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Complete series cast summary: | |||
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Paul Bronk | ... |
Bartender
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Dave Penn | ... |
Inaugural Platform Attendant
(1 episode, 1990)
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Alison Wachtler | ... |
Rose's nurse
(1 episode, 1990)
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Casey Affleck | ... |
Robert Kennedy - Ages 12-15
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Cindy Baer | ... |
Rose's Friend - 1906
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Deborah Bancroft | ... |
Sissy Thomas
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Sullivan Brown | ... |
King George
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Allyn Burrows | ... |
G.I.
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Karen Chaffee | ... |
Patricia Kennedy - Ages 13-14
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Ken Cheeseman | ... |
Ormsby-Gore
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Mara Clark | ... |
Maid Ruth
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Jordan Clarke | ... |
James Reedy
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Richard Clarke | ... |
Neville Chamberlain
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Father Coppenrath | ... |
Priest
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Joe Costa | ... |
David Sarnoff
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Dawn Couch | ... |
Cora
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Michael Cumpsty | ... |
Billy Hartington
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Jean De Baer | ... |
Josie Fitzgerald
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Jerome Dempsey | ... |
Joe Kane
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Bill Devany | ... |
Saloon Patron
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Frank Dolan | ... |
Dr. Place
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Bruce Donaldson | ... |
Customer's Man
(3 episodes, 1990)
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William Duff-Griffin | ... |
Henry Fitzgerald
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Matthew Dundas | ... |
Ted Kennedy - Ages 12-14
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Paul Dunn | ... |
Clark
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Charles Durning | ... |
John 'Honey Fitz' Fitzgerald
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Michael Flanagan | ... |
Dr. Coleman
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Hal Fletcher | ... |
Earl Warren
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Will Gardner | ... |
Robert Kennedy - Age 7
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Edwin Gerard | ... |
Henri
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Peter Gerety | ... |
Irish Driver
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Thomas Gibson | ... |
Peter Fitzwilliam
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Michael Goodwin | ... |
Joe Kennedy Jr. - Ages 11-12
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Sam Gray | ... |
William Burke
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Tim Halligan | ... |
Eddie Moore
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Beth Herzig | ... |
Jean Kennedy - Ages 16-20
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Pat Hingle | ... |
P.J. Kennedy
(3 episodes, 1990)
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James Huston | ... |
Joe Gargan
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Venus Irving-Prescott | ... |
Club Singer
(3 episodes, 1990)
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David Ives | ... |
Headmaster
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Keith Jochim | ... |
Dr. Martin
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Eddie Jones | ... |
Jim Fitzgerald
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Kristen Lee Kelly | ... |
Patricia Kennedy
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Tom Kemp | ... |
Hill
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Lily Knight | ... |
Pat Wilson
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Pete Kovner | ... |
Harry
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Thomas Krajewski | ... |
Jack Kennedy - Ages 9-12
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Olek Krupa | ... |
Erich Von Stroheim
(3 episodes, 1990)
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June Lion | ... |
Nurse
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Jane Loranger | ... |
Agnes Firtzgerald
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Deirdre Lovejoy | ... |
Rosemary Kennedy
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Dante Magnani | ... |
Joe Kennedy Jr. - Ages 2-4
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Kate Mailer | ... |
Victoria
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Bernie McInerney | ... |
Dr. Bowles
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Randle Mell | ... |
Robert Kennedy
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Chris Milberg | ... |
Newsboy #2
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Leah Monagle | ... |
Eunice Fitzgerald - Age 5
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Bill Moor | ... |
Louis Howe
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Hubert Murray | ... |
Secretary
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Hugo Napier | ... |
Butler
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Kelsey Nichols | ... |
Kathleen Kennedy - Ages 8-9
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Remi Nichols | ... |
Rosemary Kennedy - Ages 8-11
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Christina Nikitas | ... |
Jack Kennedy - Ages 2-3
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Annette O'Toole | ... |
Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Madolyn Smith Osborne | ... |
Gloria Swanson
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Dossy Peabody | ... |
Catherine Falvey
(3 episodes, 1990)
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William Petersen | ... |
Joseph P. Kennedy
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Tracy Pollan | ... |
Kathleen Kennedy
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Richard Provost | ... |
Chief Justice
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Mathew Quinn | ... |
Pianist
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Halina Radosz | ... |
Eunice Kennedy
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Beckett Royce | ... |
New York Woman
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Danielle Schonback | ... |
Jean Kennedy - Ages 9-12
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Fiona Scoones | ... |
Young Woman
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Campbell Scott | ... |
Joseph P. Kennedy Jr.
