Angela Lansbury, Oscar winner and ‘Murder, She Wrote’ actress, dead at 96

Angela Lansbury, the three-time Oscar winner with a storied stage and screen career has died. She was 96.

The “Murder, She Wrote” actress died at home in her sleep, according to a statement from her family.

She was just a few days short of her 97th birthday, they said.

“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 AM today, Tuesday, October 11, 2022, just five days shy of her 97th birthday,” the statement read.

“In addition to her three children, Anthony, Deirdre and David, she is survived by three grandchildren, Peter, Katherine and Ian, plus five great grandchildren and her brother, producer Edgar Lansbury. She was proceeded in death by her husband of 53 years, Peter Shaw. A private family ceremony will be held at a date to be determined.”

Lansbury is known to many as widowed mystery novelist Jessica Fletcher from CBS’ “Murder, She Wrote,” which ran for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996 as one of the most successful shows on the network.

A gifted singer, she also voiced Mrs. Potts in Disney’s 1991 cartoon “Beauty and the Beast” and sang the film’s titular track. In 2016, at age 90, Lansbury sang the film’s theme song live at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall for the movie’s 25th anniversary.

The London-born thespian also won five Tony Awards, most recently for best featured actress in “Blithe Spirit” in 2009.

Her first Tony Award was in 1979, winning best musical actress as Nellie Lovett in “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.” She also scored wins for best actress in a musical for “Mame” in 1966, “Dear World” in 1969 and “Gypsy” in 1975.

In 1998, Lansbury recalled growing up in England before immigrating to New York during the London Blitz during a sit-down with the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences. She said she began her early motion picture career at MGM with films including George Cukor’s “Gaslight” with a cast led by Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer and “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” which starred Hurd Hatfield and George Sanders.

The Post has reached out to her reps for comment.

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