Dame Angela Lansbury dies aged 96: Murder, She Wrote and Beauty and the Beast star passes away peace

Dame Angela Lansbury dies aged 96: Murder, She Wrote and Beauty and the Beast star passes away peacefully in her sleep at her LA home - five days before her 97th birthday

A statement from her family read: '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'

The star passed away just five days before her 97th birthday

Lansbury was best known for her portrayal of mystery writer and amateur detective, Jessica Fletcher in the CBS series Murder, She Wrote, which ran from 1984-1996

For her role on the program, Lansbury was nominated for ten Golden Globes, winning four

In 2013, she received an Honorary Academy Award in recognition of her 80 year acting career

She had previously been nominated for Academy Awards in the Best Supporting Actress category on three separate occasions

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Iconic actress Dame Angela Lansbury has died at the age of 96, just five days before her 97th birthday.

The Irish-British and American actress, famed for her roles in Murder, She Wrote and Beauty and the Beast passed away peacefully at her home in Los Angeles early on Tuesday morning, her three children revealed.

A statement from her family read: '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.'

Lansbury became a legend in Hollywood and on Broadway during a career that spanned an impressive eight decades and saw her taking on roles alongside some of the industry's best-known stars when she was just a teen - with the actress landing her first major movie job just four years after she fled wartime London at the age of 14.

Having moved to New York with her actress mother after leaving their home in the UK, Lansbury dedicated herself to her love of drama, and she burst onto the film scene in spectacular fashion at the age of 17, when she landed her first role in the 1944 thriller Gaslight, which saw her holding her own on the big screen alongside Hollywood heavyweights like Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer.

'I was wrapping Christmas gifts in a department store one minute, then playing opposite Ingrid Bergman the next. It was little short of a miracle,' Lansbury once told the Daily Mail of her swift ascent to stardom.

The job would ultimately earn her a contract with MGM, as well as the first of three Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actress - the second of which came one year later for her role in The Portrait of Dorian Gray - and it marked the beginning of an illustrious career on the stage and screen, during which she would star alongside a number of industry icons, including Gene Kelly and Katharine Hepburn.

However, to many TV lovers, Lansbury, who is survived by her three children and three grandchildren, was best known for her portrayal of mystery writer and amateur detective, Jessica Fletcher in the hit American crime drama series, Murder She Wrote, which ran for 12 seasons from 1984 until 1996.

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