{"id":1684518,"date":"2022-10-12T06:38:01","date_gmt":"2022-10-12T10:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1684518"},"modified":"2022-10-12T06:38:31","modified_gmt":"2022-10-12T10:38:31","slug":"angela-lansbury-star-of-murder-she-wrote-and-beauty-and-the-beast-dead-at-96","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/angela-lansbury-star-of-murder-she-wrote-and-beauty-and-the-beast-dead-at-96\/","title":{"rendered":"Angela Lansbury, Star of \u201cMurder, She Wrote\u201d and \u201cBeauty and the Beast\u201d, Dead at 96"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fangela-lansbury-star-of-murder-she-wrote-and-beauty-and-the-beast-dead-at-96%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1684518&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m\">\n\tActress <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/angela-lansbury\/\" id=\"auto-tag_angela-lansbury\" data-tag=\"angela-lansbury\">Angela Lansbury<\/a>, whose 75-year career encompassed triumphs on the big screen, in musical theater and on television, died at her Los Angeles home on Tuesday, her family announced in a statement obtained by <em>Variety<\/em>. She was 96 \u2014 five days shy of her 97th birthday. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m\">\n\tNominated for three Oscars, she won seven Tony Awards and holds the record for Emmy actress nods with 12 for her role on \u201cMurder, She Wrote.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m\">\n\tAs honored as she was in film and on stage, Lansbury achieved her greatest popularity on the small screen. In 1984 she stepped into a role originally offered to Jean Stapleton: the flinty crime-solving mystery novelist Jessica Fletcher on CBS\u2019 \u201cMurder, She Wrote.\u201d The show became appointment TV for its fans on Sunday nights, and ran for 12 highly rated seasons. The actress captured four Golden Globe Awards for her turn. Between 1997 and 2003, she reprised the role in four telepics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m\">\n\tDiscovered while still in her teens by playwright and screenwriter John Van Druten, Lansbury scored an Academy Award nomination as best supporting actress for her first role, as the scheming Cockney maid opposite Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman in George Cukor\u2019s 1944 suspense film \u201cGaslight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m\">\n\tDirector Cukor later wrote that her instant ascent to stardom was \u201ca Cinderella story. On the first day of shooting, even though she was only 17 and had no experience, she was immediately professional. She became this little housemaid \u2014 even her face seemed to change. Suddenly, I was watching real movie acting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m\">\n\tShe repeated as a supporting actress Oscar nominee with her third feature, \u201cThe Picture of Dorian Gray\u201d (1945), for which she scored a second supporting actress award portraying the ill-fated music hall performer Sibyl Vane in the adaptation of Oscar Wilde\u2019s horror tale.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m\">\n\tLansbury scored a contract at MGM and appeared in such high-profile pics as \u201cTill the Clouds Roll By\u201d (1946), \u201cState of the Union\u201d (1948) and \u201cThe Three Musketeers\u201d (1948). She made memorable appearances in such \u201850s dramas as \u201cThe Long, Hot Summer\u201d (1958) and \u201cThe Dark at the Top of the Stairs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m\">\n\tLansbury displayed a unique ability to play older than her years, specializing in iron-fisted matriarchs. In 1961, when she turned 36, she played 26-year-old Elvis Presley\u2019s mother in \u201cBlue Hawaii.\u201d The following year, she took the role of the malevolent mother of brainwashed ex-serviceman Laurence Harvey (who was only three years her junior) in John Frankenheimer\u2019s Cold War thriller \u201cThe Manchurian Candidate.\u201d She collected her third supporting actress Oscar nomination for the performance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m\">\n\tLansbury bowed on Broadway in the French comedy \u201cHotel Paradiso\u201d (1957), and enjoyed strong notices in Shelagh Delaney\u2019s drama \u201cA Taste of Honey\u201d (1960). In 1964, she appeared in Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents\u2019 \u201cAnyone Can Whistle.\u201d The tuner was a quick flop, lasting only nine performances, but it would be the last time she would fail on the Great White Way.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m\">\n\tTwo years later, she took the title role in \u201cMame,\u201d the musical adaptation (by Jerry Herman, Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee) of Patrick Dennis\u2019 autobiographical novel about life with his wealthy madcap aunt. (It was a hit 1958 movie vehicle for Rosalind Russell.) Lansbury appeared in the long-running smash for nearly two years, taking just a two-week break, and she notched a Tony Award as best actress in a musical.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m\">\n\tShe would earn three more Tonys in the same category: in \u201cDear World\u201d (1969) an adaptation of Jean Giraudoux\u2019s \u201cThe Madwoman of Chaillot\u201d by the creators of \u201cMame\u201d; as Mama Rose, a part she had originated in a London revival, in the 1974 Broadway production of \u201cGypsy,\u201d the musical bio of ecdysiast Gypsy Rose Lee by Sondheim, Laurents and Jule Styne; and in Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler\u2019s \u201cpenny dreadful\u201d musical \u201cSweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.