Peter Lawford

Peter Lawford was married four times. His first wife was socialite Patricia “Pat” Kennedy, whom he married on April 24, 1954. All of Lawford’s four children (one son, three daughters) were from this relationship. His oldest child, Christopher, was born on March 29, 1955. Sydney Maleia Kennedy Lawford was born on August 25, 1956, Victoria Francis Lawford on November 4, 1958, and Robin Elizabeth Lawford on July 2, 1961. Lawford and Kennedy eventually divorced in February 1966.

He was granted American citizenship on April 23, 1960. Patricia was a younger sister of the then-US Senator John F. Kennedy. By the time Lawford was preparing to vote as an American for the first time, his brother-in-law was running in the presidential election. He actively campaigned for Kennedy and got many of his friends from Hollywood involved. Sinatra famously started calling him ‘Brother-in-Lawford’.

Lawford and Sinatra had a falling out in 1962. During President Kennedy’s west-coast tour, he was supposed to make a scheduled visit at Sinatra’s home. However, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy advised the president against it because of Sinatra’s alleged underworld ties. Sinatra came to know about the changes in the president’s plans at the last minute, after he had gone to extensive lengths to prepare for the presidential visit.

Lawford was born Peter Sydney Ernest Aylen on September 7, 1923, in London, England. His parents were Lieutenant General Sir Sydney Turing Barlow Lawford, KBE (1865–1953) and May Sommerville Bunny (1883–1972); he was their only child. At the time of his birth, both his parents were married to other people. His mother’s husband was Capt Dr Ernest Vaughn Aylen, who served under Sydney, while his father’s wife was a woman named Muriel Williams.

At the time his mother became pregnant with him, she and her husband were living separately. She later told Aylen everything and a double divorce ensued. In September 1924, Sydney and May got married after they were legally cleared to do so.

Lawford had relations in the British aristocracy and grew up in relative affluence. He was raised in France. He could not attend a regular school as his family was always travelling. Instead, his parents chose to get him home-schooled. Governesses and private tutors were hired to provide him with a sound education. He also took tennis and ballet lessons.

According to his mother, he displayed a love for fairy tales and English and French literature from an early age. He was also taught Spanish, German, music, and dramatic arts. His mother categorically omitted subjects such as Latin and mathematics from his curriculum as she felt that “he was unfitted for any career except art”.

Peter Lawford was seven years old, when he was cast in his first film, ‘Poor Old Bill’. He starred in one more film as a child, the 1931 crime drama ‘A Gentleman of Paris.’

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. reached out to Peter Lawford at the beginning of the World War II with a contract offer but it did not work out initially. His first important role was in ‘A Yank at Eton’, a comedy-drama film released in 1942. Lawford played a character named Ronnie Kenvil.

Subsequently, he portrayed uncredited roles in a series of films. He was cast as a pilot in ‘Mrs. Miniver’ (1942) and ‘Eagle Squadron’ (1942); a soldier in ‘random Harvest’ (1942), ‘Immortal Sergeant’ (1943), ‘Pilot No. 5’ (1943), and ‘Sahara (1943); and a sailor in ‘Sherlock Holmes Faces Death’ (1943).

He eventually signed a long-term contract with MGM in June 1943. The inaugural role he played under this was of a young soldier during the World War II in ‘The White Cliffs of Dover’ (1944). He was cast as David Stone in the 1945 cinematic rendition of Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’.

He appeared in ‘Son of Lassie’ in 1945 which made Lawford a Hollywood star. At the height of his popularity, he was receiving thousands of fan letters every week. By 1946, he has become the new romantic lead at MGM as Gable and Stewart were serving in the war at the time.

He starred in ‘Cluny Brown’ (1946), ‘Two Sisters from Boston’ (1946), and ‘My Brother Talks to Horses’ (1947). His first work with Frank Sinatra was the 1947 musical ‘It Happened in Brooklyn’. Lawford garnered rave reviews for his performance.

Peter Lawford’s career really took off after he played the adult version of Joe Carraclough in ‘Son of Lassie’, the 1945 sequel of the iconic 1943 technicolour family film ‘Lassie Come Home’. Set during the World War II, the film finds Carraclough, now a Royal Air Force pilot, shot down over Nazi-occupied Norway along with a stowaway, Lassie's son Laddie (played by Pal, the same male Rough Collie performer that played Lassie in the original film).