Lance Kerwin

Lance Kerwin

1960-11-06 – 2023-01-24 (age 62) Newport Beach, California, USA
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Biography

Lance Michael Kerwin (November 6, 1960 – January 24, 2023) was an American actor, known primarily for roles in television and film during his childhood and teen years in the 1970s. He played lead roles in the TV series James at 15, and the made-for-TV films The Loneliest Runner and Salem's Lot.

Kerwin was raised in Lake Elsinore, California. His father was an acting coach, who brought home scripts for his son to read. His mother was also a performer and, later, a talent agent. He was the youngest of five brothers. His brother Shane was his stand-in.

In the 1970s, Kerwin appeared in a number of made-for-TV movies and series. He was, said former theater critic and British Film Institute governor John Holmstrom, "probably America's leading boy actor of the late Seventies ... a handsome lad ... [with] considerable sensitivity as an actor". His serious acting roles often portrayed anguished characters facing difficult challenges, such as in The Loneliest Runner, The Boy Who Drank Too Much, and Children of Divorce.

Kerwin had a daughter with Kristen Lansdale, and four children with his wife Yvonne Kerwin. He gave up acting in the mid-1990s, but returned to the screen in 2022 for The Wind & the Reckoning, filmed in Hawaii.

In July 2010, it was reported that Kerwin was working as a pastor at Calvary Chapel in Kapaa, Hawaii, and a program leader at U-Turn for Christ, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation organization.

Kerwin died in San Clemente, California, on January 24, 2023, at the age of 62.

[preceding biography, edited, from Wikipedia]

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Known For

Outbreak
Outbreak

1995

as American Mercenary

Enemy Mine
Enemy Mine

1985

as Joey Wooster

The Healers
The Healers

1974

as Kennedy Brown

The Fourth Wise Man
The Fourth Wise Man

1985

as Passhur

Final Verdict
Final Verdict

1991

as Harry Johnson

Challenger
The Death of Richie
The Death of Richie

1977

as Russell Werner

A Killer in the Family
A Killer in the Family

1983

as Ray Tison

Advice to the Lovelorn
Advice to the Lovelorn

1981

as Larry Ames

Long Way Home
Long Way Home

1975

as Ramey Holvak

James at 15
James at 15

1977

as James Hunter

Side Show
Side Show

1981

as Nick Pallas

The Loneliest Runner
The Loneliest Runner

1976

as John Curtis as a Youth

Children of Divorce
Children of Divorce

1980

as Tony Malik

The Boy Who Drank Too Much
The Boy Who Drank Too Much

1980

as Billy Carpenter

Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart

1976

as David Putnam

Reflections of Murder
The Mysterious Stranger
Young Joe, the Forgotten Kennedy
Young Joe, the Forgotten Kennedy

1977

as Joe, Jr. (Age 14)