Sidney Lawford

Sir Sidney Turing Lawford, K.C.B. was an English military officer who rose to the rank of Lieutenant General, third highest after Field Marshal and General, primarily remembered as the father of the Anglo-American actor Peter Lawford, who was the brother-in-law of the President of the United States, John F. Kennedy. Sir Sidney, a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (K.C.B.), served the British Empire in many skirmishes and wars in his long career, including World War One. After the Great War, Sir Sydney fell in love with the former May Somerville Bunny, whom was married to another man at the time. She became pregnant with Sir Sidney's child, and she gave birth to the future Peter Lawford (future, as Lawford fils originally bore the name of his mother's husband; he did not fine out his true birth status until he was an adult. Sir Sydney and May eventually married after she secured a divorce, but the resulting scandal caused the couple to flee England for France and then America, where they settled in Palm Beach, Florida (a prime haunt of Peter's future father-in-law, Joseph P. Kennedy, head of F.B.O. studio and later R.K.O.-Radio Pictures). Sir Sidney's younger brother Ernest Lawford was an actor who appeared in some silent films. Late in his life, Sir Sidney appeared in three motion pictures, two of them at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the studio to which his son Peter was signed too. He made his debut in an uncredited but in "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (1945), which his his son starred in. He also appeared that year in Mitchell Leisen's "Kitty" in an unbilled role in support of Paulette Goddard. He wrapped up his career by appearing in Robert Z. Leonard's adaption of John Marquand's novel "B.F.'s Daughter" (1948), again uncredited. Sir Sidney Lawford died in Los Angeles, Califonria on February 15, 1953. His widow, Peter's mother Lady May Lawford (who was billed as Mary Somerville in the two films she appeared in), was briefly married to the Paramount producer `Monta Bell' after General Lawford's death.