\u201d She received a fifth Tony, for best featured actress in a play, as Madame Arcati in the 2009 revival of No\u00ebl Coward\u2019s supernatural comedy \u201cBlithe Spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m\">\n\tIn a 2019 overview of Lansbury\u2019s career, <em>Variety<\/em>\u2019s Tim Gray noted of \u201cMurder, She Wrote\u201d that \u201cthe show relied on Lansbury\u2019s intelligence, integrity and warmth, which no actress can fake. That\u2019s what audiences responded to; even though there were clever mystery plots, with a slew of guest stars every week, the series rested squarely on Lansbury\u2019s shoulders.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m\">\n\tLansbury\u2019s late-career kudos included an honorary Oscar in 2013 and lifetime achievement awards from the Screen Actors Guild (1997) and British Academy of Film and Television Arts (2003). Queen Elizabeth II appointed her a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2014.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m\">\n\tShe was born on Oct. 16, 1925, in London; her mother Moyna Macgill was an Irish-born actress who appeared in West End productions, and had roles in more than two dozen English and American features. Her younger twin brothers Bruce and Edgar became film and TV producers. She was an avid movie fan and began studying music and acting in her teens.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m\">\n\tAfter the onset of the Nazi Blitz, Lansbury\u2019s mother moved her and her younger brothers to the U.S. They settled in New York, where Lansbury studied acting on a scholarship. She joined her mother during a touring appearance in Canada, and briefly worked as a nightclub performer. Macgill and her family ultimately moved to Los Angeles. There, Lansbury was introduced to Van Druten \u2014 whose play \u201cI Am a Camera\u201d became the basis for the musical \u201cCabaret\u201d \u2014 at a party held by her mother.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m\">\n\tHer instant success in \u201cGaslight,\u201d which won her a best supporting actress Golden Globe, led to her MGM contract. During her pact at the studio, she was loaned out to Paramount for the melodrama \u201cThe Private Affairs of Bel Ami,\u201d which reunited her with \u201cDorian Gray\u201d director Arthur Lewis, and Cecil B. DeMille\u2019s biblical spectacle \u201cSamson and Delilah\u201d (1949).<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m\">\n\tLansbury\u2019s indelible work in \u201cThe Manchurian Candidate\u201d bolstered her somewhat dormant rep as one of Hollywood\u2019s most versatile performers. Though the \u201860s were dominated by her glittering stay on Broadway, she split her time during the \u201870s between the stage and film work. She frequently starred on the London boards, notably playing Queen Gertrude in a 1975 National Theatre production of \u201cHamlet.\u201d Prophesying her stint as Jessica Fletcher, her movie work included whodunits like \u201cDeath on the Nile\u201d (1978) and \u201cThe Mirror Crack\u2019d\u201d (1980); in the latter feature, she portrayed Agatha Christie\u2019s sleuth Miss Jane Marple.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m\">\n\tIn 1991, Lansbury returned to work for Disney; her performance in the studio\u2019s musical fantasy \u201cBedknobs and Broomsticks\u201d (1971) had garnered her a Golden Globe nod as best actress in a comedy or musical. She took a voice role, performing the title song, as the singing teapot Mrs. Potts in the animated smash \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/beauty-and-the-beast\/\" id=\"auto-tag_beauty-and-the-beast\" data-tag=\"beauty-and-the-beast\">Beauty and the Beast<\/a>,\u201d and shared in the hit soundtrack album\u2019s Grammy Award nomination as album of the year. She reprised the role in a direct-to-video \u201cBeauty\u201d sequel and a video game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m\">\n\tThe indefatigable actress recommitted to live theater in her 80s, reaping best actress Tony nominations for her appearances in Terrence McNally\u2019s 2007 play \u201cDeuce\u201d and a 2009 revival of \u201cA Little Night Music,\u201d Sondheim and Wheeler\u2019s adaptation of Ingmar Bergman\u2019s 1955 comedy \u201cSmiles of a Summer Night.\u201d Over the years Lansbury served as host of the Tony Awards ceremony five times, and was nominated for two Emmys for her work on the live Tonys telecasts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m\">\n\tShe appeared opposite James Earl Jones in a touring 2013 stage adaptation of \u201cDriving Miss Daisy\u201d (which became the basis of a 2014 film) and revived \u201cBlithe Spirit\u201d in London.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m\">\n\tTwice married, Lansbury is survived by her children, director Anthony Shaw and writer Deirdre Shaw, as well as her late husband Peter Shaw\u2019s son David, from a previous marriage. She is also survived by her three grandchildren, Peter, Katherine and Ian; five great-grandchildren; and brother, producer Edgar Lansbury. A private family ceremony will be held at a yet-to-be-determined date. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m\">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/pop-culture\/celebrity\/angela-lansbury-murder-wrote-beauty-beast-star-dies-96-rcna42421\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NBC<\/a> first reported the news of her death. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Actress Angela Lansbury, whose 75-year career encompassed triumphs on the big screen, in musical theater and on television, died at her Los Angeles home on Tuesday, her family announced<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1684520,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1684518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1684518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1684518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1684518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1684520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1684518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1684518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1684518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}