How Angela Lansbury Saved Her Daughter From Murderous Cult Leader Charles Manson
Celebrity deaths can be difficult for fans and fellow entertainers. But stars’ deaths are also opportunities for fans to learn more about their favorite celebrities. Hollywood recently mourned the loss of Murder, She Wrote star Angela Lansbury. The talented actor was also a mother who fiercely protected her children. In fact, Angela Lansbury saved her daughter from the murderous cult leader Charles Manson.
Angela Lansbury’s death came 5 days before her 97th birthday
Angela Lansbury was born in London, England, to an actor mother and a politician father on Oct. 16, 1915.
She studied briefly at a West London drama school before her mother relocated the family to New York City after World War I began. Lansbury studied acting at the Feagin School of Dramatic Art on a scholarship.
Lansbury moved to Hollywood in 1942. Soon, she landed a supporting acting role in the 1944 movie Gaslight alongside Ingrid Bergmann. Lansbury received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her role. She received two more acting nominations for The Portrait of Dorian Gray (1945) and The Manchurian Candidate (1962).
In 1966, Lansbury earned a Tony for Best Actress in a Musical for her role in Mame. Nearly 30 years later, she won a Grammy in 1993 for her work as the voice of Mrs. Potts in the Beauty and the Beast soundtrack. The 1991 Disney classic is the only animated film to receive a Grammy nod for Album of the Year.
One of Lansbury’s most beloved roles is Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote. The mystery series follows a retired schoolteacher-turned-detective novelist who also solves homicides. Murder, She Wrote became a pioneer as one of the first shows to feature an older female lead. It aired for 12 seasons from 1983 to 1996. Playing Fletcher earned Lansbury 12 Primetime Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.
Lansbury died on Oct. 11, 2022, just shy of her 97th birthday.
Angela Lansbury protected her daughter from a notorious cult leader
As Angela Lansbury’s star rose on Broadway in the 1960s, her son Anthony headed down a path of drug abuse. He was using cannabis, LSD, and heroin even though some of his friends had died from drug abuse. Her daughter Deidre, nicknamed “Didi,” also began using drugs. But that wasn’t the only concern. Didi had become enamored with cult leader Charles Manson and his followers.
“It started with cannabis but moved on to heroin. There were factions up in the hills above Malibu that were dedicated to deadly pursuits,” Lansbury told the Daily Mail in 2014. “It pains me to say it, but at one stage, Deidre was in the crowd led by Charles Manson.”
Once Lansbury heard about Didi’s involvement with the Manson cult, she moved her family from Los Angeles to Ireland.
“I said to [my husband] Peter: ‘We have to leave’ … So we upped sticks and moved the family to a house I found in County Cork,” Lansbury explained. “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.”
Lansbury was sure she would’ve lost her children to drugs and bad influences if the family hadn’t escaped Hollywood.
The ‘Murder, She Wrote’ actor had 3 children
Lansbury married twice. Her first marriage, to Richard Cromwell, lasted only a year and didn’t produce any children.
However, her marriage to Peter Shaw endured for more than 50 years. Lansbury and Shaw had two children, Anthony and Deidre.
Shaw had another son, David, from a previous relationship. Lansbury welcomed him with open arms. David Shaw told Closer about his stepmother in 2019: “She’s a great lady … I came in, and she didn’t have to have me. It was an incredible thing to do. She always put family first.”
How to get help: In the U.S., contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration helpline at 1-800-662-4357.
