Kirkwood was born in Los Angeles. His father
James Kirkwood Sr. was an actor and director in silent films, and his mother was actress
Lila Lee. He had a half sister Joan Mary Kirkwood Thompson. After their divorce, he spent much of his time with his mother's family in
Elyria, Ohio, where he graduated from high school.
Career From 1953 to 1957, he played Mickey Emerson on the soap opera
Valiant Lady. Kirkwood wrote the semi-autobiographical novel
There Must Be a Pony!, made into
a television film starring
Elizabeth Taylor and
Robert Wagner. Other novels include
P.S. Your Cat Is Dead (adapted into a play of the same name, which was, in turn, adapted into a film by
Steve Guttenberg),
Good Times/Bad Times,
Some Kind of Hero, and
Hit Me with a Rainbow. In 1959, Kirkwood appeared on
Perry Mason as Johnny Baylor, son of Sen. Harriman Baylor, in "The Case of the Foot-Loose Doll." In 1970,
Simon & Schuster published Kirkwood's
American Grotesque about the
trial of Clay Shaw.
Shaw, a New Orleans businessman, was tried by New Orleans District Attorney
Jim Garrison on charges that he was involved in a
conspiracy to assassinate United States President John F. Kennedy and later acquitted.
Kirkus Reviews wrote that "Kirkwood's portrait of Shaw as
St. Sebastian is overdone to the point of self defeat" and that "the book does clinch the impression that legal grounds for the conspiracy charges were insufficient." Kirkwood died in his Manhattan apartment of AIDS-related complications in 1989.
Literary prize In Kirkwood's memory, his friends and admirers established the James Kirkwood Literary Prize to honor new generations of fiction writers for their literary achievements. The competition is hosted by the
UCLA Extension Writers' Program, and the winner is determined by Andrew Morse, the prize's benefactor. ==Works==