Angela Lansbury

Angela Lansbury has been around so long I don't remember contemplating the possibility of her death. But to-day she's dead at 96.

She shined in memorable leading roles, in the television series Murder She Wrote, in the film Bedknobs and Broomsticks, but it's as a supporting performer that she maintained a presence as part of a bedrock of the film industry. Her presence added texture and atmosphere to many great fantasy films. Neil Jordan's The Company of Wolves (1984) partly achieved its air of fantasy with her presence. In The Court Jester (1956) she was beautiful, inviting, vicious, and funny.

Her long film career is peppered with legendary films, beginning with 1944's Gaslight. But as great as her live action career was, one could argue it's in voice roles that she truly shaped the industry. As the wicked Mommy Fortuna in The Last Unicorn (1982), as Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast (1991), and dozens of others. With so many supporting roles, she created a presence in cinema greater than many leading stars. She was great.