Murder, She Wrote actress Angela Lansbury had a glittering journey in television, film and Broadway since her career began in the 1940s.
Angela, who died aged 96 at her home in Los Angeles on Tuesday, had huge success when she first started her acting career.
She was nominated for an Oscar for her first role, as the maid in the 1944 classic Gaslight, and went on to work with stars including Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra.
A year after being nominated, when she was 19, she married actor Richard Cromwell. The two eloped and tied the knot in a small civil ceremony in September 1945.
Although the marriage ended in 1946, they remained friends until his death in 1960.
The actress previously revealed Richard departed with no warning and left her a note which read: "Sorry. I can't go on."
She told Terry Gross’ Fresh Air radio show: "I had known so many gay people in Hollywood. It just had never really sunk in … I was in love with love.
"And I just – it was a shock, but it wasn’t a shock because I was so in love with Richard Cromwell when I married him that I was just – you know, I’d never had any kind of experience … I had nothing to draw on to know … I had had no experience sexually..."
Angela insisted she never blamed her first husband and the two still talked until he died from liver cancer.
She added: “When it turned out that he was (gay), I never blamed him for it in any way. And I realized that I had just made an excruciating error, you know, an emotional error …
"But I don’t regret it because I learned so much during … the short time that we were together …"
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Angela went on to marry actor and producer Peter Shaw in 1949 and they had two children, Anthony Peter and Deirdre Ann.
She also acquired a stepson, David, from the producer's first marriage.
The couple stayed together until his death from heart failure in 2003.
The Greatest Story Ever Told star's children announced this week that Angela died peacefully at her home in Los Angeles.
Her family said in a statement: "The children of Dame Angela Lansbury are sad to announce that their mother died peacefully in her sleep at home in Los Angeles at 1:30 a.m. today, Tuesday, October 11, 2022, just five days shy of her 97th birthday.
"In addition to her three children, Anthony, Deirdre and David, she is survived by three grandchildren, Peter, Katherine and Ian, plus five great grandchildren and her brother, producer Edgar Lansbury.
"She was proceeded in death by her husband of 53 years, Peter Shaw. A private family ceremony will be held at a date to be determined."
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