Angela Lansbury, Legendary Broadway Performer and ‘Murder She Wrote’ Star, Dies at Age 96
12.10.2022 - 00:01
/ glamour.com
Gaslight and The Manchurian Candidate, died on Tuesday, just five days short of her 97th birthday. In her later years, Lansbury went on to conquer the stages of Broadway, winning five Tony Awards, as well as star in a prime-time television series that ran for 12 seasons.“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,” her family revealed in a statement. “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.”Born October 16, 1925, Lansbury was cast in Gaslight, her first film, at 17 years old, in a tale that rivals Lana Turner being discovered at the Schwab’s lunch counter.
As Variety , the young actress, newly arrived in California (having emigrated during the London Blitz with her widowed mother, the British actress Moyna MacGil), was at a Hollywood dinner party when she was spotted by the playwright John Van Druten. Van Druten was writing the screenplay for , the story of a husband slowly driving his wife into madness with the help of a young Cockney housemaid. The director George Cukor had cast Charles Boyer as the husband and Ingrid Bergman as the unsuspecting wife, but was having trouble finding the right person to play the conniving maid.
Van Druten thought he saw potential in the young actress, and arranged a screen test; Lansbury was given the role that same week. As Variety reported, “Angela Lansbury, 17-year-old English girl, is the
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