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The not-so-sleepy town of Cabot Cove, Maine, would have had a different actress portraying its intrepid local sleuth ifMurder, She Wroteco-creator Peter S. Fischer had his way.
In a 1984 interview with PEOPLE,Angela Lansbury— whodied Tuesday at the age of 96— said Fischer originally imaginedAll in the Familystar Jean Stapleton as the show’s mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher.
“Peter Fischer had originally written it for Jean Stapleton, but she had just lost her husband and didn’t want to do anything,” the actress told PEOPLE. Lansbury ultimately played the part on the CBS series for its 12-season run from 1984 to 1996.
Until that point, Lansbury wasknown for her stage and screen work: Nominated for three competitive acting Oscars, she starred in classic films likeGaslight,National VelvetandThe Manchurian Candidateand on Broadway in hits such asGypsyandSweeney Todd.
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Just beforeMurder, She Wrotecame along “there was nothing exciting for me on Broadway at the moment,” she said. “Within the same week, I was sent two television scripts. One was a situation comedy from Norman Lear and the other was the two-hour pilot forMurder, She Wrote.”
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Lansbury, who was in her late fifties at the time, told PEOPLE she was drawn to the character of Jessica Fletcher because she was a middle aged woman who was “a vital and intelligent being.”
Continued Lansbury: “Attempting to bring off my own show is a great challenge. If I can do it, at the age of 59, it will be a small miracle. I felt that it would have been a gap in my acting experience if I had never done a television series. I wanted to play to that huge audience just once.”
And what a huge audience it was: At the height of its popularity, the series drew more than 20 million viewers each week. Lansbury also earned an Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series Emmy nomination for each of the 12 years it aired.
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“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.”
source: people.com
