Angela LansburyFor seven decades, the London-born actress has brought a regal ladylike presence to stage, screen and television. murder, she wrote — died. She was 96 years old.
“Dame Angela Lansbury’s children were asleep at their home in Los Angeles at 1:30 a.m. today, Tuesday, October 11, 2022, just five days away from their mother’s 97th birthday. I am saddened that he passed away peacefully in 2018,” said a statement obtained by PEOPLE.
“In addition to her three children, Anthony, Deirdre and David, she has three grandchildren, Peter, Katherine and Ian, five more great-grandchildren, and her brother, producer Edgar Lansbury. “She passed away by her husband of 53 years, Peter Shaw. A private family ceremony will be held on a date to be determined.”
Born Angela Brigid Lansbury, future character actress (voice of Mrs. Potts in Disney’s animated cartoons) beauty and the beast) and the Leading Lady (The Musical’s Broadway Quirky Aunt) blister) was the daughter of Belfast-born actress Moina McGill and her second husband, timber merchant Edgar Lansbury. A “true Irish beauty” is how Lansbury described her mother in her 1993 PEOPLE profile.
Eager to guide her daughter’s future, Moina took young Angela to perform at London’s Old Vic and enrolled her in a school for art and dance. And so were born Edgar and Bruce, twin brothers Angela and her younger brother (by the age of five). Both later became successful producers and were half-sisters, but were all but broken when Edgar, Sr., died in 1934. Angela was 9 years old.
The war only exacerbated the family situation, so in 1940 the Lansbury family moved to New York, where Moina restarted her career as an actress, going on tour while Angela babysit her brothers. came out. She moved her brood to Los Angeles, and Moina, who now works at a department store, helped her daughter get a screen test at MGM. This catapulted her 17-year-old daughter into her Oscar-nominated film debut as Ingrid Bergman Charles’ Cockney Maid.Boyer Classic 1944 Thriller gas lamp.
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“I owe it to my mother for recognizing in me my ability to chop up and pretend and run around that I was someone else not a little girl,” Lansbury said. Masterpiece Studio podcast 2018 to enter show business. “She recognized that I was born human, and she made the decision for me, really, very, very young.”
The following year, he was nominated for an Oscar again for his role as MGM singer Sybil Vane. photo of dorian grayjust got hot after Lansbury played a very young sister Elizabeth Taylor with my beloved national velvet.
Still, the deal with the biggest dream factory on the planet is a confidence booster for teens, especially with the gorgeous Ava Gardner, Lana Turner, and Hedy Lamar working on the adjacent soundstage. There were hardly any.
“I was a young woman who wanted charm and attention, but I never really got it,” Lansbury told PEOPLE. I got married at 19.”
The groom was the handsome lead man Richard Cromwell, who turned out to be gay, and Lansbury didn’t know what it was until they broke up nine months later. It was a terrible tragedy,” she said, adding that the two remained friends until they died of cancer in 1960.
New Start
Shortly after the divorce, she met British actor Peter Shaw, who later became a prominent Hollywood agent. They were married in London in 1949, with Moina serving as lady of honor.
Film, live television and Broadway roles followed, Elvis Presley1961 hit mother, blue hawaii — although Lansbury was only ten years older than Elvis.
A more substantial mother role, like 1962’s Lawrence Harvey’s Mother Monster Candidate for Manchuria (This time she was only three years older than her screen son), established Lansbury’s reputation as a character actress and earned three Oscar nominations.
Four years later she was on the cover life Magazines as a toast to Broadway blister, and won the first of five Tony Awards.The record was matched only by Julie Harris, then Broken at last in 2014 by Audra McDonald.
family priority
A matter of a very personal nature — Shaw’s children, Anthony (born 1952) and Deirdre (born 1953), were both hard drug users when their parents discovered — In 1971 the family Forced to move to County Cork, Ireland. “He was one of the last drug-free places on earth.”
Commuting between Ireland, London and New York for the next decade until his children were clean, Lansbury became the iconic role of accomplice Mrs. Lovett in the 1978 operatic Stephen Sondheim Broadway musical. I got back on my feet professionally when I created the role. sweeney todd.
In addition to winning another Tony, Lansbury’s road paved the way for her perhaps best-remembered and arguably most-loved role, Jessica Fletcher. , murder, she wrote It put Lansbury front and center in 256 episodes and earned an impressive 12 Emmy nominations, but oddly never won.
“It’s very hard to tell the difference between the two,” Peter Shaw told PEOPLE when asked to compare his wife to Fletcher. (Shaw, 84, died in 2003.) “Angela has a great drive and that’s one of the great things about Jessica.”
Gumption for sure. After she solved her last TV murder case, Lansbury embarked on a number of other projects on television and on Broadway. nominated), she received the 1996 Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award, the 1997 National Medal of Arts, and the 2000 Kennedy Center Honorary Award.Officially dame her Angela at her 2014 ceremony at Windsor Castle queen elizabeth — at the time she was playing the spiritualist Mrs. Arcati in Noel Coward’s London production. Blythe Spirit.
Lansbury is Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in Theater Marking her 6th in June Tony Award Overall.
The Broadway legend won four Tony Awards before appearing as Mame Dennis in 1966. blister 1979’s Mrs. Lovett Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. She won her fifth Tony in 2009 Blythe Spirither first Tony for her performance in Theatrical vs. Musical.
“It’s been a wonderful life, especially for me,” Lansbury told his peers when he was honored with the SAG. “And the great news, girls, is that we have opportunities for all ages. I feel absolutely inspired to continue and venture into a new career.’Goals… After all, a career is still a work in progress as far as I’m concerned. ”
At 92, the actress still had no plans to slow down. little woman A miniseries she worked with director Vanessa Casswill, The first female director she collaborated with in her 80-year careerLansbury was asked if the show would be her last act.
“Well, I won’t say it’s my swan song. It’s not the last thing I do. I already do other things, but I’ve been told this will be my swan song.” But it’s not,” said Lansbury, who played Balloon Lady in 2018. Mary Poppins Returns.
She said, “At 92, I know I need to think about being a swan, but I don’t know if you have the energy, the enthusiasm, the interest. You really can’t stop.” I do not think.