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Dame Angela Lansbury has died at the age of 96.<\/p>\n
The iconic actress passed away in her sleep at her home in Los Angeles on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Her family said in a statement: \u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
The London-born actress won a host of accolades during her decades-long career, including five Tony awards and an honorary Oscar.<\/p>\n
Watch video:<\/strong><\/p>\n Lansbury moved to the US in the 1940s in a bid to escape the Blitz and she studied acting at the Feagin School of Dramatic Art in New York City.<\/p>\n Lansbury ultimately signed a deal with MGM and in 1944, she starred alongside Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, and Joseph Cotten in \u201cGaslight\u201d, a psychological thriller film. <\/p>\n Lansbury\u2019s performance earned her a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the Oscars.<\/p>\n She subsequently starred in \u201cThe Picture of Dorian Gray\u201d, which earned her two Oscar nominations and a Golden Globe Award.<\/p>\n Lansbury also had a starring role in 1962\u2019s \u201cThe Manchurian Candidate\u201d, with her performance receiving widespread acclaim.<\/p>\n However, her true breakthrough came on the stage, when she starred in the Broadway musical \u201cMame\u201d in 1966. Her performance earned her the first Tony award of her career.<\/p>\n Lansbury also appeared in the stage musicals \u201cGypsy\u201d and \u201cSweeney Todd\u201d, as well as in the Disney movie \u201cBedknobs and Broomsticks\u201d in 1971 and \u201cBeauty and the Beast\u201d in 1991.<\/p>\n Despite this, Lansbury is, perhaps, best remembered for playing amateur detective Jessica Fletcher in the hit TV series \u201cMurder, She Wrote\u201d.<\/p>\n The show ran for 12 seasons, between 1984 and 1996, and it proved to be a massive success, attracting more 30 million viewers per week in its prime.<\/p>\n Lansbury, who was inducted into the TV Hall of Fame in 1996 and was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth in 2014, said: \u201c\u2018Murder, She Wrote\u2019 has given me more worldwide attention than any other role I played in the movies or on the stage.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a wonderful thing to be known in Spain, Portugal, in Paris, in France and Germany and everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n Lansbury is survived by her three children, Anthony, Deirdre and David, and her three grandchildren, Peter, Katherine and Ian.<\/p>\n