Bryan Cranston recalls meeting Charles Manson: 'I was within his grasp'

Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston has described a chilling encounter with Charles Manson, whom he remembers as a "little man with crazy eyes".

In a social media post, the actor recalls a day in 1968 when he claims to have had a run-in with Manson, the deranged cult leader who forced his brainwashed followers (known as "The Family") to commit a series of gruesome murderers.

"Hearing Charles Manson is dead, I shuddered," Cranston, 61, wrote on Facebook and Twitter. "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 Ranch, and saw the little man with crazy eyes whom the other hippies called Charlie."

Manson died on Sunday, aged 83. He had been sentenced to death in 1971, after being convicted for seven counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder, but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment after the state of Florida abolished the death penalty.

During his trial, prosecuting lawyer Vincent Bugliosi described Manson as a “Mephistophelean guru who raped and bastardised the minds of all those who gave themselves so totally to him”.

London theatre: the best plays and shows on now

Cranston, best known for his TV roles in crime drama Breaking Bad family sitcom Malcolm in the Middle, is currently starring in a high-tech theatrical adaptation of the 1975 film Network, in the West End.

Reviewing the production, Telegraph theatre critic Dominic Cavendish wrote: "Cranston... looks terrific in the many close-ups – thin-lipped, with haunted eyes, he starts off recognisably ordinary, almost invisible, certainly worn-down and moves by degrees from a wild-man in his underpants to an ethereal, inspiring presence unlocking the transcendental mysteries of eternal corporate power."