A Detective, A Dowager Empress, And a Teapot: Remembering Angela Lansbury

An icon with her voice, and characters.

My younger brother and I were rewatching the animated Beauty and the Beast. Normally I don’t cry during the titular song, but I felt my eyes welling up. Angela Lansbury sang it in one take, according to behind-the-scenes information. This is the first time that I saw the movie after her passing.

Angela Lansbury had a remarkable voice. You only needed to hear a few words and feel reassured. I can’t stop listening.

Who Was Angela Lansbury?

Dame Angela Lansbury was an Irish-British actress who performed in film, on stage, and in television. You may know her as J.B. Fletcher in Murder She Wrote, as Mrs. Potts the singing teapot in Beauty and the Beast, as Dowager-Empress Marie in Anastasia, or as the witch in Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Angela Lansbury did it all. She also wrote and directed television episodes for Murder She Wrote.

I knew her best as the singing teapot, and a bereaved grandmother searching for beloved family members. Others knew her as a lady detective that…