Angela Lansbury Saved Daughter 'Didi' from Clutches of Charles Manson & Kept Family with One of Her 2 Strengths

TV icon Angela Lansbury's daughter Deidre Shaw was involved with a criminal who committed heinous crimes. As her mother, Lansbury said, she did whatever she could to get her child away from the said individual.

On October 11, 2022, CNN reported that veteran actress Angela Lansbury died. The outlet revealed a statement from the Hollywood starlet's family announcing her death.

According to Lansbury's family, she died in her sleep at her home in Los Angeles just days away from her birthday.

"The children of Dame Angela Lansbury are sad to announce that their mother died peacefully in her sleep at home in Los Angeles at 01:30 a.m. today, October 11, 2022, just five days shy of her 97th birthday," Lansbury's family revealed in a statement.

Lansbury was an award-winning actress who dominated film, stage, and television mediums. She expressed her love for show business in a 1998 interview with the Archives of American Television:

"I love this industry, and I love being in it."

Apart from her successful acting career that spanned eight decades, the London native was a mother of two and a widow.

She had been married twice in her lifetime; her first marriage was to American actor Richard Cromwell whom she wed in 1945, but the union ended in divorce in 1946.

Lansbury's second marriage was to English actor Peter Shaw, the couple got married in 1949, and their union lasted for five decades until he died in January 2003.

Two years later, Lansbury starred in the classic comedy film "Nanny McPhee" alongside British actress Emma Thompson. She played Great Aunt Adelaide Stitch in the movie.

Per The Guardian, Lansbury told the Observer in 2013 that her role in the film helped her cope with widowhood. She also expressed her "love" for the Dame screenwriter:

"Nanny McPhee pulled me out of the abyss. I love Emma. She has an enormous heart."

When speaking on her long-lasting acting career, Lansbury said she did whatever life "handed" to her, "but the things that were handed to me were extraordinary," she explained.

The mother of two shared she had no plans to slow down and revealed her primary life skills in an interview with Express in March 2014:

"I have an inordinate amount of energy, and I've got to expend it. I always say there are two things in life that I know how to do – one is to keep house, and the other one is to act."

Lansbury had a solid marriage with Shaw, but their children were troubled. The couple's son and daughter got involved with drugs in the 1960s.

Lansbury's Daughter Was Involved with a Criminal

Per The Daily Mail, Deidre was overly involved with a convicted murderer and cult leader, Charles Manson, in addition to their drug addiction.

Lansbury revealed in 2014 that her daughter had gotten involved with the wrong crowd led by the former musician in the 1960s.

The doting mom disclosed that Deidre fell hard for Manson's "charismatic" personality and that she was "one of many youngsters who knew him" and were "fascinated" by him.

"It started with cannabis but moved on to heroin," Lansbury explained, adding, "There were factions up in the hills above Malibu that were dedicated to deadly pursuits."

To protect her youngest child, the singer decided to uproot her entire family from their long-time home in LA to Ireland in 1970.

She had found a house in County Cork and shared she decided to relocate to Ireland because that was where her mother hailed from, "and it was also somewhere my children wouldn't be exposed to any more bad influences," Lansbury divulged.

The TV legend went on a hiatus to focus solely on her brood and revealed she "refused all work for a year" and "simply kept house." The book "LIFE Manson Family Murders" revealed that Lansbury's then-teenage daughter "proved more susceptible" to fall prey to Manson's tactics.

In his 2014 book, "Manson: The Life And Times Of Charles Manson," Jeff Guinn penned that Deidre never moved full-time with Manson's cult, but she was still valuable to him.

She used her mother's credit cards to pay for the group's activities, including clothes and car parts. However, she was blocked from using the cards once she maxed them out.

Deidre Was Lucky Enough to Cut Ties with Manson

Fortunately, Deidre's connection with Manson did not seem close enough for him to involve her in the cult's 1969's murders. Her mom told Radio Times in 2017 that the family got uprooted after their house burned down in 1970.

Lansbury was also a stepmom to Peter's son, David Shaw, who spoke highly of her in an interview with Closer Weekly in July 2019, saying, "she always put family first."

The "Murder, She Wrote" alum would do anything for her stepson and her children, but when it came to her career, they would come second. Tony Award winner admitted that once she welcomed her brood, she instantly went on a "diet" and back to work, a decision she later regretted:

"I regret that. You have to be with your children."

After realizing her mistake, Lansbury never prioritized her career over her kids again. When she noticed that her son and daughter were troubled, she upped and moved them to another country, took a break from acting, and chose to give them her full attention.

The decision to uproot worked in Lansbury's favor, her son Anthony managed to stop using drugs and followed in her footsteps by pursuing a career in showbiz. He made minor appearances in movies such as "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "A Bridge Too Far."

Anthony decided to switch up by the late 1980s and focused on working behind the camera. Per Grunge.com., he directed 68 episodes of his mother's successful TV show, "Murder, She Wrote."

Anthony has since retired from the entertainment industry and has been married to Lee Speer Webster since 1980. The pair welcomed three kids together.

Meanwhile, his younger sister Deidre took a while to break out of her drug habit, but in due course, she managed to get her life in order and changed for the better.

Deidre got married to Enzo Battara, and the couple ran their Italian Restaurant called Enzo and Angela together in LA for several years. Per the establishment's Facebook page, the pair's eatery closed in 2019.