Lance Kerwin
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]
Known For

Murder, She Wrote

Little House on the Prairie

Simon & Simon

Emergency!

Hotel

Cannon

Gunsmoke

Trapper John, M.D.
All Movies (26)
- The Wind & the Reckoning2022 · as Anderson
- Outbreak1995 · as American Mercenary
- Final Verdict1991 · as Harry Johnson
- Challenger1990
- Enemy Mine1985 · as Joey Wooster
- The Fourth Wise Man1985 · as Passhur
- The Snow Queen1985 · as Kay
- A Killer in the Family1983 · as Ray Tison
- The Mysterious Stranger1982 · as #44
- Advice to the Lovelorn1981 · as Larry Ames
- Side Show1981 · as Nick Pallas
- Children of Divorce1980 · as Tony Malik
- The Boy Who Drank Too Much1980 · as Billy Carpenter
- The Meanest Men in the West1978
- Young Joe, the Forgotten Kennedy1977 · as Joe, Jr. (Age 14)
- James at 151977 · as James Hunter
- Cheering Section1977 · as Bob
- The Death of Richie1977 · as Russell Werner
- The Loneliest Runner1976 · as John Curtis as a Youth
- Amelia Earhart1976 · as David Putnam
- Long Way Home1975 · as Ramey Holvak
- Reflections of Murder1974 · as Chip
- The Greatest Gift1974 · as Ramey Holvak
- The Cloning of Clifford Swimmer1974 · as Todd Swimmer
- The Healers1974 · as Kennedy Brown
- Pssst! Hammerman's After You!1974 · as Ezzie
All TV Shows (27)
- Child Star Confidential2006 · as Self
- 100 Greatest Kid Stars2005
- The New Lassie1989
- Murder, She Wrote1984 · as Eddie Frayne
- Finder of Lost Loves1984 · as Adam Hill
- Faerie Tale Theatre1982 · as Kay
- Hotel1982 · as Ron Kerwin
- Simon & Simon1981
- Salem's Lot1979 · as Mark Petrie
- CBS Library1979 · as Russ
- Trapper John, M.D.1979
- James at 161977 · as James Hunter
- Battle of the Network Stars1976
- Good Heavens1976
- The Bionic Woman1976
- Wonder Woman1975 · as Jeff Hadley
- The Family Holvak1975
- Little House on the Prairie1974 · as Danny Peters
- Police Story1973 · as Joey Jr.
- ABC Afterschool Special1972 · as Ezzie
- ABC Afterschool Special1972 · as Peter Finley
- ABC Afterschool Special1972 · as Buzz
- ABC Afterschool Special1972 · as Adam Rush
- ABC Afterschool Special1972 · as P.J. / The President's Son
- Emergency!1972 · as Wheeler Boy
- Cannon1971
- Gunsmoke1955 · as Tommy Harker