Angela Lansbury, stage and film star, died at 96 | CBC News

Angela Lansbury, the wide-eyed, scene-stealing British actress who heeled up in the Broadway musicals mummy and gypsy and solved endless murders as crime writer Jessica Fletcher on the long-running TV series murder, she wrote, died. She was 96.

Lansbury died Tuesday at her home in Los Angeles, according to testimony from her three children. She died five days before her 97th birthday.

Lansbury has won five Tony Awards for her Broadway performances and a lifetime achievement award. She received Oscar nominations for supporting actress for two of her first three films, gas light (1945) and The picture of Dorian Gray (1946) and was again nominated for in 1962 The Manchu Candidate and her deadly portrayal of a female communist agent and the mother of the title character.

In 2013 she received an honorary Oscar for her cinematic life’s work.

Her mature demeanor led producers to cast her as much older than her actual age. In 1948, when she was 23, she had gray streaks so she could play a newspaper editor in her forties with a yen for Spencer Tracy state of the nation.

Her fame came in middle age when she became a hit on the New York theater scene and won Tony Awards for mummy (1966), dear world (1969), gypsy (1975) and Sweeney Todd (1979).

She was back on Broadway and received another Tony nomination in 2007 in Terrence McNally’s Two, who plays a seedy, brash former tennis star, contemplating with another ex-star while watching a modern-day game from the stands. In 2009 she received her fifth Tony for best actress in a revival of Noel Cowards happy spirit and won an Olivier Award for the role in 2015.

“Murder, She Wrote” brought great fame

But Lansbury’s greatest glory began in 1984 when it was launched murder, she wrote on CBS.

Loosely based on Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple stories, the series centers on Jessica Fletcher, a middle-aged widow and former substitute school teacher who lives in the coastal village of Cabot Cove, Maine. She had become known as a crime writer and amateur detective.

The actress found the first season of the series exhausting.

“I was shocked to learn that I had to work 12 to 15 hours a day, relentlessly,” she recalls. “I eventually had to put the law down and say, ‘Look, I can’t do these shows in seven days; it has to be eight days.’ “

CBS and the production company Universal Studios agreed, especially since murder, she wrote had become a Sunday night hit.

Despite the long days — leaving her home in Brentwood, West Los Angeles, at 6 a.m. and returning after dark — and countless lines of dialogue to memorize, Lansbury maintained a steady pace. She was pleased that Jessica Fletcher served as an inspiration for older women.

“Women in movies have always had a hard time being role models for other women,” she noted. “They’ve always been considered glamorous in their jobs.”

In the show’s first season, Jessica wore almost dated clothes. She then became more sophisticated in her wardrobe, with Lansbury arguing that as a successful woman, Jessica should dress the part.

Record nominations and wins for TV awards

murder, she wrote remained high in the ratings through its 11th year. CBS then moved the series to a less favorable weekday slot because it was seeking a younger audience for Sunday nights. Lansbury protested vigorously to no avail. As expected, ratings plummeted and the show was cancelled.

For consolation, CBS closed two-hour films murder, she wrote and other specials with Lansbury.

murder, she wrote and other television work earned her 18 Emmy nominations, but she never won one. She holds the record for most Golden Globe nominations, winning Best Actress in a Television Series and most Emmy nominations for Lead Actress in a Drama Series.

She also became known to a new generation of fans when she voiced the enchanted teapot, Mrs. Potts, in Disney’s animated hit Beauty and the Beast (1991) and sang the title track of the film, which later won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

In a 2008 interview with the Associated Press, Lansbury said she still welcomes the right script but doesn’t want to play “old, decrepit women.”

“I want women my age to be represented for who they are, which are vital, productive members of society,” she said.

“I’m amazed at the amount of stuff I’ve been able to fit in over the years I’ve been in business. And I’m still here!”