A Facebook post shared on Dec. 6, 2024, claimed actress Angela Lansbury moved her family to Ireland in an attempt to protect her daughter, Deidre Shaw, from falling under the influence of infamous 1960s cult leader Charles Manson. The post sparked renewed interest in this lesser-known chapter in the life of Lansbury, star of the long-running television series "Murder She Wrote," so we decided to take a closer look at the facts behind the claim.
According to the post, "Angela Lansbury once told a story about her daughter Deirdre who was falling under the spell of a Hollywood deadbeat. He introduced her to drugs and would get her to steal food and money from her parents for him. Worried, Angela Lansbury decided to move her entire family to Ireland. The deadbeat guy was Charles Manson."
(Wonders Of Animals/Facebook)
The story about her family's interactions with Manson traced back to the late 1960s, when London-born Lansbury lived in Malibu, Southern California, with her husband, MGM executive Peter Shaw, and their two children, Deidre Shaw and Anthony Shaw. During this time Manson "Family" members were operating in the area, though it was several years before their infamous crimes, including the murders of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and others in her home in 1969.
According to news reports, Manson's influence reached into the Lansbury household. In 2014, eight years before she died in 2022 at age 96, Lansbury — who had been acting since the 1940s in such films as "National Velvet" and "The Manchurian Candidate" — spoke exclusively to the Daily Mail, opening up about how the 1960s culture of drugs and free love had impacted her family.
In the interview, Lansbury touched on the challenges of raising children in that climate, noting that Deidre, like many young people of the time, had been influenced by the counterculture movement and had struggled with addiction. Lansbury and her husband were deeply concerned about their daughter's association with the Manson Family, as well as their son's own struggles with substance abuse, which were also linked to the Manson cult's widespread drug use. According to the Daily Mail:
Tragedy struck in the 60s when Angela and Peter discovered Anthony and Deidre had fallen in with an unsuitable crowd and become heavily involved with drugs - despite being barely in their teens.
"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. 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.
"Something had to be done. I said to 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. I still have a house there which I try and visit at least once a year. So I refused all work for a year and simply kept house. I bought Elizabeth David's books and learnt how to cook properly. It was a wonderful time in my life."
Snopes reached out to Deidre Shaw for her recollections of this period, and will update this article should we receive a response.
Lansbury's decision to move to Ireland was, by all accounts, a protective measure — one that was particularly motivated by the risks her two biological children faced in Southern California's toxic drug culture.
Several articles reported on the family's relocation to Ireland, with some suggesting the transatlantic move occurred in the early '70s.
A 1972 gossip column that ran in several regional newspapers including the Sapulpa Daily Herald also indirectly alluded to these issues, suggesting that the family's move was not only a bid to escape the increasingly volatile environment of Malibu but also to help teenagers Deidre and Anthony recover from their struggles with drugs. The column discussed Anthony's battles with heroin in particular, which, according to sources, had become a serious concern for the family during this time:
(Sapulpa Daily Herald/newspapers.com)
According to a 1979 article by the Anchorage Daily News: "By age 17, Tony had reportedly graduated from pot and LSD to heroin. And, reveals his mother, 'His two closest friends ended up dying of overdoses. It was a terrible scene. Charles Manson and his followers were always hanging around and, yes, Deirdre got to know them.'"
Another story, published by The Sydney Morning Herald in 1979, addressed the apparent gap in Lansbury's acting career in the late 1960s, during the time she and her family had moved from Southern California to Europe. The article featured quotes from Lansbury and her stepson, David Shaw (her husband's son from a previous relationship), who recalled his younger half siblings' interactions with Manson and the cult, addressing their retreat from Malibu to Ireland to remove the two Lansbury teens from the drugs they had become hooked on.
The article reported Manson was a "frequent caller at the Lansbury-Shaw Malibu home — asking for Deidre." David Shaw told the outlet about Deidre's interactions with Manson's group, saying, "Thank God she never went to them."
A 2018 Manson biography, "Charles Manson: A Life From Beginning to End," also touched on the cult leader's interactions with Lansbury's daughter in the late-1960s:
The Manson Family numbered around two dozen at this time. It seems there was no shortage of young men and women arriving in Topanga Canyon desperate to join the community. New male recruits were immediately welcomed, but Manson forced female recruits to endure an initiation process. During the initiation — or interrogation — he would take the aspiring Manson girl into a room alone and stay with her for days, breaking down her emotional and physical barriers by forcing her to confront painful memories and continually have sex with him.
It was around this time that Deirdre Shaw was welcomed into the family. Deidre was not forced to go through Manson's abusive initiation process for the simple reason that she had money. Deirdre was the daughter of an actress, Angela Lansbury, and let the Manson Family use her mother's credit card. Once Lansbury canceled the credit card, Manson also canceled Deirdre's invitations to hang out with the Manson Family.
While it's difficult to pin down exact details or confirm every aspect of this story, the facts surrounding the family's move to Ireland appear to line up with the general outline of the claim. Lansbury and her family did indeed leave Malibu for Ireland, and the context suggested this relocation was, at least in part, a response to dangerous influences of the time in Southern California, including the Manson Family.
As to whether the Lansbury family knew the full extent of Manson's influence over Deidre, it's clear relatives were deeply concerned, but there's no evidence to suggest that she ever became a full member of Manson's murderous cult. However, the fact that Manson was, according to several sources, apparently so persistent in seeking her out suggests how close the family came to Manson's destructive circle.
Snopes has previously reported on Manson, including the false claim that prior to his death, he endorsed then-U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump.