Remembering Angela Lansbury's Life in Pictures

Angela Lansbury's Early Life

The British-American actress Angela Lansbury, with a legendary career spanning almost eight decades, was born in central London on Oct. 16, 1925. Known for a variety of recognizable roles in television, film and theater, Lansbury was one of the last stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema.

Angela Lansbury's Transition to Hollywood

Lansbury was born into an upper-middle-class family, the daughter of actress Moyna Macgill and English politician Edgar Lansbury. She moved from Britain to the United States to escape the Blitz in 1940. She studied acting in New York City and moved to Hollywood two years later.

Angela Lansbury and Richard Cromwell's Marriage

Not long after her move, she eloped with actor Richard Cromwell in 1945. Lansbury was 19 at the time, while Cromwell was 35. The marriage ended in divorce one year later, but they remained friends until his death in 1960.

Angela Lansbury and Peter Shaw's Marriage

Lansbury remarried a few years later to actor and producer Peter Shaw, in 1949. The couple remained together for 54 years until his death in 2003. They share three children Anthony, Deirdre and David from Shaw's previous marriage. Lansbury went on to become a grandmother to three and a great-grandmother of five.

Angela Lansbury in Gaslight

After signing with MGM following her move to Hollywood, Lansbury landed her first film role in 1944's Gaslight, followed by The Picture of Dorian Gray one year later. She nabbed Academy Award nominations for both films, and the latter earned her a Golden Globe for best supporting actress in a motion picture.

Angela Lansbury in The Manchurian Candidate

When her MGM contract ended in 1952, she landed a role in the widely acclaimed 1962 movie The Manchurian Candidate before transitioning to the theater. Recognized as one of her strongest roles in a film, the part earned Lansbury her third Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Angela Lansbury's Broadway Debut

Anyone Can Whistle marked Lansbury's first musical theater gig in 1964, but it wasn't until she landed the leading role in 1966's Broadway musical Mame that she attained Broadway stardom status, earning her first Tony Award in 1969.

That same year, she also received a Tony Award for best leading actress in a musical in Dear World.

Angela Lansbury in Bedknobs and Broomsticks

Lansbury continued with various on-stage performances, but also took up Disney's acclaimed classic Bedknobs and Broomsticks in 1971. This marked her first screen musical, which secured her an enormous audience.

Angela Lansbury's Tony Awards

Lansbury saw much success throughout the 1970s, as it was a Tony Award-winning decade for the actress. She was awarded the honor for her leading role in Gypsy in1975 and Sweeney Todd in 1979.

Angela Lansbury on Murder, She Wrote

Following her Broadway run, Lansbury transitioned into television work in 1984, landing the iconic role of Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote. The show ran for 12 seasons until 1996; she was nominated for an Emmy Award consecutively each year.

Angela Lansbury in Beauty and the Beast

Lansbury contributed to classic animated films in the 1990s and is widely known for voicing the beloved Mrs. Potts in Disney's Beauty and the Beast in 1991. She sang the title song, which won the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Original Song, and a Grammy Award for best song written for a motion picture, television, or other visual media.

She later voiced Dowager Empress Marie in Don Bluth's Anastasia in 1997.

Angela Lansbury in Nanny McPhee

Lansbury returned to film in 2005, starring as Aunt Adelaide in Nanny McPhee. The movie filmed shortly after Lansbury lost her husband in 2003, and she credited co-star Emma Thompson for lifting her spirits through the production that "absolutely appealed to [my] sense of ridiculous," Lansbury told Studio 10.

Angela Lansbury's Return to Broadway

Thirty years after her fourth Tony Award win for Sweeney Todd, Lansbury took home her fifth Tony for best featured actress in a play for 2009's Blithe Spirit. In 2015, she also earned an Olivier Award for the same role — at age 89!

Angela Lansbury's Academy Awards

Lansbury never won an Oscar for her films (although she was nominated multiple times), but she was awarded the Academy Honorary Oscar for her lifetime achievements in 2013. Her good friend Robert Osborne, host of Turner Classic Movies, presented her with the honor.

Angela Lansbury's Recent Roles

Following Nanny McPhee, Lansbury appeared in a number of memorable titles, including 2011's Mr. Popper's Penguins opposite Jim Carrey, and 2018's Mary Poppins Returns opposite Emily Blunt.

In 2018, she told Larry King that she's never thought about retiring and that she'll "probably pass away with one hand on [her] script." In June of 2022, she was honored with the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, though wasn't present at the ceremony.

Four months later, the actress' family announced she had died "peacefully in her sleep at home in Los Angeles" on Oct. 11, 2022, just five days before her 97th birthday.