Main Characters

  • John F. Kennedy (played by Greg Kinnear)The first Roman Catholic President, elected in 1960. Plagued by illness throughout his life, he graduated from Harvard and became a wartime Navy hero before his successful political career. He married Jacqueline Bouvier in 1953 and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1955 for writing Profiles in Courage. He was assassinated in 1963 in Dallas.
  • Robert F. Kennedy (played by Barry Pepper)A lawyer, Bobby managed his brother John's successful campaigns for U.S. Senate in 1952 and President in 1960. John appointed him Attorney General. He was elected a U.S. Senator from New York in 1964. After winning the 1968 Democratic presidential primary, he was assassinated in Los Angeles at age 42. Married to Ethel Skakel in 1950, he left 11 children.
  • Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis (played by Katie Holmes)Born into a wealthy New York family, Jackie was a childhood equestrian champion. After college, she was a newspaper photographer in Washington where she met John, a congressman from Massachusetts, and they married in 1953. She became first lady at age 31 and a widow at 34. In the White House, she promoted the arts and international good will.
  • Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. (played by Tom Wilkinson)The ambitious, wealthy patriarch of the Kennedy family and key player in JFK's winning political campaigns. A bank president by age 25, he added to his millions through investment banking, moviemaking, and liquor. His stepped into politics with financial support to Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1932 presidential campaign.
  • Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy (played by Diana Hardcastle)The devout Roman Catholic matriarch of the Kennedys, Rose was the daughter of Boston Mayor John F. "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald. She married Joseph Kennedy in 1914, bore nine children, outlived four of them, and died at 104. She loved politics and was an effective fundraiser for the mentally handicapped.
  • Ethel Skakel Kennedy (played by Kristin Booth)The widow of Bobby Kennedy, whom she married in 1950, and mother of their 11 children. Ethel is from a large, wealthy family in Chicago. Pregnant when her husband was killed, she founded the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center, which works to continue her husband's work with human rights and journalism awards.