Picture: Roy Tan
Just a few months after the Tony Awards celebrated the glittering career of stage and screen legend Dame Angela Lansbury with a Lifetime Achievement Award the theatre world is mourning her loss.
The passing of theatre’s undisputed Grand Dame was announced in a statement issued by the Lansbury family which read: “The children of Dame Angela Lansbury are sad to announce that their mother died peacefully in her sleep at home in Los Angeles at 1:30am today, Tuesday, October 11, 2022, just five days shy of her 97th birthday. In addition to her three children, Anthony, Deirdre and David, she is survived by three grandchildren, Peter, Katherine and Ian, plus five great grandchildren and her brother, producer Edgar Lansbury. She was proceeded in death by her husband of 53 years, Peter Shaw. A private family ceremony will be held at a date to be determined.”
Tributes to the much-loved actress were led by the organisers of the Tony Awards who posted a video of the star accepting the 2022 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre at the 75th Annual Tony Awards earlier this year, accompanied by the words: “To the ultimate thespian who hosted the Tony Awards more than anyone else and earned six Tony Awards including a Special Tony for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre this past June, we’re deeply grateful. We’ll miss you, Dame Angela Lansbury.”
Angela Lansbury took her first bow on Broadway in 1957 in Hotel Paradiso, followed by A Taste of Honey (1960) and her first musical theatre role in Anyone Can Whistle in 1964. Two years later, she gave a career-launching performance in the title role in Mame (1966), winning her first Tony. She also won Tonys for Dear World (1969), Gypsy (1974) and Sweeney Todd (1979).
After a 24-year break from Broadway, she returned in Deuce (2007) followed by Blithe Spirit (2009), A Little Night Music (2009) which earned her a fifth Tony Award, and Gore Vidal’s The Best Man (2012). In 2013 she toured Australia in Driving Miss Daisy, and in 2014 she reprised her Blithe Spirit performance as Madame Arcati in London, winning that year’s Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress.
The actress appeared in over 70 films beginning with an Oscar-nominated performance in Gaslight at the age of 17, and going on to include National Velvet, The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar nomination), The Harvey Girls, State of the Union, Samson and Delilah, The Court Jester, The Long, Hot Summer, The Manchurian Candidate (Oscar nomination) and Death on The Nile. Famously the voice of Mrs Potts in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Lansbury also featured in hit films including Nanny McPhee, Mary Poppins Returns and the animated version of The Grinch.
For TV fans across the world, Lansbury will always be amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher in the longest-running detective drama series Murder, She Wrote. Created by the team behind another classic TV detective Columbo, Richard Levinson and William Link, working with writer and producer Peter S Fischer, the series began production in 1984 and ran for 12 seasons, ending in 1996. Lansbury returned to the role for four TV films released between 1997 and 2003.
Lansbury was the recipient of the National Medal of Arts, the Kennedy Center Honors, the Silver Mask for Lifetime Achievement from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and the BAFTA/LA Britannia Award for Lifetime Achievement in Television and Film. She won six Golden Globes and had 18 Emmy nominations. A recipient of an Honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement in Motion Pictures, she was a member of the Theatre and Television Halls of Fame and in 2014 Queen Elizabeth II named her a Dame Commander of the British Empire.
Tributes to Angela Lansbury have come from across the entertainment world and include film and theatre actor Josh Gad who posted a photograph of himself alongside the star with the comment: “It is rare that one person can touch multiple generations, creating a breadth of work that defines decade after decade. Angela Lansbury was that artist. From Mame to Bedknobs to Murder, She Wrote to B&TB to Mary Poppins Returns she touched four generations. RIP Legend.”
Fellow Broadway leading lady Kristen Chenoweth tweeted: “Nobody did Mame quite like her. Rest in peace, Angela Lansbury. Thank you for your art and wisdom.”
The West End’s Elaine Paige tweeted: ‘So upset to hear the news that the legendary Dame Angela Lansbury has died. One of the last Golden Age of Hollywood stars and a Broadway and West End icon. Always so kind and generous when I met her. She will be sadly missed. RIP dearest Angela.”
Referencing Angela Lansbury’s contribution to the enduring success of Beauty and the Beast, Disney Animation posted: “We join the world in mourning Disney Legend Angela Lansbury, who brought such incredible warmth and personality to Mrs Potts in Beauty and the Beast. Her unforgettable performance will forever be a classic” alongside a link to a full tribute to the star and her many Disney roles.
Harvey Fierstein simply posted: “Angela Lansbury – She, my darlings, was EVERYTHING!”
Angela Thomas
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