We still have a lot to learn from Angela Lansbury

WHEN YOU think of role models, there are probably a number of women who come to mind before Angela Lansbury: women who boldly and sometimes loudly shook things up like Rosie the Riveter, Riot Grrrl rebels, and RBG. Maybe even Miss Piggy, though that could just be me.

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ANGELA LANSBURY at an event on Ellis Island in 2012, honoring contributions by immigrants.

In contrast, Lansbury, who died in 2022, is associated with cozy Cabot Cove (the setting of her long-running series “Murder, She Wrote”) and tea time as Disney’s Mrs. Potts. But don’t be fooled! In her life and many memorable roles, Lansbury had (and still has) a lot to say about going after what you want as a woman, avoiding stereotypes and living a full life at any age.

As Jessica Fletcher, the mystery-writing amateur sleuth in “Murder, She Wrote,” Lansbury never prejudges. She uses logic, observation and old-fashioned research, sometimes upending stereotypical notions of race and religion as well as gender. Michael Horton, who played her character's nephew, once explained to me: “Angela was certainly progressive, so no way Jessica was going to be anything but that.” Both the actor and the character were comfortable being complicated individuals and wading through the complexities around them — because after all, problems in life and in good fiction are rarely simple. Only a truly great detective, like Jessica, would be able to figure out in this way that a dog had been trained to kill using a whistle and a motorized gate (Season 1, “It's a Dog’s Life”).

From the very beginning, Lansbury shaped Jessica and, eventually, as executive producer, her storylines. It’s no surprise then that there’s undeniable overlap between the two.