John Kerr

John Grinham Kerr (November 15, 1931 – February 2, 2013) was an American actor and attorney.

He began his professional career on Broadway, earning critical acclaim for his performances in Mary Chase's Bernardine and Robert Anderson's Tea and Sympathy, then made a transition into a screen career.

He reprised his role in the film version of Tea and Sympathy, which won him the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer, and portrayed Lieutenant Joseph Cable in the Rodgers and Hammerstein movie musical South Pacific. He appeared in a number of television series, including a starring role on Peyton Place.

In the 1970s, he largely moved from acting to becoming a lawyer, making appearances in a few small roles in Canadian-produced films such as Plague and The Amateur. He operated a legal practice in Beverly Hills until 2000, when he retired from the profession.

Early life

Kerr was born November 15, 1931, in New York City to British-born Geoffrey Kerr and American-born June Walker. Both were stage and film actors, in the period 1880–1930; Kerr developed an early interest in following in their footsteps.

He grew up in the New York City area, and went to Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire; he worked at the nearby Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in summer stock. In 1953–1954, he received critical acclaim as a troubled prep school student in Robert Anderson's play Tea and Sympathy. In 1954, he won a Tony Award, New York Drama Critics Award, and Donaldson Award for his performance, He starred in stagings of All Summer Long and The Infernal Machine, and both starred and directed a staging of Bus Stop at the Fred Miller Theatre in Milwaukee. Kerr starred with Deborah Kerr (no relation) in Tea and Sympathy in 1956, reprising his role from the stage version.

In a widely publicized decision, Kerr declined to play the role of Charles Lindbergh in The Spirit of St. Louis because he did not respect Lindbergh's early alleged support of the Nazi regime in Germany before America's entry into World War II. "I don't admire the ideals of the hero," Mr. Kerr told The New York Post. (Producer Leland Hayward also claimed Kerr did not want to be permanently identified with the part. Kerr also reportedly turned down the role of Ensign Pulver in the film of Mister Roberts and the juvenile lead in Friendly Persuasion. and he made guest appearances in several other TV programs including The Mod Squad, Columbo, McMillan and Wife, Barnaby Jones and The Feather and Father Gang.

Legal career Kerr took an interest in film directing, and worked as an apprentice with Leo Penn, who was then directing episodes of the television series Run for Your Life — but Kerr was quickly disenchanted by the mundane aspects of the work, and applied to and was accepted at UCLA Law School. He retired from legal practice in 2000.

Personal life and death Kerr married Priscilla Smith in 1952; the couple divorced in 1972. He married Barbara Chu in 1979. He was cremated and his ashes given to his widow.

Stage credits

Other credits

Dream Girl (1947, summer repertory) Joan of Lorraine (1946, summer repertory) September Tide (1949, summer repertory) Billy Budd (1951, Brattle Theatre) A Midsummer Night's Dream (1951, Brattle Theatre) Twelfth Night (1951, Brattle Theatre) A Sleep of Prisoners (1952, Brattle Theatre) Ring Round the Moon (1954, Hyde Park Theatre) The Rainmaker (1960, Wharf Theater) Five Finger Exercise (1961, La Jolla Playhouse) Sound Of Murder (1961, La Jolla Playhouse) - as director Love and Like (1962, UCLA Theatre Group) Antigone (1962, UCLA Theatre Group) Hamlet (1963, Stanford University) Liliom (1964, University of Oregon) Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1964) - as producer Androcles and the Lion (1964, American National Theater and Academy) - as producer Oedipus Rex (1964, American National Theater and Academy) - as producer J.B. (1964, American National Theater and Academy) - as producer Waiting for Godot (1964, American National Theater and Academy) - as producer Spoon River Anthology (1964, American National Theater and Academy) - as producer Desire Under the Elms (1964, American National Theater and Academy) - as producer The Tenth Man (1967, New York City Center) Mister Roberts (1965, Melodyland Theatre and Circle Star Theater)

Filmography Film

Television