BREAKING NEWS: Angela Lansbury, Murder, She Wrote and Beauty and the Beast actress dies aged 96

Angela Lansbury, who was perhaps best known for her role in the TV series Murder She Wrote and the Walt Disney film Beauty and the Beast, has died at the age of 96.

The star’s family announced on Tuesday, October 11 that she had passed away peacefully in her sleep at 1.30 am this morning. Lansbury died at her home in Los Angeles just days before her 97^th birthday.

Lansbury is survived by her three children Anthony, Deirdre and David. She also has three grandchildren, Peter, Katherine and Ian, plus five great-grandchildren.

She is also survived by her brother, producer Edgar Lansbury.

Lansbury’s husband of 53 years Peter Shaw passed away some years before her.

According to IMDB Angela Lansbury was born in 1925 into a prominent family of the upper middle class living in the Regent’s Park neighbourhood of London.

Her father was socialist politician Edgar Isaac Lansbury (1887-1935), a member of both the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and the Labour Party.

Lansbury’s mother was Irish film actress Moyna Macgill (1895-1975), originally from Belfast.

In 1940, Lansbury started her acting education at the Webber Douglas School of Singing and Dramatic Art, located in Kensington, West London. She made her theatrical debut in the school’s production of the play “Mary of Scotland” (1933) by Maxwell Anderson.

During WWII her mother moved her family to the United States to escape the Blitz. That led to Lansbury securing her first paying job. She started out in Montreal, singing at the nightclub Samovar Club. Although she was only 16 she lied about her age to get the job.

Her first film role came as Nancy Oliver, the film’s conniving cockney maid. She went on to star in more than 100 other films and TV series.

Lansbury was married twice, first to the actor Richard Cromwell (1910-1960) who was younger than her. They later divorced and she married Peter Shaw who was older than her.

Lansbury was a star who made a name for herself across the world and she will be sorely missed.

No details of her funeral or ceremony are available as yet, but it is thought that it will be a private family affair.

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