Iconic Actress Angela Lansbury Dies at 96
By Movieguide® Staff
Legendary actress Angela Lansbury died on Tuesday, Oct. 11, at age 96.
“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 a.m. today, Tuesday, October 11, 2022, just five days shy of her 97th birthday,” her family says in a statement obtained by PEOPLE.
“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,” the statement adds. “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.”
Lansbury was the longstanding star of MURDER, SHE WROTE, and appeared in movies such as BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, as well as the Movieguide® Award-Winning MARY POPPINS RETURNS and THE GRINCH.
According to Variety:
Discovered while still in her teens by playwright and screenwriter John Van Druten, Lansbury scored an Academy Award nomination as best supporting actress for her first role, as the scheming Cockney maid opposite Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman in George Cukor’s 1944 suspense film “Gaslight.”
Director Cukor later wrote that her instant ascent to stardom was “a Cinderella story. On the first day of shooting, even though she was only 17 and had no experience, she was immediately professional. She became this little housemaid — even her face seemed to change. Suddenly, I was watching real movie acting.”
She repeated as a supporting actress Oscar nominee with her third feature, “The Picture of Dorian Gray” (1945), for which she scored a second supporting actress award portraying the ill-fated music hall performer Sibyl Vane in the adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s horror tale.
Lansbury scored a contract at MGM and appeared in such high-profile pics as “Till the Clouds Roll By” (1946), “State of the Union” (1948) and “The Three Musketeers” (1948). She made memorable appearances in such ‘50s dramas as “The Long, Hot Summer” (1958) and “The Dark at the Top of the Stairs.”
Lansbury displayed a unique ability to play older than her years, specializing in iron-fisted matriarchs. In 1961, when she turned 36, she played 26-year-old Elvis Presley’s mother in “Blue Hawaii.” The following year, she took the role of the malevolent mother of brainwashed ex-serviceman Laurence Harvey (who was only three years her junior) in John Frankenheimer’s Cold War thriller “The Manchurian Candidate.” She collected her third supporting actress Oscar nomination for the performance.
She continued her acting career both on stage and on screen. Her last credit was 2018’s BUTTONS.
In addition to often selecting moral, redemptive roles, Lansbury also valued her time as a mother.
According to People:
Problems of a highly personal nature — the Shaw children, Anthony (born in 1952) and Deirdre (in 1953), were both on hard drugs, the parents discovered — forced a 1971 family move to County Cork, Ireland, which, Lansbury said, “was one of the last places on earth that was fairly drug-free.”
Commuting between Ireland, London and New York for the next decade until the kids were clean, Lansbury bounced back professionally in 1978, when she created the iconic role of murder accomplice Mrs. Lovett in the operatic Stephen Sondheim Broadway musical Sweeney Todd.
In 2018, she said, “We live on the memory of our lives, and I think that’s one of the things I cherish (most) is the memory of my family, the memory of my children growing up, the memory of life with my husband, the memory of knowing the people that I do. I just don’t want ever to forget.”
Please pray for the Lansbury family as they mourn their loss.
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Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.
Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
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