Our Beloved Auntie

Angela Lansbury, who would have been 97 yesterday but died least week, was everyone's aunt, thanks to not only her role in the 1966 musical Mame but also for her roles in films like Bedknobs and Broomsticks, a Disney film about witches in England, and her long running series "Murder, She Wrote," in which, as murder mystery novelist Jessica Fletcher, solved cases by looking at the most subtle clues.  Her versatility allowed her to play heroines and villainesses, but she was always more entertaining as the heroine.

She acted, she sang, and she did both perfectly.  Having worked for eight decades, Ms. Lansbury was always able to attract new generations of fans.  Bet you didn't know that Generation Xers - those of us who suffered through the seventies as latchkey kids and suffered through the eighties by not having a real rock and roll band of our own - watched "Murder, She Wrote" as much as the older generations, if not more so - Ms. Lansbury said she received more fan mail from young people for that series than from anyone else.  In a word, there was nothing she couldn't do.       

Ms. Lansbury lived a long life, but that doesn't make us feel any less sad about her passing.  I'm sorry she couldn't make it to her ninety-seventh birthday, at least.  But at least we have all of the movies, such as National Velvet and  The Manchurian Candidate, as well as twelve years' worth of  "Murder, She Wrote" reruns.  RIP.