Angela Lansbury, the Irish-British-American actor and singer popular from Murder, She Wrote, Beauty and the Beast, died at her Los Angeles home on Tuesday, her family announced. The three-time Oscar nominee had a career spanning eight decades, across film, theatre and television. Born in 1925, she was one of the last surviving stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema. Dame Angela passed away in her sleep just five days before her 97th birthday, her family said in a statement.
“The children of Dame Angela Lansbury are sad to announce that their mother died peacefully in her sleep at home in Los Angeles,” the family said.
The London-born actor had an illustrious career during which, she won five Tony Awards and most recently in 2009 for best-featured actress in a play for her work in Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit. She was best known for work on the Great White Way as ghoulish pie-maker Nellie Lovett, in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Her other three Tony wins were for best actress in a musical for Mame in 1966, Dear World in 1969 and Gypsy in 1975.
