Christopher Kennedy Lawford (March 29, 1955 – September 4, 2018) He was the eldest child and only son of actor and "Rat Pack" member Peter Lawford (1923–1984) and Patricia "Pat" Kennedy Lawford (1924–2006), who was President John F. Kennedy's sister. His three younger sisters were Sydney Lawford McKelvy (born 1956), Victoria Pender (born 1958), and Robin Lawford (born 1961). Lawford described himself as a "second-string Kennedy" because he did not get as much attention as his cousins. His parents divorced in 1966; Patricia Lawford moved from California to New York City with her son and daughters.
Before his parents' divorce, Lawford attended St. Martin of Tours Elementary School in Los Angeles, where at the age of 8, he was informed about his uncle John F. Kennedy's assassination. After moving to New York City with his mother, he attended the Middlesex School, a prep school in Concord, Massachusetts. He failed the Massachusetts bar exam. He later earned a master's certificate in Clinical Psychology from Harvard University, and lectured on drug addiction at Harvard, Columbia University, and other colleges.
Drug and legal issues
In 1969, the year after his uncle Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated, when Lawford was 14, he was introduced to LSD by his peers at school. Lawford remained clean and sober until his death in 2018.
Career
Acting
Lawford chose to become an actor (as his father had been) in the mid-1980s, after realizing that a law career would not suit him. He performed in commercials in Boston for two years, and then he and his wife moved to Southern California in 1988 so that he could pursue an acting career.
Lawford had small roles in films such as The Russia House, a 1990 spy thriller co-starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Sean Connery, and the 1991 rock-music film The Doors, which was directed by Oliver Stone. Lawford played a Navy officer in the 2000 film Thirteen Days, a drama about the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. He also had a small role in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, co-starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, who directed Lawford in a 1990 episode of the HBO anthology series Tales from the Crypt ("The Switch") and was married to Lawford's cousin Maria Shriver at the time.
Writing
<!-- Deleted image removed: thumb|right|Cover of Lawford's first book, Symptoms of Withdrawal (2005), with a picture of Lawford at the age of 5, with his uncle, President [[John F. Kennedy]] -->
Lawford wrote several books "that described his efforts to recover from drug addiction". In 2009, he wrote Moments of Clarity, a compilation of first-person recollections by famous addicts, including Ed Begley, Jr., Alec Baldwin, Buzz Aldrin, Richard Dreyfuss, Martin Sheen, Judy Collins, and musician and federal prisoner Dejuan Verrett. The book was dedicated to Lawford's cousin David Kennedy, and another cousin, Patrick J. Kennedy, wrote the introduction. Lawford told interviewer Connie Martinson that although writing Moments of Clarity was "difficult" and he did not want to do it, the book was "meant to happen".
In 2013, Lawford published Recover to Live: Kick Any Habit, Manage Any Addiction, in which he interviewed 100 addiction specialists and described treatments for alcohol and drug dependence, gambling, sex and porn, eating disorders, smoking, and hoarding. In 2014, he published What Addicts Know: 10 Lessons From Recovery To Benefit Everyone; Dr. Drew Pinsky wrote the foreword. Lawford's final book about addiction and recovery was 2016's When Your Partner Has an Addiction, "a how-to manual for people who want to stay with their addicted partners", which he co-authored with psychotherapist Beverly Engel.
Lawford also wrote a book about dealing with hepatitis C, called Healing Hepatitis C, which he co-wrote with Diana Sylvestre in 2009.
Activism
Lawford traveled around the U.S. speaking about his experiences with addiction for 20 years. He was a public health campaigner, and worked with the World Health Organization (WHO), the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, and the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, and was a public advocacy consultant to Caron Treatment Centers, an organization that ran treatment programs. He married and divorced three times.
