John Kerr

John Grinham Kerr (November 15, 1931 – February 2, 2013) was an American actor and lawyer. He debuted on Broadway in 1953 with Mary Coyle Chase’s *Bernardine*, a high‑school comedy that earned him a Theatre World Award. In the 1953‑54 season he received critical notice as a troubled prep‑school student in Robert Anderson’s play *Tea and Sympathy*; he won a Tony Award for the role in 1954 and appeared in the film adaptation in 1956. Kerr’s first television acting credit came in 1954 on NBC’s *Justice*, portraying a basketball player who blamed gamblers for his loss of form, with his mother appearing alongside him in the series about Legal Aid Society attorneys. He made *The Cobweb* for MGM, after which the studio paired him with Leslie Caron in *Gaby* (1956), the third remake of *Waterloo Bridge*, whose original 1931 pre‑Code version featured his grandfather, actor Frederick Kerr. In 1956 he co‑starred with Deborah Kerr (no relation) in a production of *Tea and Sympathy*. That same year he declined to play Charles Lindbergh in *The Spirit of St. Louis* because of Lindbergh’s early support for the Nazi regime; the role went to James Stewart. Kerr played Lt. Joe Cable, a newly arrived Marine on a dangerous spy mission, in the 1958 film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s *South Pacific*. He appeared as a pilot who assists Captain (Dana Andrews) in landing a crippled airliner in *The Crowded Sky* (1960) and acted in Roger Corman’s *The Pit and the Pendulum* (1961). In 1963 he took on a recurring part as Assistant District Attorney Barry Pine on *Arrest and Trial*. Throughout the 1960s he guest‑starred on series such as *The Alfred Hitchcock Hour*, *Rawhide*, *Gunsmoke* and *Adam‑12*, held a regular role as District Attorney John Fowler on ABC’s primetime drama *Peyton Place* during the 1965‑66 season, and appeared in several episodes of *Twelve O’Clock High* (1964‑65). In the 1970s he recurringly portrayed prosecutor Gerald O’Brien on *The Streets of San Francisco* and made guest appearances on shows including *The Mod Squad*, *Columbo*, *McMillan & Wife*, *Barnaby Jones* and *The Feather and Father Gang*. His final acting credit was a minor role in the 1986 television movie *The Park Is Mine*, starring Tommy Lee Jones.