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Ryan Shaughnessy | ... |
Ted Kennedy - Ages 5-6
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Josef Sommer | ... |
Franklin D. Roosevelt
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Shaun Sullivan | ... |
Newsboy #1
(3 episodes, 1990)
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John Terrence | ... |
Gloria's Butler
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Brian Tierney | ... |
Jimmy Roosevelt
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Jennifer Walsh | ... |
Rosemary Kennedy - Ages 1-4
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Steven Weber | ... |
John F. Kennedy
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Bronia Wheeler | ... |
Nun
(3 episodes, 1990)
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Bates Wilder | ... |
Classmate
(3 episodes, 1990)
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This sweeping mini-series profiling the Kennedy family ran three nights. The film chronicles 55 years in the lives of the family opening in 1906 with the marriage of Joseph P. Kennedy, a Harvard graduate, to Rose Fitzgerald, the daughter of Boston's Mayor. The first night focuses on the marriage's troubled years and Rose's strength in developing a real family. The second night covered the years of 1928 - 1940 and Jospeh's years as working as a movie producer and then an ambassador. The final night follows the Kennedy's tragedies during World War II and follows the post war years political successes of John Kennedy. Written by John Sacksteder <jsackste@bellsouth.net>
"American royalty" may not be technically correct, but such a qualifier is not wholly inappropriate when it invokes not only the notoriety but also the fascination and scrutiny to which every aspect of the lives of Joe and Rose Kennedy and their descendants have been subject. The passions they arouse are also very telling: evaluations of the Kennedys tend to fall somewhere on the scale between glorifications of a latter-day Camelot, and cynical exasperation with a band of hypocritical, womanizing, calculating "Massachusetts liberals." For all their very deep flaws, however, the Kennedy's Darwinian and cultural success does command very deep respect: there must be SOME virtuous sensibilities down there.
"The Kennedys of Massachusetts" portrays this integral picture quite well, incorporating the various strains and experiences that made Joe and Rose and their family into who they were. Central to the story is their Roman Catholic identity, to which they were both fervently attached and which they determined (and managed) to pass to their children. But the tension between Catholicism as expressed through Rose's more purely ultramontanist social, psychological and cultural mindset - which she transmitted to none of her children (Eunice a possible, partial exception) - and the ambitions of Joe to rise in WASP society. The film does not condemn Rose's staunch, sometimes brittle approach to her faith nor castigate Joe for his shirking of its finer points or of his numerous betrayals of the matrimonial covenant, but simply lays out the facts for what they are.
All the way, the grace and glamor of Old vs. New World is undeniable. The major points in the marriage of Joe and Rose and the evolution of their children are chronicled very cohesively and convincingly. William Petersen and Annette O'Toole play their roles very well and have good chemistry; nevertheless, the scenes between O'Toole and Charles Durning (as John "Honey" Fitzgerald) steal the show, and his cynical recapping of Rose's religious and intellectual path early on turns out to a harbinger for the whole Kennedy political project. We are left at once admiring of the great accomplishments of Joe and the earnest if naïve and not wholly adroit quest for beauty on the part of Rose, if perhaps regretful that he could not have listened to her earlier: "You're a very successful and wealthy man at a young age; isn't that enough?" and spared his family so much of the agony that came as the price of their admission into Anglo-Protestant high society. (An uncharitable cynic might add, spare the U.S. of an incompetent president and an alcoholic road-unworthy senator. I'll let my readers judge for themselves.)
All the same, one ends the mini-series wanting to do something, wanting to beatify one's life. If entertainment can so inspire, perhaps it is not so indispensable as we sometimes suppose.