Good night, Mrs. Potts, Wherever You Are

Legendary actress Angela Lansbury died at age 96 & BBC reminds Dame Angela’s career “spanning 8 decades across film, theatre & TV” cannot possibly ever be forgotten as “one of Hollywood’s last Golden Age stars.” As a peer Durante might have said, "Just a classy dame, if ever ya saw one ..."

Lansbury’s family issued a statement that the 3-time Oscar nominee died “peacefully in her sleep” in LA. Born in London in 1925, she would migrate to NY where she attended the Feagin School of Dramatic Art. Dame Lansbury’s acting career was lights out after being noticed by a Hollywood exec at a party & given her first role as a maid in the 1944 film Gaslight, based on the 1938 play of the same title. Her portrayal earned her an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress. She’d earn 2 more Oscar nominations as Sibyl in 1945’s Dorian Gray & as Laurence Harvey’s manipulative mother in The Manchurian Candidate opposite Frank Sinatra in 1962. Moving on to Broadway in the 60s, she’d win several Tony Awards, including one for Nellie Lovett in Stephen Sondheim’s 1979 musical play Sweeney Todd. Realizing she had a good voice, she’d appear in Disney’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks in 1971, then, provide the voice for Mrs. Potts in Beauty & the Beast.

As BBC noted, "It was her portrayal of sleuth Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote which [lasted for 12 yrs &] gained her millions of fans across the world.” Lansbury was made a Dame in 2014 for services to drama, charity & philanthropy. She was married twice, briefly to actor Richard Cromwell when 19 & later to actor & producer Peter Shaw, a union that lasted 50 years until his death in 2003. She is survived by 3 children, a brother & several grand/great-grandchildren.

Davd Soul