Blood and Fame: The Intersecting Lives of Roman Polanski and Charles Manson

A riveting new look at the parallel lives of Charles Manson and Roman Polanski reveals connections beyond the notorious Tate-LaBianca murders. 

Since the horrific murder of Sharon Tate in 1969, the names Charles Manson and Roman Polanski have been brutally linked. But new analysis of the parallel and intertwining stories of these two men reveals a connection that preceded that fateful day.

Manson and Polanski shared remarkably similar, and similarly awful, childhoods. In their early years they both developed a hatred of the establishment and of authority—Manson, from being abused by relatives, school staff, and jailors, and Polanski from living under the Nazi regime and then Polish Communists in the 1950s.

Manson was released from prison and promptly went to the wildest place in North America (San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury) at around the same time as Polanski got out of communist Poland and headed for the wildest place in Europe (swinging London). Both men went overboard with the new freedom of the era. Their paths crossed in Hollywood in the late 1960s, where Polanski had wild success, Manson utter failure. Then on August 8, 1969, Manson orchestrated the murder of Polanski’s wife, actress Sharon Tate, and her unborn son.

Combining international celebrity biography, analysis of a high-profile murder, and in-depth consideration of the lasting legacy of the crime in Polanski’s directorial work, Blood and Fame is a riveting investigation that will appeal to both film lovers and true crime readers alike.

Peter Rowe is a veteran filmmaker whose career began in the 1960s. His feature films include The Neon Palace; the award-winning Horse Latitudes, starring Gordon Pinsent; Lost!, starring Kenneth Welsh, Helen Shaver, and Michael Hogan; The Best Bad Thing, starring George Takei; and Treasure Island, starring Jack Palance. Among the many television series he has directed are E.N.G., African Skies, The Adventures of Black Stallion, Black Harbour, and Ready or Not. His documentaries include Popcorn With Maple Syrup: Film in Canada from Eh to Zed and Shipwrecked on a Great Lake. In 2025 he produced and directed a new political drama/comedy titled Borderline Funny from his script. Rowe’s paintings, mostly in the Pop Art style, have been shown in numerous Toronto galleries. His published books include Music vs The Man, Adventures in Filmmaking, and Out There – The Batshit Antics of the World’s Great Explorers. Rowe is a lifetime member of the Writers Guild of Canada, the Directors Guild of Canada and the Canadian Society of Cinematographers, and past president of the Ontario divisions of the DGC and the Explorers Club.