by Stephen Vagg
For over three decades, Peter Lawford managed to gaslight Hollywood into thinking that he was a movie star. Technically, he kind of was, if you count a “star” as someone who has fan clubs, gets top billing in movies, is pushed by studios, becomes the subject of biographies. He was part of the Rat Pack, brother-in-law to a President, starred in “A” pictures and TV series, played lead roles for two decades. But at the same time… no, sorry, not quite. He was a handbag. A love interest/support player to genuine stars. Still, he had a fascinating life and interesting career, including some unexpected links to Australia.
Lawford was born in London in 1923, the son of a couple who were, ahem, married to other people when little Peter was conceived. Dad was a 58-year-old well-connected general, mum was a 40-year-old party girl; they divorced their spouses and got together. Lawford’s parents had plenty of money, initially, which meant that Peter was never formally educated, being taught by governesses and tutors. At age fourteen, he accidentally put his arm through a glass door, permanently injuring it, ruling out a military career.
When World War Two started, the Lawfords were in Florida. The family assets were frozen, so they needed to get to work and Lawford wound up being a parking attendant. Lawford had done some child acting, appearing in Lord Jeff (1938) and decided to get serious about it, moving to Hollywood.
His timing was good, as the war meant that there was a shortage of male actors, and an increase in British stories. Lawford wasn’t (and never would be) a great actor, being hampered in particular by a high-pitched voice and lack of ability to emote; but he was the right age, race and sex, he looked good and had a certain charm that could be effective on screen. Accordingly, Lawford found himself very busy playing soldiers, snobs and extras in films like Mrs Miniver (1942), Eagle Squadron (1942), A Yank at Eton (1942), Junior Army (1942), Random Harvest (1942), Immortal Sergeant (1942), London Blackout Murders (1943), Assignment in Brittany (1943), Above Suspicion (1943), Pilot 5 (1943), The Man from Down Under (1943) (as an Australian), Sahara (1943), and Sherlock Homes Faces Death (1943).
In June 1943, MGM signed Lawford to a long-term contract and gave him his first sizeable role in The White Cliffs of Dover (1944), a blockbuster hit. Metro put him in support roles in some big pictures such as The Canterville Ghost (1944), Mrs Parkington (1944) and The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945). Response was encouraging enough for Lawford to be given his first lead in Son of Lassie (1945), a sequel to Lassie Come Home (1943) – only, despite Lawford’s top billing, he wasn’t really a star, Lassie was. This set the template for Lawford the movie star – audiences didn’t mind him as a support actor or co-lead, but his movies needed a proper star.
MGM seemed to instinctively grasp this – the studio was fairly canny when it came to utilising star personas, at least, when Louis B Mayer was there. Thus, Metro used Lawford mostly in one of two ways. First, as a handsome male prop for female stars in musicals: Two Sisters from Boston (1946) with Kathryn Grayson and June Allyson, It Happened in Brooklyn (1947) with Grayson (and Frank Sinatra), Good News (1947) with Allyson, On an Island With You (1948) with Esther Williams, Royal Wedding (1951) with Jane Powell. He was also used as second male lead in supporting bigger stars, playing best friends, love rivals, etc: Cluny Brown (1946) with Charles Boyer and Jennifer Jones (over at Fox), Easter Parade (1948) with Fred Astaire and Judy Garland, The Red Danube (1949) with Walter Pigeon and Elizabeth Taylor, Julia Misbehaves (1948) with Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon, Little Women (1949) with Allyson and Taylor, Please Believe Me (1950) with Deborah Kerr and Robert Walker.
Lawford had a lively personal life too, incidentally – he was big mates with Van Johnson and Keenan Wynn and was ringside when the studio arranged to cover up Johnson’s homosexuality by having the actor marry Wynn’s wife (that’s just some juicy gossip… any account of Lawford’s life is full of that).
