Angela Lansbury, TV’s Favorite Sleuth on ‘Murder She Wrote,’ Dies at 96 - The New York Times

Angela Lansbury, a formidable histrion who captivated Hollywood successful her youth, became a Broadway philharmonic sensation successful mediate property and past drew millions of fans arsenic a widowed enigma writer connected the long-running tv bid “Murder, She Wrote,” died connected Tuesday astatine her location successful Los Angeles. She was 96.

Her decease was announced successful a connection by her family.

Ms. Lansbury was the victor of 5 Tony Awards for her starring performances connected the New York stage, from “Mame” successful 1966 to “Blithe Spirit” successful 2009, erstwhile she was 83, a testament to her bonzer stamina. Yet she appeared connected Broadway lone from clip to clip implicit a seven-decade vocation successful film, theatre and tv successful which determination were besides years erstwhile thing seemed to beryllium coming up roses.

It was a giddy commencement for a young pistillate who at 14 had fled wartime London with her parent and had lone precocious graduated from New York’s Feagin School of Dramatic Art. Ms. Lansbury imagined she mightiness person a aboriginal arsenic a starring lady, but, she said successful a New York Times interview successful 2009, she was not comfy trying to ascent that ladder.

“I wasn’t precise bully astatine being a starlet,” she said. “I didn’t privation to airs for cheesecake photos and that benignant of thing.”

It mightiness besides person been a substance of bones. Her full, circular look was not good suited for the melodramatic lighting of the time, which favored the much angular looks of stars similar Lauren Bacall and Katharine Hepburn. In immoderate event, she appeared successful galore a forgettable movie earlier breaking retired arsenic the glamorous, madcap aunt successful “Mame” connected Broadway.

MGM regularly formed her arsenic an older woman, oregon a nasty one. Of the 11 movies she made aft “Dorian Gray,” possibly her astir notable relation was successful “State of the Union” (1948), with Ms. Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, successful which she played a paper magnate trying to get her joined person elected president.

She was Elvis Presley’s possessive parent successful “Blue Hawaii” (1961). She was Laurence Harvey’s sinister parent successful “The Manchurian Candidate” (1962), a relation that won her a 3rd supporting histrion Oscar nomination. (Though she was lone 3 years Mr. Harvey’s senior, her maternal authorization was wholly convincing erstwhile she told him, “You are to sprout the statesmanlike nominee done the head.”) She played a pistillate who kills her hubby successful “Please Murder Me” (1956) and an overbearing parent successful “The Reluctant Debutante” (1958). And truthful it went.

On to Broadway

Ms. Lansbury made her Broadway debut successful 1957 successful “Hotel Paradiso,” a translation of a 19th-century French farce. Good reviews encouraged her to effort much theatre work. She returned to Broadway successful 1960 arsenic the alcoholic azygous parent of a large teen successful “A Taste of Honey.”

In 1964 she was formed arsenic a corrupt politician successful the Arthur Laurents-Stephen Sondheim philharmonic “Anyone Can Whistle.” A notorious failure, it closed aft lone 12 previews and 9 performances, but it showed she could summon the close worldly for unrecorded philharmonic performance. “I had a little, precocious soprano, and they wanted a belter,” she said successful 2009. “So I learned however to belt.”

Ms. Russell did not privation to play Mame again. Mary Martin was formed but opted out. More than a twelve different actresses, including Judy Garland, Doris Day and Ms. Hepburn, were said to beryllium nether consideration. But Ms. Lansbury was 1 of the fewer consenting to audition for the relation successful beforehand of the show’s originative and fiscal principals.

In a Life mag screen nonfiction astir the amusement and her portion successful it, she recalled that determination had been galore distracting interruptions by men successful acheronian glasses, compelling her to sing the songs implicit again. “Then they said, ‘Goodbye, convey you.’ That was all,” she said.

Back location successful Malibu, Calif., with her husband, Peter Shaw, an MGM executive, and their teenage children, Anthony and Deirdre, she waited for months for a telephone from the East. Finally, she flew to New York and confronted the producers.

“I americium going backmost to California,” she recalled telling them, “and unless you archer maine — let’s look it, I person prostrated myself — now, yes oregon no, that’s the extremity of it.” That afternoon, she got an authoritative yes.

Her show made her a genuine prima astatine last. The amusement opened successful New York connected May 24, 1966, and the columnist Rex Reed reported successful The Times that connected the nighttime helium attended, “when the radical got bushed of whistling and clapping similar thunder, they stood up successful the recently refurbished seats successful the Winter Garden and screamed.” He likened Ms. Lansbury to “a blessed caterpillar turning, aft years of being thumb-nosed by Hollywood successful endless roles arsenic baggy-faced frumps, into a gilt-edged butterfly.”

To Ms. Lansbury’s disappointment, though, Lucille Ball was chosen for the movie mentation of “Mame,” which was not a success.

Ms. Lansbury won her 2nd Tony for champion histrion arsenic the 75-year-old Countess Aurelia successful “Dear World,” a 1969 philharmonic adaptation of “The Madwoman of Chaillot.” The accumulation itself was not good received and closed aft 132 performances. For a while, though, it held the favoritism of charging the highest summons prices connected Broadway: $12.50 for the champion seats (the equivalent of astir $105 today).

She past returned to Hollywood, wherever she played an aging German aristocrat successful “Something for Everyone” (1970), a uncommon cinematic effort from the Broadway shaper and manager Harold Prince, and a witch successful the Disney movie “Bedknobs and Broomsticks” (1971).

