The Kennedy Grandchildren: Bearing the Privilege and Burden of a Family Name

Tatiana Schlossberg, Jack’s sister, worked briefly at The New York Times as an environmental reporter and will have a new book called “Inconspicuous Consumption” published in August.

Several of the Kennedy grandchildren have eschewed politics to pursue careers in film or theater. Bobby Kennedy III, the oldest son of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., recently wrote and directed a film about Hunter Thompson’s unsuccessful run for sheriff of Pitkin County, Colo. Mr. Kennedy, who says on the film’s website that Mr. Thompson taught him to shoot a gun when he was 12, told The Denver Post in 2016 that he hoped the film would inspire young people to be engaged in politics.

“I just really want to motivate a bunch of young 20- and 30-year-olds to get back into politics right now,” he said.

Bobby’s younger sister, Kathleen “Kick” Kennedy, whose namesake great-aunt died in a plane crash in 1948, has had assorted television and stage roles. In 2014, when she made her professional theatrical debut in the title role of Jean Anouilh’s “Antigone,” she told The Associated Press that she did not see herself as going off in a radically different direction from the rest of her family.

“Everyone thinks it’s so crazy and I’m such a tangent from this tree, but I see it all kind of relating, personally,” she said. “I mean, if you break down what a lot of politics is you get stage presence, charisma and, more importantly, a search for truth and the desire to serve a common good, which I believe theater does.”

She also said that she did not think her famous name would help her as an actress — “It’s all about the performance at the end of the day” — and expressed a yearning to forge her own success.

“Hopefully one day people will come see me for something that doesn’t have to do with my last name,” she said.

Source: The New York Times

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John F. Kennedy • Family • The New York Times • Family • Politics • Robert F. Kennedy • Robert F. Kennedy Jr. • Hunter S. Thompson • Pitkin County, Colorado • Colorado • Ken Anderson (wrestler) • The Denver Post • Kathleen Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington • Theatre • Theatre • Jean Anouilh • Antigone • Associated Press • Charisma • Common good • Theatre • My Last Name •