How Angela Lansbury helped her daughter Deirdre Shaw escape Charles Manson

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Dame Angela Lansbury may be remembered best for her magnificent voice and the enchanting roles she played, but she also died having been a fiercely protective parent, navigating her daughter away from the infamous murderer and cult leader Charles Manson.

In a candid interview with the Daily Mail from 2014, Lansbury, who passed away Tuesday at the age of 96, shared that her daughter Deirdre Shaw had gotten involved with the wrong crowd:

"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."

Lansbury disclosed that both her daughter and son Anthony had experimented with drugs.

Dame Angela Lansbury passed away peacefully in her sleep Tuesday, just five days before her 97th birthday. (Dominic Lipinski/PA Images)

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"Certainly, I have no doubt we would have lost one or both of our two if they hadn't been removed to a completely different milieu," she revealed.

"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 said of her children's habits.

Once she discovered how nefarious the activities were, she revealed, "'I said to [husband] Peter, ‘We have to leave.’ 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."

Lansbury explained in an interview that her daughter Deirdre Shaw ran in the same crowd as Charles Manson. (Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection)

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"Anthony pulled right out of his bad habits quite quickly. It took Deidre… a little longer but she finally got married and she and her husband now live in Los Angeles, where they run their own Italian restaurant," the actress told the British outlet.

Lansbury, pictured with her husband Peter, left, and son Anthony, said both her daughter and son fell in with the wrong crowd. (Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection )

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Lansbury revealed, "It fills me with dread," when reflecting back on what could have happened to her children had she not initiated the move to Ireland. "Peter and I had no idea what had been going on. But then we had no experience of drugs. We didn't know the significance of finding a pipe in a drawer. Why would we? And when we did, we didn't know how to help them. Nor were there any experts back then who could offer advice to the parents of kids from good families who were using, and sometimes overdosing on, drugs. It was like an epidemic."

Charles Manson was the leader of the Manson family, a cult that carried out several murders. (AP/Ron Galella )

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The children of Lansbury wrote in a statement on Tuesday that, "in addition to her three children, Anthony, Deirdre and David, she is survived by three grandchildren, Peter, Katherine and Ian, plus five great-grandchildren and her brother, producer Edgar Lansbury."

A private funeral will be held at a date to be determined.