Why Angela Lansbury Found Playing Murder She Wrote’s Jessica Fletcher ‘Second Nature to Me’

As Murder, She Wrote’s Jessica Fletcher, veteran film and theater actress Angela Lansbury became a beloved friend whom millions of viewers welcomed into their living rooms every week. “Being Jessica was second nature to me because she embodied all of the qualities that I like about women,” Angela said. “She was valiant and liberal and athletic and exciting and sexy and all kinds of good stuff that women are of a certain age are not given credit for.”

Murder ended its 12-season run in 1993, but Angela, who passed away on October 11 in Los Angeles at age 96 — just five days shy of her 97th birthday — remained vibrant and engaged with life to the end. The actress, who lost her husband Peter Shaw in 2003,  had two children, Deidre and Anthony, and a stepson, David. “Since the pandemic hit, she had been mostly staying in L.A., where her family is,” says a friend. “More than anything, she loved her family. She just luxuriated in spending time with her children, three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.”

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The daughter of an Irish actress, Angela began aspiring to the silver screen in childhood. At 18, the London-born performer, who had moved to the United States with her family during World War II, made her big screen debut playing a sinister maid in Gaslight.  Although Angela would receive an Oscar nomination for the role, and another for playing a dance hall girl in 1945’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, Hollywood never knew what to do with her.  Even as a young woman, the pretty but not conventionally beautiful actress, was often cast as characters decades older than she really was. “I’ve played so many old hags most people think I’m 65 years old,” she joked at 41.

Angela usually played mothers or villains — or both. Her evil matriarch in 1962’s The Manchurian Candidate yielded her third Oscar nomination. “I was never going to get to play the girl next door, and I was never going to be groomed to be a glamorous movie star,” Angela said. “I sort of realized that, so I had to make peace with myself on that score.”

With the meatiest roles out of reach, Angela eventually grew weary of the Hollywood studio system. “I wasn’t very good at being a starlet. I didn’t want to pose for cheesecake photos and that kind of thing … I really wasn’t cut out for it,” she admitted in 2009.  “Maybe I didn’t sleep with enough people? I think that had something to do with it. I really do. Maybe I didn’t play Louis B. Mayer the way I might have.”

By the late 1950s, Angela set her sights on Broadway. Her starring role in 1966’s Mame made her a genuine star and won her a Tony Award, but it didn’t come easy. Angela lobbied hard for the role and finally won it over better-known names like Judy Garland, Doris Day and Audrey Hepburn.

Her success in Mame led to other starring roles on Broadway, in Gypsy and Sweeney Todd, but Hollywood took a long time coming around. When a film version of Mame was made in 1974, Lucille Ball was chosen to play the title character, much to Angela’s disappointment. Alas, Lucille, despite her many talents, was miscast and the film flopped.

In the 1980s, Angela grew exhausted with life in the theater. The opportunity to star on television in Murder, She Wrote was extremely appealing because it offered security and a more manageable schedule. “There comes a time in a theatrical life when you say to yourself, ‘Well, I can’t make any money in the theater,’ so television was a very specific decision I made,” said Angela.

Still, when Murder, She Wrote debuted in 1984, no one expected it to be a hit. It defied expectations when millions of viewers began tuning in every week. People loved that Jessica was wise, witty and a credit to older women — something that Angela lobbied for. After the first season, Jessica’s clothes became less frumpy, and the character became smarter and more intuitive. “I want women my age to be represented the way they are,” Angela said, “which are vital, productive members of society.”

Murder also succeeded because it was a rare television series that the whole family could watch together. “It was really a fluke success and came at a time when that kind of family entertainment seemed needed,” said Angela. “It did particularly well with men, oddly enough. The character was very calming. She was the voice of reason in a very troubled time.”

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It aired new episodes for 12 seasons and spawned several television movies. Even at the height of her Murder, She Wrote fame, Angela never thought of herself as anything special. “She was a great lady, but she never looked at herself as a star,” her stepson David Shaw tells Closer. “She viewed herself as a hard-working actress, just as she had always been.”

Angela went on to other roles and returned to the theater as recently as 2009’s Blithe Spirit, but she remained proud that Jessica would remain her best-loved character. “What appealed to me about Jessica,” said Angela, “is that I could do what I do best and have little chance to play — a sincere, down-to-earth woman.”