Lawford's career stepped up a notch when signed to a long-term contract to MGM in June 1943. He was a Frenchman in Paris After Dark (1943) and Flesh and Fantasy (1943), and was a student in MGM's Girl Crazy (1943) and The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944). Lawford played a soldier in Sahara (1943) and sailors in Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943) and Corvette K-225 (1943). He had a minor role at Republic's Someone to Remember (1943) and The West Side Kid (1943), the latter directed by Sherman. Īt MGM he was a student in Above Suspicion (1943), a soldier in Pilot #5 (1943), a naval commander in The Sky's the Limit (1943) (with Fred Astaire), and an Australian in The Man from Down Under (1943). He had a billed part in The Purple V (1943). Lawford was a cadet in Thunder Birds: Soldiers of the Air (1942) and Junior Army (1942) (starring Bartholomew), a soldier in Random Harvest (1942), Immortal Sergeant (1942), and London Blackout Murders (1943) (directed by George Sherman), and a navigator in Assignment in Brittany (1943). His first decent role in a major film production was in A Yank at Eton (1942), starring Mickey Rooney, in which Lawford played a snobbish bully. Miniver (1942) and Eagle Squadron (1942), both times as pilots. The advent of World War II saw an increase in British war stories and Lawford found himself in demand playing military personnel, albeit usually in uncredited parts. When he saved enough money for the fare, he went back to Hollywood where he supported himself working as a theater usher until he began to get film work. Their money was in Britain and Britain was at war. In a matter of days, they realized that they had been stranded. The outbreak of World War II found the Lawfords in Florida. He was screen tested and made his Hollywood debut in a minor part in the film Lord Jeff starring Freddie Bartholomew. In 1938, Lawford was travelling through Hollywood when spotted by a talent scout. Lawford in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) Instead, Lawford pursued a career as an actor, a decision that resulted in one of his aunts refusing to leave him her considerable fortune, as she had originally planned. The injury resulted in him being unable to follow a military career as his parents had hoped. Irreversible nerve damage severely compromised the use of his forearm and hand, which he later learned to conceal. Accident Īt the age of 14, Lawford severely injured his right arm in an accident when it went through a glass door. He also had an uncredited bit in A Gentleman of Paris (1931). Having studied Peter for so long, I decided he was quite unfitted for any career except art, so I cut Latin, Algebra, high mathematics and substituted dramatics instead." īecause of the widely varying national and religious backgrounds of his tutors, Lawford "attended various services in churches, cathedrals, synagogues and for some time was an usher in a Christian Science Sunday School." Īround 1930, aged seven, he made his acting debut in the English film Poor Old Bill. He read only selected books: English fairy stories, English and French classics no crime stories. When he was older he had Spanish, German and music added to his studies. "In the beginning," his mother observed, "he had no homework. Instead, he was schooled by governesses and tutors, and his education included tennis and ballet lessons. He spent his early childhood in France and, owing to his family's travels, was never formally educated. A relative, through his mother, was Australian artist Rupert Bunny. His aunt, Jessie Bruce Lawford, another of his father's sisters, was the second wife of the Hon Hartley Williams, senior puisne judge of the Supreme Court of the colony of Victoria, Australia. Lawford's family was connected to the English aristocracy through his uncle Ernest Lawford's wife (a daughter of the Scottish 14th Earl of Eglinton) as well as his aunt Ethel Turner Lawford (who married a son of the 1st Baron Avebury). Sydney and May wed in September 1924 after their divorces were finalised and when their son was one year old. May confessed to Aylen that the child was not his, a revelation that resulted in a double divorce. At the time, May and Ernest Aylen were living apart. Ernest Vaughn Aylen D.S.O, one of Sir Sydney's officers, while his father was married to Muriel Williams. At the time of Peter's birth, however, his mother was married to Lieutenant Colonel Dr. Born in London in 1923, he was the only child of Lieutenant General Sir Sydney Turing Barlow Lawford, KBE (1865–1953) and May Sommerville Bunny (1883–1972).