Christopher Lawford

Drug and legal issues

Lawford began taking drugs while attending the Middlesex School. By the late 1970s, he had developed a serious drug abuse problem. He briefly attended Fordham University School of Law, but dropped out after several months due to his dependency on heroin. He later contracted Hepatitis C due to his drug abuse.^[3][4] In 1980, he was arrested in Aspen, Colorado for impersonating a doctor in order to get prescription medication. The charges were later dropped when Lawford completed his probation.^[3]

In April 1984, Lawford's cousin David Kennedy, who also battled substance abuse issues and with whom Lawford had a close relationship, died of a drug overdose. David's death prompted Lawford to seek professional help for his issues. He attended addiction behavior classes at the Cambridge Hospital and became sober.^[3]

Acting

In 1988, Lawford decided to pursue a career in acting.^[3] He spent over fifteen years in the film and television business as an actor, lawyer, executive, and producer. As an independent producer Lawford arranged financing for and produced films including Kiss Me Guido & Drunks; both films were selections in the Sundance Film Festival.

Lawford's acting credits include Eavesdrop, Slipstream, The World's Fastest Indian, Terminator 3, Blankman, The Doors, The Russia House, Thirteen Days, and many others. His credits also include a three-year tenure on the soap opera All My Children and a role on General Hospital.

Writing

In September 2005, HarperCollins published Lawford's memoir Symptoms of Withdrawal: A Memoir of Snapshots and Redemption (William Morrow 2005, ISBN 0-06-073248-2), which immediately became a New York Times Bestseller. In 2009, he released Moments of Clarity: Voices from the Front Lines of Addiction and Recovery, a series of essays by public figures, athletes and entertainers who have struggled with addiction to drugs and alcohol. Almost every interviewee sought help from a twelve-step program such as Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous or another spiritually based means of support for recovery. In his own life, Lawford battled a drug and alcohol addiction for much of his early life.^[6]

Activism

Lawford worked extensively in politics, government and the non-profit sector holding executive staff positions with The Democratic National Committee, The Community Action for Legal Services Agency and in the Washington office of Senator Edward M. Kennedy. He has held staff positions on numerous national, state and local political campaigns, as well as with The Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation, Special Olympics and The Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. He was later a Public Advocacy Consultant for Caron Treatment Centers, and was appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to serve on the California Department of Public Health Advisory Board.^[6]

Marriages and children

In November 1984, Lawford married Jeannie Olsson, a sales advertising assistant for New York magazine.^[8] The couple had three children: Christopher Kennedy Lawford Jr., Savannah Rose Lawford, and Matthew LeMoyne Kennedy Lawford.^[5] They divorced in 2000.

On August 22, 2005, Lawford married Lana Antonova, a Russian actress and entrepreneur, in a small ceremony in Las Vegas, NV. The couple divorced in December 10, 2009.

In May 2014, Lawford married Mercedes Miller, a yoga teacher, in Maui, Hawaii.^[9]

Religion

Lawford was raised in the Roman Catholic faith.^[10] In a 2009 interview, Lawford claimed that he left the church in 1968 stating:

[...] I left the Catholic Church when I was 13 years old after my Uncle Bobby was assassinated, saying I would never go back, and I didn't really have a need for God and I didn't really believe in God. He wasn't useful to me. But I had gotten an understanding that there were spiritual people. My grandmother, Rose Kennedy, was a devout Catholic, but she was also a very spiritual person. She walked and meditated every day of her life. Her faith and spirituality got her through enormous trauma. That was not lost on me. My grandmother was this beacon of equilibrium in a world that was crazy. [...]That's [Roman Catholicism] just not something that speaks to me. I have my own tradition. I go to an ashram. I meditate. I chant. I do all that kind of stuff [...]^[10]

Art sale

In March 2010, Lawford sold at auction a 1965 Picasso painting, Femme au Grand Chapeau. Buste. The painting was estimated to sell at Sotheby's for between $8 million to $12 million and ended up bringing $8.2 million, or $9.3 million with Sotheby's buyer's commission.^[11]

Death

On September 5, 2018, Christopher's cousin Kerry Kennedy announced via her Twitter account that Lawford had died and paid tribute to him.^[12][13] That same day, law enforcement officials in Hollywood, California told TMZ that Lawford suffered a heart attack at a yoga studio in Vancouver, British Columbia, ^[14] the previous evening and later died.^[15][16] An autopsy is being performed to the determine the exact cause of death, which is believed to have been natural causes.