Peter Lawford: The Man Who Kept the Secrets
By James Spada
Bantam, 504 pages, $22.50
In films and on stage, Peter Lawford was the essence of wit and charm, a handsome actor who exuded sophistication and sex appeal. In real life, he could be similarly witty, charming and sexy. But beneath the glossy surface lurked a troubled soul bedeviled by insecurity and a host of other demons.
At age 25, Lawford was one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood and a symbol of glamor and romance. By the end of his life, he was heavily addicted to drugs, alcohol, prostitutes and kinky sex, and so broke that he didn`t think twice about selling out a friend to make a buck. When Elizabeth Taylor called to confide that she had checked into the Betty Ford Center, Lawford agreed to join his longtime pal in the rehab program-then secretly tipped off a supermarket tabloid as to Taylor`s whereabouts and pocketed a reported $15,000 for the juicy tidbit.
Still, despite tantalizing offers from the tabloids, Lawford kept his mouth shut about one thing: the part he played in the events surrounding the 1962 death of Marilyn Monroe, who carried on clandestine affairs with Lawford`s onetime brothers-in-law, Jack and Bobby Kennedy. It was Lawford, who married into the Kennedy family in 1954, who introduced Jack Kennedy to Monroe; it was Lawford who cleaned up the actress` apartment after she apparently killed herself to make sure nothing remained to link her with the Kennedys and result in a politically disastrous scandal.
Lawford`s relationships with Monroe and the Kennedy clan are at the heart of this engrossing biography, which draws on interviews with the actor`s associates and tells his frequently tragic story in well-documented detail. The ”tortured actor” syndrome, of course, is a timeworn tale; nobody forced Lawford to abuse drugs and alcohol. But his insecurities were deep-rooted.
Born in London in 1923 to an ambivalent mother, Lawford led a nomadic life as a child. Physically striking, he attracted sexual overtures from adults of both sexes by the time he was 9. His good looks got him parts in films in England, and later, after moving to Hollywood in 1941 with his alternately uncaring and overpossessive mother, he signed with MGM and launched his American film career.
Lawford dated a number of actresses, most of whom found him a disappointing lover. He would continue to compulsively seek out young women throughout his life, and Spada reports that he developed a taste for sadomasochistic sex. His marriage to Pat Kennedy foundered because of his infidelities and the fact that he was unable to fit in with the Kennedy clan. Ironically, it was Kennedy who inadvertently brought about the end of Lawford`s friendship with another man he greatly admired, Frank Sinatra, when JFK changed his mind about staying at the singer`s home during a trip to California. Sinatra, who had installed a helicopter pad in anticipation of the president`s arrival, blamed the hapless Lawford for the disappointment and shunned him ever after.
Lawford died in 1984, at age 61, of kidney and liver failure. Initially, his ashes were entombed in the same cemetery as Marilyn Monroe`s. But the burial bills were never paid, and the mortuary threatened to ”evict” the remains. Finally, Lawford`s fourth wife scattered his ashes into the Pacific Ocean. The National Enquirer provided the boat in exchange for the scoop.
