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]

Filmography

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

Appearances as themselves (1)

• Child Star Confidential — Self