation for required coursework for acting & directing students everywhere, there are three roles that come to mind. In 1962's John Frankenheimer-directed The Manchurian Candidate, Lansbury's turn as the cold-blooded power-grabbing mother Mrs. Eleanor Iselin (which would go on to win her a Golden Globes Award). It was a role that found the talented actress playing against type in a blood-chilling portrayal of the evil of politics. And then there's Disney's 1991 animated classic, Beauty and the Beast, and her role as Mrs. Potts, the castle cook who was turned into a teapot. And finally, probably the obvious selection but one that's more than deserving. Yes, it was Lansbury's turn as novelist-turned-crime-solver Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote that would captivate viewers for 12 years (including a better-than-it-had-any-right-to-be crossover with Tom Selleck's Magnum P.I.).

"Through years and years of playing to various audiences, what I've learned is – and I think quite a few actors will agree with me – we're not always the best judge of that audience's reactions or not," Lansbury revealed during an interview years ago when asked about reading audiences. "And we discover, to our amazement, at the end of the show, they bring the house down with applause, and we thought, 'No way tonight,' you know."

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