The actress was 26 and eight months pregnant when she was brutally murdered the Manson Family.
Sharon Tate is returning to Hollywood.
The story of the young actress’ glamorous rise to fame and horrific ending is being revisited in Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming film, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” with Margot Robbie starring as the slain star.
Born in 1943, the bright-eyed girl from Texas came to Hollywood with dreams of making it big.
After having done pageants and film roles when living in Italy, she began her stint in Hollywood as a model before landing a recurring role in the 1960s television show, "The Beverly Hillbillies."
Meanwhile, cult leader Charles Manson was also on the rise.
Manson charmed young newcomers to California and spread his dangerous ideas of a race war to his followers.
On Aug. 8, 1969, Manson told his family of followers to kill everyone at the Cielo Drive home of a record producer who once rejected him as a client.
The address, however, no longer belonged to the producer but to Tate and her director husband, Roman Polanski, who had been out of the country that evening working on a film.
Tate was eight months pregnant and just 26 years old when she was killed.
One of Manson’s followers, Susan Atkins, stabbed Tate 16 times as she begged for her and her son’s lives.
Atkins was accompanied by Linda Kasabian, Tex Watson and Patricia Krenwinkel. In January 1971, the four Manson Family members were found guilty of murder. In April of that year, Manson himself was also found guilty for orchestrating the killings.
Watson and Manson were sentenced to death, but that was later commuted to life in prison when California overturned the death penalty in 1972.
Atkins died of cancer in prison in 2009 and Manson died of natural causes behind bars in 2017.
Polanski hasn’t spoken much about the crimes because it is still too painful to talk about, he said following Manson’s death.
He has been living outside of the US since 1978, fleeing charges of an illegal sexual encounter of a 13-year-old, which he denies.
Polanski has yet to visit Tate’s grave.
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