Angela Lansbury, the ‘Murder, She Wrote’ and ‘Beauty and the Beast’ actress, has died at the age of 96.

Just five days short of her 97th birthday, Dame Angela Lansbury passed away quietly in her sleep at home in Los Angeles at 1:30 AM on Tuesday, October 11, 2022, according to a statement from her family.

On October 16, 1923, Angela Brigid Lansbury was born in London, England. When she was just nine years old, her father passed suddenly, leaving her in a great deal of pain.

Growing up, Lansbury, who was given the name Brigid by her family, had a lot of grief, but she used her work as a sort of coping mechanism. It was “the defining event of my life,” she said.

Nothing before or subsequently has ever had such a profound impact on me, she said. I “became a bit of a dreamer, lost in my sorrow [and] much more engaged in acting, following my mother’s lead.” Lansbury said that as a little girl, she always desired attention from others. She was therefore acting pretty much all the time, even if she wasn’t aware of it.

“When I was around 11 or 12, I recall sitting in buses and making an effort to seem intriguing. Or I would say something rather outrageous to attract people’s attention by making it seem as though I knew something they didn’t. I was adopting the mental and emotional characteristics of someone other than Brigid. I therefore spent a large portion of my life acting without even being aware of it.”

Lansbury, who was given the title dame by Queen Elizabeth II, most recently appeared in Mary Poppins Returns in 2018. She also earned the 2022 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre during the 2022 Tony Awards.

Angela, you were a delight to see both on stage and on TV. Your brilliance will always be remembered.

May you rest in peace.