Beauty and the Beast actor Angela Lansbury once saved her daughter from the clutches of Charles Manson.
After the Murder She Wrote actor died peacefully in her sleep on Wednesday (NZ time), an interview with the Daily Mail in 2014 has resurfaced.
In the interview, Lansbury revealed how she had to save her daughter from the notorious cult leader after she was swayed by his charms.
She had fallen in with a bad crowd being led by the musician-turned-murderer during the 1960s - and had also begun abusing hard drugs with her brother Anthony.
"It started with cannabis but moved on to heroin. There were factions up in the hills above Malibu that were dedicated to deadly pursuits. It pains me to say it but, at one stage, Deidre was in with a crowd led by Charles Manson," Lansbury said at the time.
She said her daughter had been drawn to the cult leader's "charismatic" personality, adding she was "one of many youngsters who knew him" and were "fascinated" by him.
Fearing for Deidre and her friendship with Manson - a connection Lansbury said filled her "with dread" - the actor moved the family from their Los Angeles' home to Cork in Ireland, where her mother's family hailed from.
"So we upped sticks and moved the family to a house I found in County Cork.
"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 told the paper.
"I bought Elizabeth David's books and learnt how to cook properly. It was a wonderful time in my life."
Members of the "Manson Family" committed the Tate-LaBianca murders, allegedly under Manson's instructions, in August 1969, killing nine people in one of the most shocking series of crimes in California's history.
Manson was tried and sentenced to death in 1971, but that was later commuted to nine life sentences. He was denied parole several times and died on November 19, 2017.
