A true icon from the Golden Age of vintage Hollywood has left us.
Angela Lansbury, an Oscar nominee and Tony award-winning actress, whose work spanned decades died peacefully in her sleep at home in Los Angeles on October 11, 2022.
The actress — who at one point was the wealthiest woman in television history– is now mourned by millions and she’s leaving a legacy that will last for a long time…
Throughout her entire life, Lansbury performed both in front of the screen and on stage, earning Academy Award nominations, Tony Awards, and two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Lansbury acted in films and on television well into her 90s, a career spanning eight decades in total. But sadly, her life came to an end yesterday – just five days shy of her 97th birthday.
British-born Angela Lansbury became interested in acting as a young girl – but it was an tragic incident that pushed her towards thinking of a career in the business.
Her father passed away when she was just nine years old and Angela – called Brigid by her family when growing up – was filled with heartbreak.
But acting became something of a tool to help her through it all. She later revealed that her father’s tragic passing was ”the defining moment of my life.”
As a young girl, Angela explained that she always wanted people to notice her. So she was pretty much always acting – even though she didn’t know it herself.
“At the age of 11 or 12, I remember sitting on buses and trying to look interesting. Or I would get people’s attention by saying something kind of outlandish that simply sounded as if I knew something they didn’t know.
“[I was] taking on the emotional and mental aspects of somebody other than Brigid. So I was acting through a great deal of my life without even realizing that that’s what I was doing.”
Angela went on to study acting at the Feagin School of Dramatic Art in New York, and appeared in several school productions. Just two years later, though, her family moved to Los Angeles.
There, she had to help to support the family. Angela worked at a department store as a gift wrapper – and it forced her to grow up fast.
Of course, being a gift wrapper wasn’t her dream job.
She was still hoping for a career in show business – and in 1944, she got her first significant role when she starred alongside Ingrid Bergman in Gaslight, playing the housemaid, Nancy. She celebrated her 18th birthday on set.
“That was a thrilling experience, to work with Ingrid [Bergman], who was so kind. It was sort of a dream world,” she recalled.
“I was so young; I was really awed by what I was being asked to do. And when you’re challenged like that, you damn well do your best.”
Even though it was her first ever professional role, the 19-year-old Angela Lansbury showed the whole world that she was a pro from the start. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Gaslight. A year later, she was nominated for another Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Rolefor The Picture of Dorian Gray.
The success of Gaslight brought Angela Lansbury instant fame, and the big studios wanted a piece of it. The Irish-British and American actress secured a seven-year contract with film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, earning around $500 per week. She also had the option of changing to a stage name at that point but decided to continue using her own.
In the 1940s, Angela’s career was moving at the speed of sound. She starred in several films each year, always having a character to play. Her roles included the 1944 film National Velvet and the 1946 film The Harvey Girls, where Angela starred alongside Judy Garland.
Overall, she was living the dream in the 40s. Her contract with MGM was very lucrative and she also married her first husband, actor Richard Cromwell in 1945, though their union only lasted a year before they got divorced.
Angela was only 19 when she tied the knot with Cromwell.
In retrospect, Angela has admitted that she was naive to marry Cromwell. She was young, and he was 15 years her senior. The good-looking Cromwell had made a name for himself after roles in “The Lives of a Bengal Lancer” and “Jezebel” – but he also carried a great secret that threatened his career.
When Angela found a note from Cromwell declaring that their marriage must end, she was devastated.
“Sorry. I can’t go on.”
She didn’t understand anything and was heartbroken. It was only when Cromwell’s publicist told her that the actor was gay that Angela understood why their marriage became an impossibility.
Being gay in Hollywood was not something you openly displayed; it was not accepted, and marrying Lansbury was like a kind of smokescreen for Cromwell.
”It didn’t injure or damage me in any way. But it was a shock to me when it ended; I wasn’t prepared for that. It was just a horrible error I made as a very young woman. But I don’t regret it,” Angela said.
Angela thereafter remained single for several years, but it didn’t take long before she met the true love of her life, Peter Shaw.
Angela and Peter met while working as actors at MGM. Both were born in England, and they married in London in 1949. Shaw had some success as an actor, though he would become more famous as an agent, working with the likes of Robert Mitchum and Katharine Hepburn.
Later on, he and Lansbury would even work together, as Shaw was a producer on one of Lansbury’s most famous projects, the CBS television series Murder, She Wrote.
“We had the perfect relationship,” Angela Lansbury said of their marriage in 2014.
“Not many people can say that. He was everything to me: we were partners at work as well as husband and wife and lovers. I don’t know how we had such a long marriage, but the simple fact was that we were devoted to one another.”
Angela and her husband Peter went on to welcome two children. In 1952, son Anthony Pullen Shaw was born. One year later, they welcomed daughter, Deidre Angela Shaw.
The couple had a wonderful union that lasted over 50 years. Unfortunately, in 2003, Peter sadly passed away of congestive heart failure in their home in Brentwood, California.
Losing the love of her life was a massive tragedy for Angela, who sunk into a deep depression, closing herself off from the world for a while.
In 1984, Angela Lasbury landed one of her career-defining roles and became the talk of the town as she was portraying the writer Jessica Fletcher in the U.S. television series Murder, She Wrote.
Her agent had advised her not to star in another sitcom television series, but history tells us Angela made the right move – the show was a huge success, while Lansbury stayed on it until 1996.
According to The Daily Mail, Jessica Fletcher was essentially America’s Miss Marple, the show was based loosely on Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple stories.
“Making Jessica Fletcher the character I ended up playing took me several years. She started off a little bit goofy, but I finally made her a woman of my age and of my intellect.
“I think that is what made her such an appealing character of the world — because she was somebody that people could understand and make part of their lives.”
She received a staggering 12 Primetime Emmy nominations, though never won despite the fact she was nominated almost every year. However, starring as Jessica Fletcher made Angela rich. Very rich.
According to The Daily Mail, Jessica Fletcher was essentially America’s Miss Marple, the show was based loosely on Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple stories.
“Making Jessica Fletcher the character I ended up playing took me several years. She started off a little bit goofy, but I finally made her a woman of my age and of my intellect.
“I think that is what made her such an appealing character of the world — because she was somebody that people could understand and make part of their lives.”
She received a staggering 12 Primetime Emmy nominations, though never won despite the fact she was nominated almost every year. However, starring as Jessica Fletcher made Angela rich. Very rich.
Obvioulsy, Angela was a though cookie and she worked hard. She did 14-hour days for 12 full years while shooting Murder, She Wrote. Luckily for the actress, it paid off massively.
She earned $40,000 per episode – but there was more to come. From 1992 to 1996, Angela worked as the executive producer for the tv series and was in a better position to negotiate with Universal and CBS.
According to Daily Mail, Lansbury was paid $200,000 per episode when she was executive producer and starred as Jessica Fletcher. When she died, Angela had a net worth of around $70 million.
As recently as 2018, Lansbury, who was made dame by Queen Elizabeth II, starred in Mary Poppins Returns. And during the 2022 Tony Awards, she received the 2022 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre.
But on October 11, 2022, her amazing life came to an end. Angela died just days before her 97th birthday. No cause of death was mentioned.
“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.
In addition to her children, Angela Lansbury is survived by three grandchildren (Peter, Katherine, Ian) five great grandchildren and her brother, the producer Edgar Lansbury.