Angela Lansbury, the famed Hollywood star and Broadway legend, has passed away at 96 years old after a prolific career starring in musicals and motion pictures.
Born in London to an Irish actress and English politician, she moved to New York City to pursue acting. After studying drama, she was persuaded by her mother to go to Los Angeles to try to land movie roles.
She was known for roles in the Disney classic Bedknobs and Broomsticks and as Jessica Fletcher on the CBS Sunday night hit “Murder, She Wrote,” a popular show which ran for 12 seasons. Lansbury received eleven Emmy nominations for her performance in that show but never won the award. On Broadway, she starred in Sweeney Todd, Anyone Can Whistle, Mame, Gypsy, and others. She won five Tony awards over the course of her life.
“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 AM today, Tuesday, October 11, 2022, just five days shy of her 97th birthday,” her family said in a statement, according to NBC News.
One of her most memorable characters to child and adult audiences alike was Mrs. Potts in the Disney movie, Beauty and the Beast. “Oddly enough, children recognize my voice,” she told The Huffington Post in 2012. “They’ll hear me and say, ‘Mom, that’s Mrs. Potts!”