Stage and screen star Angela Lansbury dies at 96

Angela Lansbury, whose career spanned theater, film and television for more than seven decades, has died aged 96. His death was announced by MSNBC and . "The children of Dame Angela Lansbury are saddened to announce that their mother passed away peacefully in her sleep at home in Los Angeles at 1:30 a.m. today, Tuesday, October 11, 2022, just five days before her 97th birthday," her family said in a statement.

The actress is best known for "Murder, She Wrote," but began her career in 1944 and delighted generations of fans with nearly 150 credits. This includes everything from voiceover performances to musicals and dramas. Lansbury was capable of being anything an audience needed, from a warm mother to a vicious villain.

Angela Brigid Lansbury was born on October 16, 1925 in London, England. She was born into entertainment, with her mother, Moyna Macgill, being a regular performer on the West End stage. His father was a wealthy timber merchant and his grandfather the leader of the country's Labor Party. Her father died when Lansbury was nine and it was then that she began creating characters. A self-confessed "movie maniac", the young Lansbury consumed everything associated with cinema.

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She began studying acting and first appeared on stage at the Webber Douglas School of Singing and Dramatic Art in Maxwell Anderson's production of "Mary of Scotland". The onset of World War II saw Lansbury's mother take her and her siblings to the United States where they eventually settled in Greenwich Village. As Macgill began to find jobs, Lansbury, just 16, traveled alongside his mother, working in nightclubs. The family would soon move to Los Angeles, where Macgill hoped to become a movie star. His lack of pay forced Lansbury to become the sole breadwinner for his siblings.

It was at one of her mother's Hollywood parties that Lansbury met screenwriter John van Druten, the screenwriter of "Gaslight", who thought the young woman would be perfect as Nancy Oliver, the maid. accomplice supposed to take care of Ingrid Bergman's gas-lit character. At just 17, Lansbury signed the standard seven-year contract at MGM. "Gaslight" became a hit, with Lansbury earning her first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She will soon get a second nomination for her role in "The Picture of Dorian Gray" in 1945.

Lansbury was regularly dissatisfied with the roles MGM gave her, which tended to lean towards older women and villains. When his contract ended in 1952, the studio decided not to renew it. "I kept wanting to play the parts of Jean Arthur, and Mr. Mayer kept portraying me as a series of venal female dogs," Lansbury wrote in her 1996 autobiography. Although she starred alongside some from MGM's biggest stars, including Judy Garland in the musical "The Harvey Girls", Lansbury began to take an interest in radio and television.