MGM did try Lawford as the big lead in horse movie My Brother Talks to Horses (1947), but it flopped – this is one of the least known movies in his career, despite being directed by Fred Zinnemann. Nonetheless, most of Lawford’s late ‘40s MGM films were very popular and Little Women in particular drew him a lot of attention – if he was a second-tier Cary Grant, well, there’s always a demand for a cheaper Cary Grant. So, when Tyrone Power wasn’t available to play the lead in Kangaroo (1952) in Australia for 20th Century Fox, that studio borrowed Peter Lawford to play the lead, as a scoundrel who pretends to be the son of a rich man. However, director Lewis Milestone didn’t believe in Lawford, and had the script rewritten, so the film became more about Lawford’s sidekick Richard Boone, wrecking the story and annoying the female lead, Maureen O’Hara (who wrote in her memoirs that Lawford and Boone not only bullied her during the shoot, they got arrested in an all-male brothel in Australia.) We wrote about that here.
We think that Lawford’s career suffered with the departure of Louis B Mayer from MGM in 1951 – the studio lost its knack to consistently make MGM style movies, and Dore Schary didn’t know how to use stars. So, instead of putting Lawford as the second lead in big budget films, Schary had Lawford cast as the lead in a series of lower budgeted movies: Just This Once (1952) with Janet Leigh, You for Me (1953) with Jane Greer, The Hour of 13 (1953) with Dawn Addams, and Rogues March (1954), the latter directed by Australian Allan Davis. This cold streak of un-memorable efforts essentially wrecked Lawford’s status as a film star and MGM let the actor go.
Lawford played Jack Lemmon’s love rival for Judy Holliday in It Should Happen to You (1954), and then it was off to television. Lawford was a busy guest star on anthology dramas – it’s easy to cast handsome, suave types, even if they’re not the best actors – and he had two of his own series, Dear Phoebe and The Thin Man.
Lawford managed to reinvent himself via his private life – specifically by marrying Patricia Kennedy, sister of John F Kennedy and becoming a member of the Rat Pack with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jnr. Lawford was very much everyone’s fourth or fifth favourite Rat Pack member (it depended on how you felt about Joey Bishop) but he was an integral part of the gang, and he carved out his own niche with his accent and complete lack of singing ability.
Lawford’s fame increased when Kennedy became President and Lawford was hanging around the White House as the President’s brother-in-law and pimp. Thus, in the early 1960s Lawford found himself at the centre of American pop culture – well, maybe not the centre but to the side of the centre. He supported Sinatra in Never So Few (1959), Ocean’s 11 (1960) and Sergeants 3 (1962) and appeared with the Rat Pack in shows in Las Vegas.
Here’s some “hilarious” humour from the gang:
Otto Preminger became an admirer of Lawford and used the actor in Exodus (1960), Advise and Consent (1962), Skidoo (1968) and Rosebud (1975). He had a decent part in The Longest Day (1962) and even more excitingly established himself as a producer. Lawford had brought Sinatra the Ocean’s 11 project and made his TV series through his company, Chrislaw – that company went on to produce various projects without Lawford in them, notably the films Johnny Cool (1963) and Billie (1965) and the TV series The Patty Duke Show.
Lawford fell out with Sinatra and was kicked out of the Rat Pack, replaced on Robin and the Seven Hoods (1964) by Bing Crosby. However, the actor kept busy in films like Dead Ringer (1964), Sylvia (1965), Harlow (1965) (the Carroll Baker one, as Paul Bern), The Oscar (1966), Buona Sera Mrs Campbell (1968) and The April Fools (1969). Sammy Davis Jnr appeared with him in A Man Called Adam (1966), Salt and Pepper (1969), and that film’s sequel One More Time (1970). The latter was directed by Jerry Lewis who used Lawford in Hook Line and Sinker (1969). There was a late lead in some European thriller Dead Run (1968). He must have been a lot of fun to hang out with.
Lawford’s run in the 1970s was fairly grim – TV movies, nostalgia throwbacks (They Only Kill Their Masters, Won Ton Ton the Dog who Saved Hollywood, Body and Soul), the inevitable Fantasy Island. He struggled so much with alcohol and drugs that it was kind of a miracle that he lasted until 1984, when he died of a heart attack, the first Rat Packer to pass.
In terms of movies, Lawford was a born second lead, romantic leading man, and best friend. He wasn’t a star. He took a minor talent for acting and a major talent for friendship to forge an incredible life and career. Still, while it’s very hard to come up with a top ten Peter Lawford performances, it’s actually quite easy to come up with a top ten Peter Lawford films. So good for him, really.
