Legendary award-winning actress Dame Angela Lansbury has sadly passed away today, just five days before her 97th birthday, her family have announced.

Lansbury is one of the most decorated stage performers of our time, winning five Tony Awards: Best Actress in a Musical for Mame in 1966, Dear World in 1969, Gypsy in 1975, Sweeney Todd in 1979, and Best Featured Actress in a Play for Blithe Spirit in 2019.

She played Miss Eglantine Price in Disney’s 1971 film Bedknobs and Broomsticks, voiced Mrs Potts in the 1991 Disney animated musical Beauty and the Beast, and is also widely known for playing Jessica Fletcher in long running TV series, Murder, She Wrote.

She is survived by her three children, Anthony, Deirdre and David, her three grandchildren, Peter, Katherine and Ian, plus five great grandchildren and her brother, producer Edgar Lansbury.

Our thoughts are with her family and friends at this difficult time.