But this was a tumultuous clip for her and her family. Their Malibu location was destroyed successful a brushwood fire. Her lad and girl were utilizing hard drugs. She and Mr. Shaw decided to permission California for the seashore of County Cork, Ireland, wherever they built a location based connected accepted farmhouse design.

It was the sanctuary they had hoped for: Ms. Lansbury became a superior gardener, and her children overcame their cause problems. Anthony became an histrion and past a tv director, with credits including galore episodes of “Murder, She Wrote”; Deirdre yet joined Enzo Battarra, a restaurateur, and became his concern partner.

Over the adjacent decennary Ms. Lansbury worked mostly connected the stage, successful London and New York. She starred arsenic Mama Rose successful a revival of “Gypsy,” which opened successful London and won her a 3rd Tony erstwhile it reached Broadway successful 1974. She won yet different for her show arsenic Mrs. Lovett, the baker with a grisly root of nutrient for her pies, successful Mr. Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s “Sweeney Todd,” with Len Cariou successful the rubric role, which opened successful March 1979 and ran for 557 performances.

Success connected the London signifier closed a ellipse for Ms. Lansbury.

Angela Brigid Lansbury was calved successful London connected Oct. 16, 1925, and grew up determination successful upper-middle-class comfort, the girl of Moyna MacGill, an Irish actress, and Edgar Lansbury, a timber merchant and person who was the lad of a Labour Party leader, George Lansbury. Her begetter died of tummy crab erstwhile she was 9; her gramps died 5 years later, and that loss, unneurotic with the Blitz, prompted her parent to determination to the United States with Angela, her fractional sister and her duplicate younger brothers.

“We near everything behind,” Ms. Lansbury recalled. “Suddenly, we conscionable weren’t determination anymore.”

A Surprise Hit

For each her signifier success, Ms. Lansbury would seizure the biggest assemblage of her vocation successful 1984, erstwhile she was formed arsenic the enigma writer and amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher connected the CBS bid “Murder, She Wrote.”

It was wide believed that the series, whose protagonist was a bicycle-riding widow surviving successful a tiny municipality successful Maine, had small accidental against sexier contention similar the enactment transgression play “Knight Rider” connected NBC. The accepted contented was that advertisers would not spell aft the older assemblage the amusement was apt to attract.

“We were getting condolences adjacent earlier we went connected the air,” Richard Levinson, 1 of the show’s creators, recalled. “At best, we hoped that it would beryllium a marginal success.”

Instead, the amusement became a immense hit. In its 2nd play it outdrew Steven Spielberg’s highly anticipated anthology series, “Amazing Stories,” by much than 2 cardinal viewers a week, and it went connected to tally until 1996.

“What appealed to maine astir Jessica Fletcher,” Ms. Lansbury said successful an interview with The Times aboriginal successful the show’s 2nd season, “is that I could bash what I bash champion and person small accidental to play — a sincere, down-to-earth woman.”

She received 12 successive Emmy nominations for her portrayal of Jessica Fletcher, but she ne'er won.

Ms. Lansbury remained progressive connected tv (she returned to her signature relation successful 4 made-for-television “Murder, She Wrote” films) and successful movies, notably the Disney animated deed “Beauty and the Beast” (1991), successful which she was the dependable of the talking teapot Mrs. Potts. And determination were much Broadway performances to come. Neither arthritis nor hep and genu replacements could support her disconnected the signifier for precise long.

She starred with Marian Seldes successful the Terrence McNally drama “Deuce” successful 2007 and played the eccentric mean Madame Arcati successful the 2009 revival of Noël Coward’s “Blithe Spirit,” earning Tony No. 5 — a full exceeded lone by Audra McDonald and Julie Harris, with six each (including Ms. Harris’s beingness accomplishment award). Ms. Lansbury received different information for her show aboriginal that twelvemonth arsenic Madame Armfeldt successful a revival of the Sondheim philharmonic “A Little Night Music.”

Though she ne'er won an Oscar oregon an Emmy, Ms. Lansbury received an honorary grant from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences successful 2013 for creating “some of cinema’s astir memorable characters” and “inspiring generations of actors.” A twelvemonth later, she was made a dame by Queen Elizabeth II.

Mr. Shaw, her husband, died successful 2003. An earlier matrimony to Richard Cromwell, an American actor, ended successful divorcement aft little than a year. Ms. Lansbury is survived by her sons, Anthony and David; her daughter, Deirdre; a brother, Edgar; 3 grandchildren; and 5 great-grandchildren.

While galore older actresses complained astir a shortage of roles, Ms. Lansbury ne'er lacked for enactment and seldom turned it down.

She did opt retired of a large accidental to instrumentality to Broadway for the 2017-18 season, successful a revival of “The Chalk Garden,” saying she had decided to walk much clip with her household alternatively than look a long, lonely agelong of surviving successful New York. But different bully roles continued to drawback her fancy, including the rich, imperious Aunt March successful the BBC mini-series “Little Women” and the bully woman who sells magical balloons successful the movie “Mary Poppins Returns.” Both were released successful 2018.

“I truly don’t cognize however to unbend to the grade that I could conscionable stop,” she told Katie Couric of CBS successful 2009. “So erstwhile thing comes on and is presented to me, and I deliberation ‘Gee, I could person immoderate amusive doing that,’ oregon ‘I deliberation I could bring thing to that,’ I’ll bash it.”