''Killing Kennedy'' is a 2013 American

television film A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

, based on the 2012 non-fiction book of the same title by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard, and starring

Rob Lowe Robert Hepler Lowe (born March 17, 1964) is an American actor, filmmaker, and podcast host. He made his acting debut at the age of 15 with ABC's short-lived sitcom ''A New Kind of Family'' (1979–1980). Following numerous television roles in ...

, Will Rothhaar,

Ginnifer Goodwin Jennifer Michelle "Ginnifer" Goodwin (born May 22, 1978) is an American actress. She is known for her starring role as Margene Heffman in the HBO drama series '' Big Love'' (2006–2011) and Snow White / Mary Margaret Blanchard in the ABC fa ...

, and

Michelle Trachtenberg Michelle Trachtenberg (; born October 11, 1985) is an American actress and model. Trachtenberg began her career at age three, appearing in a number of commercials, films, and television series as a child. Her starring role on the Nickelodeon tel ...

. The movie dramatizes the

presidency A presidency is an administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation. Although often the executive branch of government, and often personified by ...

and

assassination Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have ...

of John F. Kennedy, as well as the life of

Lee Harvey Oswald Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 – November 24, 1963) was a U.S. Marine veteran who assassinated John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, on November 22, 1963. Oswald was placed in juvenile detention at the age of 12 fo ...

in the years leading up to the assassination. It premiered in the US and Canada on

National Geographic Channel National Geographic (formerly National Geographic Channel; abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo or Nat Geo TV) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by the National Geographic Global Networks unit of Disney General ...

on November 10, 2013, followed by the various European National Geographic channels a few days later. It was first shown on terrestrial TV in the UK by

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

on November 23. 2013.

Plot summary

The plot follows the rise of John F. Kennedy (Rob Lowe) as he becomes President of the United States. As Kennedy's career shapes,

(Will Rothhaar), a former

Marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military ...

, begins to grow disillusioned with America. Their paths ultimately cross and results in Oswald's assassination of Kennedy.

Main cast

as John F. Kennedy * Will Rothhaar as

Jacqueline Kennedy Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis ( ; July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994) was an American socialite, writer, photographer, and book editor who served as first lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963, as the wife of President John F. Kennedy. A p ...

Marina Oswald Marina Nikolayevna Oswald Porter ( Prusakova; russian: Марина Николаевна Прусакова; born July 17, 1941) is the Russian-American widow of Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of US President John F. Kennedy. Early life Port ...

Jack Noseworthy Jack Evan Noseworthy Jr. (born December 21, 1964) is an American actor known for his roles in ''Event Horizon'', '' U-571'', ''Barb Wire'' and ''Killing Kennedy''. Early life Noseworthy earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Boston Conse ...

as Robert F. Kennedy *

Francis Guinan Francis V. Guinan Jr. (born November 17, 1951) is an American film, television and stage actor who is perhaps best known for his role as Edgar Teller the patriarch in the short-lived series '' Eerie, Indiana''. The Council Bluffs, Iowa-born actor ...

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

* Richard Flood as

Kenny O'Donnell Kenneth Patrick O'Donnell (March 4, 1924 – September 9, 1977) was an American political consultant and the special assistant and appointments secretary to President John F. Kennedy from 1961 until Kennedy's assassination in November 1963. O'Do ...

Natalie Gold Natalie Gold is an American actress who has appeared in film, television, and stage productions, including on Broadway. She is best known for playing Rava Roy on the TV show ''Succession'' and Julia Harwell on the TV show ''Rubicon'', as well as ...

Ruth Paine Ruth Hyde Paine (born September 3, 1932) was a friend of Marina Oswald, who was living with her at the time of the JFK assassination. According to four government investigations, Lee Harvey Oswald stored the 6.5 mm caliber Carcano rifle that ...

* Jamie McShane as US Moscow Embassy

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throu ...

Richard Edward Snyder *

Brian Hutchison Brian Hutchison is an American actor based in New York City. He has appeared on such network shows as '' Blue Bloods'', '' Madam Secretary'', ''Chicago Med'', '' Jessica Jones'', '' Elementary'', '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'', '' Godfath ...

as USSS Special Agent Winston Lawson *

Casey Siemaszko Kazimierz Andrew "Casey" Siemaszko (; born March 17, 1961) is an American actor. Personal life Siemaszko was born in Chicago and grew up on the city's northwest side. He attended Saint Ignatius College Preparatory School and graduated from the ...

