Angela Lansbury, the actress and singer who conquered film and theater and solved mysteries in “Murder, She Wrote” on TV, died Tuesday. She was 96.
Lansbury died at her home in Los Angeles, her family said in a statement. She was just five days shy of her 97th birthday.
Born Oct. 16, 1925, in London to politician Edgar Lansbury and Irish-born actress Moyna Macgill, Lansbury moved to New York City in her early teens before heading to Hollywood.
Noticed by MGM honcho Louis B. Mayer, she was cast as saucy maid Nancy Oliver in the 1944 thriller “Gaslight.” Lansbury’s critically lauded performance helped secure her first Academy Award nomination at the age of 19.
The following year, she was nominated again in the Best Supporting Actress category as tavern singer Sibyl Vane in “The Picture of Dorian Gray.”
Lansbury remains the record holder as the youngest two-time acting nominee in Oscar history.
Other notable early roles were in 1945’s “National Velvet,” playing Elizabeth Taylor’s older sister, and the 1946 musical “The Harvey Girls,” which co-starred Judy Garland.
After a career lull during the 1950s, she played Elvis Presley’s mother in 1961’s “Blue Hawaii.” But the following year, she rebounded with two John Frankenheimer films. First was “All Fall Down,” in which she portrayed Warren Beatty’s overbearing mother, and later, “The Manchurian Candidate.”
As Eleanor Iselin, the coldblooded mother of sleeper agent Laurence Harvey, she received her third Oscar nomination for the role but lost to Patty Duke for “The Miracle Worker.”
Lansbury would then embark on a theater career, making her Broadway musical debut in “Anyone Can Whistle.” The Arthur Laurents-Stephen Sondheim production ran for only nine performances in 1964, but “Hello, Dolly!” composer Jerry Herman noticed Lansbury and believed she was the perfect choice for his impending musical version of the 1958 Rosalind Russell comedy “Auntie Mame.”
“She was an icon, a legend, a gem, and about the nicest lady you’d ever want to meet,” Broadway actress Audra McDonald tweeted Monday.
The show was a critical and box-office smash, running for more than three years and 1,508 performances.
After “Mame,” she signed on to Herman’s musical adaptation of Jean Giraudoux’s play “The Madwoman of Chaillot.” As the insane Countess Aurelia, Lansbury won her second Tony in 1969.
She returned to the silver screen as aspiring witch Eglantine Price in the 1971 Disney classic “Bedknobs and Broomsticks.” The film received five Academy Award nominations, winning one for Best Special Visual Effects.
Lansbury claimed a third Tony in 1975 as Mama Rose in “Gypsy,” and a fourth, four years later, as Mrs. Lovett in “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.”
In 2009, she snagged her fifth Tony Award — the first in a play — for her humorous performance as dotty medium Madame Arcati in “Blithe Spirit.”
Approaching 60, Lansbury actively sought the security of steady TV series work. After initially receiving unsatisfactory roles, including those of a maid, Lansbury was given the script for “Murder, She Wrote.”
She was immediately drawn to the character of Jessica Fletcher, a widowed Maine English teacher who commences a career as a mystery novelist and amateur sleuth.
The CBS mystery series was an instant smash upon its 1984 debut. During its 12-year run, it finished in the Nielsen ratings Top 10 an incredible eight times, with a peak of No. 3 during its second season.
“I used to come on the set on a Monday morning and say, ‘We’re No. 1; we’re No. 2; we’re No. 3,'” recalled Lansbury in an interview. “You know, it was such a given, we were so successful. It was an incredible experience.”
Lansbury was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series a record 12 times — failing to win each year — although she did receive four Golden Globe awards for her performance.
“Murder, She Wrote” was also nominated three times for an Emmy Award as Outstanding Drama Series.
Lansbury is survived by her two children from her 53-year marriage to producer Peter Shaw, and a stepson from Shaw’s previous marriage.
With News Wire Services
