‘Murder, She Wrote’, ‘Beauty and the Beast’ star Angela Lansbury dies at 96 – Orange County Register

By MARK KENNEDY | AP Entertainment Writer

NEW YORK — Angela Lansbury, the wide-eyed, scene-stealing British actress who ripped her heels in the Broadway musicals “Mame” and “Gypsy,” and solved endless murders as crime writer Jessica Fletcher on the long-running television series “Murder,” She Wrote died. She was 96.

Lansbury died Tuesday at her home in Los Angeles, according to testimony from her three children. She died five days before her 97th birthday.

Lansbury has won five Tony Awards for her Broadway performances and a lifetime achievement award. She received supporting actress Oscar nominations for two of her first three films, Gaslight (1945) and The Picture of Dorian Gray (1946), and was nominated again in 1962 for The Manchurian Candidate and her deadly portrayal of a communist agent and the mother of the title character.

Her mature demeanor led producers to cast her as much older than her actual age. In 1948, when she was 23, she wore highlights of gray so she could play a forties newspaper editor in State of the Union who was interested in Spencer Tracy.

Her fame came in middle age when she became a New York theater hit, winning Tony Awards for “Mame” (1966), “Dear World” (1969), “Gypsy” (1975) and “Sweeney Todd” (1979). . .

She was back on Broadway and received another Tony nomination in 2007 in Terrence McNally’s Deuce, in which she played a seedy, brash former tennis star who ponders with another ex-star while watching a modern day game from the stands . In 2009 she received her fifth Tony for Best Actress in a revival of Noel Coward’s “Blithe Spirit” and won an Olivier Award for the role in 2015.

But Lansbury’s greatest fame began in 1984 when she launched Murder, She Wrote on CBS. Loosely based on Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple stories, the series centers on Jessica Fletcher, a middle-aged widow and former substitute school teacher who lives in the coastal village of Cabot Cove, Maine. She had become known as a crime writer and amateur detective.

The actress found the first season of the series exhausting.

“I was shocked to learn that I had to work 12 to 15 hours a day, relentlessly,” she recalls. “I eventually had to lay down the law and say, ‘Look, I can’t do these shows in seven days; it must be eight days.’”

CBS and production company Universal Studio agreed, especially since “Murder, She Wrote” had become a Sunday night hit. Despite the long days — leaving her home in Brentwood, West Los Angeles, at 6 a.m. and returning after dark — and countless lines of dialogue to memorize, Lansbury maintained a steady pace. She was pleased that Jessica Fletcher served as an inspiration for older women.

“Women in movies have always had a hard time being role models for other women,” she noted. “They’ve always been considered glamorous in their jobs.”

In the show’s first season, Jessica wore almost dated clothes. Then she gained intelligence, Lansbury argued that as a successful woman, Jessica should dress the role.

“Murder, She Wrote” stayed high in ratings through its 11th year. Then CBS moved the series to a less favorable slot during the week because it was seeking a younger audience for Sunday nights. Lansbury protested vigorously to no avail. As expected, ratings plummeted and the show was cancelled. For consolation, CBS commissioned two-hour films featuring “Murder, She Wrote” and other specials starring Lansbury.

“Murder, She Wrote” and other television work earned her 18 Emmy nominations, but she never won one. She holds the record for most Golden Globe nominations, winning Best Actress in a Television Series and most Emmy nominations for Lead Actress in a Drama Series.