Angela Lansbury will receive special Tony award for lifetime achievement

Angela Lansbury is adding a very special Tony award to her already impressive collection.

The five-time Tony winner, 96, will be honored with a lifetime achievement in theater award at next month’s ceremony, the organizers announced Monday.

“Angela Lansbury’s contributions to the stage are insurmountable,” Charlotte St. Martin, president of The Broadway League and Heather Hitchens, president and CEO of the American Theatre Wing, said in a joint statement.

“From her groundbreaking role in ‘Mame’ to her iconic performances in ‘Deuce’ and ‘Sweeney Todd,’ and most recently, in the revival of ‘A Little Night Music,’ Ms. Lansbury has given us a lifetime of unforgettable performances, and it is a great honor to present her with the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award.”

Past recipients include Chita Rivera, Andrew Lloyd Webber, James Earl Jones and Stephen Sondheim.

Lansbury (photo), best known for her onscreen role as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher in “Murder, She Wrote,” debuted on Broadway in 1957 in “Hotel Paradiso,” then returned to the stage in “A Taste of Honey.”

But it was her 1966 role in “Mame,” Jerry Herman’s musical adaptation of the novel “Auntie Mame,” that brought Lansbury her first taste of stardom.

Throughout the decades, she the British actress also appeared in “The King and I,” “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” and “Deuce,” which earned her a Tony nomination for best leading actress in a play in 2007.

Lansbury’s five competitive Tony awards are for “Mame,” “Dear World,” “Gypsy,” “Sweeney Todd” and “Blithe Spirit.” She’s tied with Julie Harris and one behind Audra McDonald’s six Tony wins. Lansbury, who was nominated 18 times for an Emmy without a win, has also received six Golden Globes, an Olivier Award and an honorary Oscar. In 2014, Queen Elizabeth named her a Dame Commander of the British Empire.

The Tony Awards, hosted by “West Side Story” star Ariana DeBose, will air live on CBS and stream on Paramount+ on June 12.