Death
On September 4, 2018, after experiencing a medical emergency while at a yoga studio, Lawford died of a heart attack in Vancouver, British Columbia. At the time, he had been living with his girlfriend in Vancouver where he was working toward opening a recovery center. Patrick Kennedy told the Associated Press that Lawford had been doing "hot yoga, which he did often, but the strain of it 'must have been too much for him at that point'". Lawford's cousins Maria Shriver, Patrick Kennedy, and Kerry Kennedy took to Twitter after his death, honoring Lawford's work in addiction recovery.
Filmography
Film
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
| 1988
| The Suicide Club
| Boyfriend
|
|-
| 1988
| Mr. North
| Michael Patrick Ennis III
|
|-
| 1988
| Spellbinder
| Phil
|
|-
| 1990
| Impulse
| Steve
|
|-
| 1990
| The Russia House
| Larry
|
|-
| 1991
| Run
| Martins
|
|-
| 1991
| The Doors
| New York Journalist
|
|-
| 1993
| Jack the Bear
| Vince Buccini
|
|-
| 1994
| Blankman
| Mayor Marvin Harris
|
|-
| 1995
| Drunks
| Rich
|
|-
| 1997
| Kiss Me, Guido
| Dakota
| TV movie, Executive Producer
|-
| 1997
| Fool's Paradise
| Sen. Brill
|
|-
| 1998
| Dead Broke
| Joshua
|
|-
| 1998
| Not Even the Trees
|
|
|-
| 1998
| Ask for Becky Whiteworth
|
|
|-
| 1999
| The Confession
| D.A. Elliott Cunningham
|
|-
| 1999
| The Waiting Game
| L.A. Director
| Credited as Chris Lawford
|-
| 1999
| The Sex Monster
| Dave Pembroke
|
|-
| 2000
| R2PC: Road to Park City
| Christoper Lawford
|
|-
| 2000
| Chump Change
| Studio Executive #1
|
|-
| 2000
| The 6th Day
| Police Lieutenant
|
|-
| 2000
| Thirteen Days
| Commander William Ecker
|
|-
| 2001
| Fourplay
| Davis
|
|-
| 2001
| Red Zone
|
|-
| 2001
| Exit Wounds
| The Vice President
|
|-
| 2002
| Hitters
| Cassidey
|
|-
| 2003
| Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
| Brewster's Aide
| Credited as Chris Lawford
|-
| 2005
| The World's Fastest Indian
| Jim Moffet
| Credited as Chris Lawford
|-
| 2007
| Slipstream
| Lars
|
|-
| 2008
| Eavesdrop
| Claude
| (final film role)
|}
Television
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
| 1990
| Exile
|
|The Magical World of Disney, Season 34, Episode 13
|-
| 1990
| Tales from the Crypt
| Manager
| "The Switch"
|-
| 1990
| Midnight Caller
| Richard Clark
| 2 episodes
|-
| 1991
| Silk Stalkings
| Chick Westfall
| 1 episode
|-
| 1992-1996
| All My Children
| Charlie Brent
| Unknown episodes
|-
| 1996
| The Abduction
| Dan Solano
| TV movie
|-
| 1998
| Witness to the Mob
| Prosecutor John Gleeson
| TV movie
|-
| 1999
| Chicago Hope
|
| 1 episode
|-
| 1999
| Mary, Mother of Jesus
| Reuben
| TV movie
|-
| 2001
| 100 Centre Street
| Rich
|
|-
| 2001
| Walking Shadow
| Jimmy Christopholous
|TV movie
|-
| 2002
| Counterstrike
| Vice President Chet Ridgeway
| TV movie
|-
| 2003
| General Hospital
| Senator Jordan
|
|-
| 2003
| Frasier
| Bill
| 1 episode
|-
| 2005
| The O.C.
| Ross
| 1 episode
|}
Bibliography
- Symptoms of Withdrawal: A Memoir of Snapshots and Redemption, 2005
- Healing Hepatitis C, 2009
- Moments of Clarity: Voices from the Front Lines of Addiction and Recovery, 2009
- Recover to Live: Kick Any Habit, Manage Any Addiction, 2013
- What Addicts Know: 10 Lessons from Recovery to Benefit Everyone, 2014
See also
- Kennedy family
- Kennedy curse