Alerts & Newsletters

By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Bryan Cranston Shares Chilling Charles Manson Story: ‘I Was Within His Grasp’

For once, he wasn't the one who knocked.
Bryan Cranston'Why Him?' film premiere, Los Angeles, USA - 17 Dec 2016
Bryan Cranston
Rob Latour/REX/Shutterstock

Charles Manson is dead, and everyone who’s never carved a swastika into their forehead is relieved. Bryan Cranston would appear to be among them, despite his initial reaction to the news — the former Walter White says he “shuddered” when he heard of the cult leader’s death, as it reminded him of an encounter he had with Manson not long before the Tate-LaBianca murders.

“Hearing Charles Manson is dead, I shuddered,” Cranston tweeted. “I was within his grasp just one year before he committed brutal murder in 1969. Luck was with me when a cousin and I went horseback riding at the Span [sic] Ranch, and saw the little man with crazy eyes whom the other hippies called Charlie.” The actor didn’t elaborate on his story, but the Spahn Ranch is where the Manson Family lived before and during their infamous killings in August 1969.

Cranston, now 61, would have been 12 or 13 at the time. Though he doesn’t seem to have been in any immediate danger, it’s clear that the memory has always stuck with him.

Daily Headlines
Daily Headlines covering Film, TV and more.

By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Must Read
PMC Logo
IndieWire is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 IndieWire Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.