- Angela Lansbury once fled Los Angeles to keep her daughter away from Charles Manson.
- "She was one of many youngsters who knew him," she told the Daily Mail in 2014.
Following the news of Angela Lansbury's death on Tuesday, a bizarre episode from her life has resurfaced.
In a 2014 interview with the Daily Mail, the legendary actor recalled how she had to save her daughter from the clutches of infamous cult leader Charles Manson in the 1960s when she and her family were living in Los Angeles.
"It started with cannabis but moved on to heroin," Lansbury said of her daughter Deidre's drug use when she was only a teen.
"There were factions up in the hills above Malibu that were dedicated to deadly pursuits," she continued. "It pains me to say it but, at one stage, Deidre was in with a crowd led by Charles Manson. She was one of many youngsters who knew him — and they were fascinated. He was an extraordinary character, charismatic in many ways, no question about it."
The notorious serial killer and his cult grabbed headlines in the late 1960s when one of their murders included actress Sharon Tate, who was pregnant at the time.
Once Lansbury realized what was going on, she and her husband Peter Shaw moved their family from fast-paced L.A. to "the simplicity of life in Ireland," as she described it.
"I said to Peter, 'We have to leave.' So we upped sticks and moved the family to a house I found in County Cork," Lansbury said.
"I was drawn to Ireland because it was the birthplace of my mother and it was also somewhere my children wouldn't be exposed to any more bad influences," she said. "I still have a house there which I try and visit at least once a year. So I refused all work for a year and simply kept house. I bought Elizabeth David's books and learnt how to cook properly. It was a wonderful time in my life."
The "Beauty and the Beast" star said "it took Deidre a little longer" to break her bad habits, "but she finally got married."
Lansbury, who won five Tonys, six Golden Globes, and was Oscar-nominated three times over her 70-year career, died on Tuesday of natural causes.