Lance Kerwin
- Known for
- Acting
- Born
- Nov 6, 1960
- Died
- Jan 24, 2023 (aged 62)
- Place of birth
- Newport Beach, California, USA
- Credits
- 49
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]
Known for
Filmography
The Wind & the Reckoning
2022Movie
Anderson
Child Star Confidential
2006TV
Self
100 Greatest Kid Stars
2005TV
Outbreak
1995Movie
American Mercenary
Final Verdict
1991Movie
Harry Johnson
Challenger
1990Movie
The New Lassie
1989TV
Enemy Mine
1985Movie
Joey Wooster
The Fourth Wise Man
1985Movie
Passhur
The Snow Queen
1985Movie
Kay
Murder, She Wrote
1984TV
Eddie Frayne
Finder of Lost Loves
1984TV
Adam Hill
A Killer in the Family
1983Movie
Ray Tison
The Mysterious Stranger
1982Movie
#44
Faerie Tale Theatre
1982TV
Kay
Hotel
1982TV
Ron Kerwin
Advice to the Lovelorn
1981Movie
Larry Ames
Simon & Simon
1981TV
Side Show
1981Movie
Nick Pallas
Children of Divorce
1980Movie
Tony Malik
The Boy Who Drank Too Much
1980Movie
Billy Carpenter
Salem's Lot
1979TV
Mark Petrie
CBS Library
1979TV
Russ
Trapper John, M.D.
1979TV
The Meanest Men in the West
1978Movie
Young Joe, the Forgotten Kennedy
1977Movie
Joe, Jr. (Age 14)
James at 15
1977Movie
James Hunter
James at 16
1977TV
James Hunter
Cheering Section
1977Movie
Bob
The Death of Richie
1977Movie
Russell Werner
The Loneliest Runner
1976Movie
John Curtis as a Youth
Battle of the Network Stars
1976TV
Amelia Earhart
1976Movie
David Putnam
Good Heavens
1976TV
The Bionic Woman
1976TV
Wonder Woman
1975TV
Jeff Hadley
Long Way Home
1975Movie
Ramey Holvak
The Family Holvak
1975TV
Reflections of Murder
1974Movie
Chip
The Greatest Gift
1974Movie
Ramey Holvak
The Cloning of Clifford Swimmer
1974Movie
Todd Swimmer
Little House on the Prairie
1974TV
Danny Peters
The Healers
1974Movie
Kennedy Brown
Pssst! Hammerman's After You!
1974Movie
Ezzie
Police Story
1973TV
Joey Jr.
ABC Afterschool Special
1972TV
Ezzie, Adam Rush, Peter Finley, Buzz, P.J. / The President's Son
Emergency!
1972TV
Wheeler Boy
Cannon
1971TV
Gunsmoke
1955TV
Tommy Harker