The inimitable veteran actress Dame Angela Lansbury, a musical performer who went from stage in shows like Sweeney Todd as Mrs. Lovett, to screen in Disney’s animated classic Beauty and the Beast as Mrs. Potts, has passed away. Her family shared 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 at 1:30 a.m. today, Tuesday, October 11, 2022, just five days shy of her 97th birthday.”
Lansbury’s voice and presence in all her roles gave many generations a source of comfort. The London-born talent is one that will be missed for her impact on the big and small screen throughout her nearly life-spanning career, which started when she was just 17 in pictures like Gaslight and The Portrait of Dorian Grey. With Disney, she was simply magical as a witch taking out Nazis in Bedknobs and Broomsticks; she’d later go on to voice Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast, providing her vocals for the film’s titular song — an instant fairytale classic.
On television she garnered a dedicated fan base across generations while sleuthing mysteries as writer Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote which ran from the late 80s to well past the mid 90s. Most recently, Lansbury starred in BBC and PBS adapatation of Little Women as Aunt March. Previously she was featured in the Nanny McPhee films and Mary Poppins Returns.
In 2022 Lansbury received a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award, capping off an acclaimed stage career that included five Tony wins, including for her iconic turn in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street in 1979. In film she earned three Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress and received an Honorary Academy Award for her lifetime achievement in film in 2013. She was also a six-time Golden Globe winner — four of those awarding her performance on Murder, She Wrote. Plus, she was a Grammy Award nominee for Album of the Year for Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.
She is survived by her children, and our thoughts and condolences go out to her family at this time.
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