Christopher Lawford facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Christopher Lawford
Lawford in September 2008
Born	Christopher Kennedy Lawford (1955-03-29)March 29, 1955 Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Died	September 4, 2018(2018-09-04) (aged 63) Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Education	Tufts University (BA) Boston College (JD) Harvard University
Occupation	Author actor activist
Years active	1988–2008
Spouse(s)	Jeannie Olsson ​ ​ (m. 1984; div. 2000)​ Lana Antonova ​ ​ (m. 2005; div. 2009)​ Mercedes Miller ​ ​ (m. 2014; div. 2016)​
Children	3
Parent(s)	Peter Lawford Patricia Kennedy Lawford
Relatives	See Kennedy family
Signature

Christopher Kennedy Lawford (March 29, 1955 – September 4, 2018) was an American author, actor, and activist. He was a member of the prominent Kennedy family, and son of English actor Peter Lawford and Patricia "Pat" Kennedy Lawford, who was a sister of President John F. Kennedy. He graduated from Tufts University in 1977 and earned a Juris Doctor degree from Boston College in 1983. He later earned a master's certificate in Clinical Psychology from Harvard University.

After struggling with addiction for 17 years, he became an actor, performing in several movies and television shows for over 20 years. He wrote several books, based on his own experience. He also was a public health campaigner, working with organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations (UN), and for the U.S. federal government.

Early life and education

Lawford was born on March 29, 1955, at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California . He was named for Saint Christopher and because his mother liked the name. 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. After moving to New York City with his mother, he attended the Middlesex School, a prep school in Concord, Massachusetts. He graduated from Tufts University in 1977 and earned a J.D. degree from Boston College Law School in 1983. He later earned a master's certificate in Clinical Psychology from Harvard University, and lectured at Harvard, Columbia University, and other colleges.

Career

Acting

Lawford chose to become, like his father, an actor 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. He worked in film and television for over 20 years. His acting credits included the sitcom Frasier and the drama The O.C. . In 2003, he had a brief stint on the soap opera General Hospital, but was best known for playing Philip “Charlie” Brent, Jr. on All My Children from 1992 to 1995.

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. In 1997, Lawford had a role in the independent comedy Kiss Me Guido as the gay lover of the main character. 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. In 2005, Lawford appeared in the motorcycle racing film The World's Fastest Indian, co-starring Anthony Hopkins.

Writing

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

In 2005, Lawford published his memoir, Symptoms of Withdrawal. 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.

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, 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. In 2001, Lawford founded and was CEO of the Global Recovery Initiative, a not-for-profit organization that "seeks to remove barriers and provide opportunities for people in recovery".

Lawford also worked with the United Nations (UN). In March 2010, he traveled to Ukraine on behalf of the UN, to participate in a discussion with health officials and advocates about "issues related to hepatitis C (Hep C) prevention in Ukraine", and to raise awareness. In 2011, was named a Goodwill Ambassador on Drug Dependence Treatment and Care, and served on the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime.

Personal life

Marriages and children

Lawford was married and divorced three times. He had three children, David Christopher Kennedy Lawford (named after his cousin David Kennedy), Savannah Rose Lawford, and Matthew Peter Valentine Lawford with his first wife Jeannie Olsson, an ad-sales assistant for New York Magazine. They divorced in 2000. In 2005, he married Russian actress Lana Antonova; they divorced in 2009. In 2014, Lawford married yoga instructor Mercedes Miller in Hawaii. At the time of his death in 2018, he had been in a relationship with his girlfriend Kyla Resch since August 2017.

Death

On September 4, 2018, Lawford died of a heart attack in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he was living with his girlfriend and working to open a recovery center. He had a medical emergency at a yoga studio and later died. 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 the recovery community.

Filmography

Film

Television

See also

• Kennedy family tree
• Kennedy curse