Spurned by Hollywood, why Angela Lansbury was forced into crime

express.co.uk:

At the age of 58, leading movie roles just were not coming her way, and her phone had stopped ringing.The only offers she received were for television: then viewed somewhat snootily as a career graveyard for film stars.

Only two roles were on offer: a sitcom, and a crime series. “Take the sitcom,” urged her agent.But ignoring the advice, Lansbury instead opted for a murder mystery series featuring an unlikely amateur detective in the shape of a novelist named Jessica Fletcher.The show was Murder, She Wrote, and it transformed Lansbury into one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, rejuvenating her film and Broadway career, and paving the way for other A-listers to turn to the small screen without being branded a failure.“When I first started Murder, She Wrote, I thought it would last maybe two, three years, or maybe a year if we were lucky,” said Lansbury, who died on Tuesday just five days before her 97th birthday.“But when it extended and I realised the deep inroads it had made into family life in America, I couldn’t stop.So I was sort of trapped – happily trapped.”Yet being exiled to TV was only the latest in a long and painful line of seemingly disastrous developments in Lansbury’s life that she transformed into glorious successes.Lansbury found Hollywood fame at 17, yet studio chiefs told her she was not beautiful enough to play romantic leads.“I hated it,” she said. “I fought it.” Yet it also led her to far meatier roles.“For those women who were lovely, were known for their beauty and so on, it was darned difficult,” she said. “But I was playing older parts when I was terribly young because I wasn’t a big screen beauty.“I was never going to get to play the girl next door.