Dame Angela Lansbury will be honoured with the Rose d’Or Award for Lifetime Achievement at the 56th Rose d’Or Award Ceremony to be held in Berlin on 19 September.

The award recognises those who have made an outstanding contribution to entertainment throughout their careers. The Rose d’Or Awards are organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and were first presented in 1961. They are given to the best television and online entertainment programmes from the previous year.

In a career spanning 7 decades Dame Angela has demonstrated her versatility as an actress and singer in theatre, film and on television and is excited to be nominated:

“I’m honoured to be coming to Berlin in September, for the first time in my life, to receive this most coveted award, the Rose d’Or,” she said. “I cannot thank you enough and I’m so looking forward to being there.”

Dame Angela Lansbury was nominated for an Academy Award after appearing in her first movie, 'Gaslight' (1944) and then on two further occasions for 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' (1946) and 'The Manchurian Candidate' (1962). Her other notable film work includes classics such as Disney’s 'Bedknobs and Broomsticks' (1971) and 'Death on the Nile' (1978). Lansbury has also won several Tony Awards for her work in shows like 'Mame', 'Gypsy' and famously as the first actress to play Mrs Lovett in Stephen Sondheim’s 'Sweeney Todd'.

On television Dame Angela starred in 'Murder, She Wrote', one of the most successful and longest-running television shows in history, which ran for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996. For her role as Jessica Fletcher, Lansbury holds the record for the most Golden Globe nominations (10) and wins for Best Actress (4) in a television drama series and the most Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (12).

In recent years Dame Angela returned to theatre to take roles on Broadway in Gore Vidal's 'The Best Man', in an Australian tour of 'Driving Miss Daisy' and Noel Coward’s 'Blithe Spirit' in London’s West End, which was her first stage appearance in the city in nearly 40 years.

She has been awarded with the Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre as well as picking up an Honorary Academy Award in 2013. Lansbury was made Dame in 2014 for her acting and charity work. 

The EBU’s Media Director Jean Philip De Tender, praised Lansbury’s long and successful contribution to the entertainment industry: “Dame Angela Lansbury is a true entertainment legend. The EBU believes her versatility and longevity make her the perfect recipient of this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Dame Angela has been entertaining audiences for over 7 decades and her instantly recognisable performances, including that of Jessica Fletcher, have enriched the worlds of film, theatre and television.”

The Rose d'Or Lifetime Achievement Award has previously been given to John Cleese and Stephen Fry while Ricky Gervais and John De Mol have also been honoured in the past by organizers.

Nominations are still open for the 2017 Rose d’Or Awards which will recognise the best in entertainment programming in 10 categories for television and online video (Reality & Factual, Game Show, Comedy, Sitcom, Entertainment, Drama, Arts, Children & Youth, TV Movie and, for the first time in 2017, Virtual Reality). More information on the criteria for each category and how to submit entries is available here.

Journalists and photographers can apply for accreditation to attend the Rose d’Or Awards ceremony in Berlin on 19 September. Click here for more information.