Angela Lansbury

Angela Lansbury was an award-winning actress best known for her role as Jessica Fletcher on Murder, She Wrote and her decades-long career on stage and screen. Lansbury was born in London, England, and her family relocated to the United States during World War II. She studied acting at the Feagin School of Drama and Radio in New York City before moving to Los Angeles with her mother.

Lansbury made her film debut in Gaslight (1944), earning her the first of three Academy Award nominations by the time she was 20. She quickly gained attention for her supporting roles in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) and The Manchurian Candidate (1962). Despite often being cast in older roles early on, she transitioned to leading parts and built a successful career in film, television and theater.

Her most iconic role came in 1984 when she began playing mystery writer and amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher on Murder, She Wrote, which ran until 1996. She also appeared in Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), The Mirror Crack’d (1980), Mary Poppins Returns (2018) and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022). Throughout her career, Lansbury won five Tony Awards, six Golden Globes and received an honorary Oscar in 2013.

Lansbury was married to actor Richard Cromwell from 1945 to 1946. She later wed Peter Shaw in 1949, and they remained together until his death in 2003. She and Peter shared two children, Anthony Shaw (born in 1952) and Deirdre Shaw (born in 1953).

Lansbury died on October 11, 2022, at age 96.