Angela Lansbury once dodged the Manson Family

Angela Lansbury, who passed away this week at the age of 96, was an Academy Award-winning actress, the voice of the beloved Mrs. Potts and a genuinely wholesome person that could out-charm your grandma. She was also a damn good mother, as demonstrated in a story about Angela Lansbury that involves the Manson Family.

The counterculture movement of the 1960s wasn’t all peace and love. There was also Charles Manson and his Family, whose notorious members included Susan Atkins, Squeaky Fromme and Tex Watson. One of the lesser known members was a teenager named Deidre–and she happened to be the daughter of Angela Lansbury.

In a 2014 interview, Angela Lansbury revealed, “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.”

While Angela Lansbury didn’t bash in skulls or sic her pit bull on the Manson Family like Cliff Booth in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, she did take a stand against the clan. Noticing her daughter was hanging out with what we would consider “the wrong crowd”, Lansbury took initiative and moved her family to Ireland. As such, there is a noticeable gap in her filmography from 1966 to 1970, the year after the infamous Tate-LaBianca murders that put fear into Hollywood and left five dead, including actress Sharon Tate.

Angela Lansbury will appear posthumously (along with maestro Stephen Sondheim, who died in November 2021) in this year’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. Glass Onion hits theaters on November 23rd before it arrives on Netflix on December 23rd.

Pay your respects to Angela Lansbury–Emmy winner and Mother of the Year 1969–below.