Jack Ruby Jack Leon Ruby (born Jacob Leon Rubenstein; April 25, 1911January 3, 1967) was an American nightclub owner and alleged associate of the Chicago Outfit who murdered Lee Harvey Oswald on November 24, 1963, two days after Oswald was accused of ...

* Antoinette LaVecchia as

Lady Bird Johnson Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Johnson (''née'' Taylor; December 22, 1912 – July 11, 2007) was First Lady of the United States from 1963 to 1969 as the wife of President Lyndon B. Johnson. She previously served as Second Lady from 1961 to 1963 whe ...

Boris McGiver Boris McGiver (born January 23, 1962) is an American actor. He is known for his roles in projects such as '' Lincoln'', '' House of Cards'', ''The Wire'', '' Killing Kennedy'', and ''Person of Interest''. Personal life Of Irish and Ukraini ...

as FBI Special Agent John W. Fain * Matt Micou as J. D. Tippit *Keith Tyree as Governor

John Connally John Bowden Connally Jr. (February 27, 1917June 15, 1993) was an American politician. He served as the 39th governor of Texas and as the 61st United States secretary of the Treasury. He began his career as a Democrat and later became a Republic ...

*Adrienne Nelson as

Nellie Connally Idanell Brill Connally (February 24, 1919 – September 1, 2006) was the First Lady of Texas from 1963 to 1969. She was the wife of John Connally, who served as Governor of Texas and later as Secretary of the Treasury. She and her husband we ...

*Lucas N Hall as Officer Atwell *Roger W. Durrett as Admiral Arleigh Burke,

Chief of Naval Operations The chief of naval operations (CNO) is the professional head of the United States Navy. The position is a statutory office () held by an admiral who is a military adviser and deputy to the secretary of the Navy. In a separate capacity as a memb ...

*Danny McCarthy as Agent James P. Hosty *Parker Dowling as Buell Wesley Frazier *Mike Shiflett as Captain Will Fritz *Terry Menefee Gau as Nurse Doris Nelson *Joseph Gray as Sergeant Gerald Hill *

Mary Pat Gleason Mary Pat Gleason (February 23, 1950 – June 2, 2020) was an American film and television actress and an Emmy Award-winning writer. From 1983 to 1985, she appeared as "Jane Hogan" on the daytime soap opera ''Guiding Light'', for which she was al ...

as Marguerite Oswald

Production

After the success of ''

Killing Lincoln ''Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever'' is a book by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard concerning the 1865 assassination of U.S. president Abraham Lincoln. The book was released on September 27, 2011, and is t ...

'',

announced it would produce a film adaptation of ''Killing Kennedy''. In May 2013, it was announced that

was to play

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

John F. Kennedy,

would play

First Lady First lady is an unofficial title usually used for the wife, and occasionally used for the daughter or other female relative, of a non- monarchical head of state or chief executive. The term is also used to describe a woman seen to be at the ...

, and

would portray

's wife

. Goodwin used intimate photos to better portray Jackie Kennedy and was concerned "to do her justice and to play her as accurately as possible without ever doing an impression of her." Costar

said of seeing Goodwin in the pink Chanel suit, "It made it real. If I were under any illusions about what we were doing, seeing her in that iconic moment was, I would say, sobering." While portraying Marina Oswald, Trachtenberg consulted her Russian-born mother for help in speaking Russian. Filming took place in

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

Reception

On its original airing, it drew in 3,354,000 viewers, averaging a 1.1 rating with adults in the 25-54 demographic. The viewership broke the record previously held by ''

'' which averaged 3,351,000 viewers.

Critical response

''Killing Kennedy'' received mixed reviews from both viewers and critics. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

the series holds an approval rating of 56% based on 18 reviews, with an average of 5.9/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, it has a weighted average score of 55 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * {{National Geographic films 2013 television films 2013 films 2013 biographical drama films 2013 crime films American biographical drama films American documentary television films Cultural depictions of John F. Kennedy Cultural depictions of Robert F. Kennedy Cultural depictions of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Cultural depictions of Lyndon B. Johnson Cultural depictions of Lee Harvey Oswald Cultural depictions of Jack Ruby Films about the assassination of John F. Kennedy Films about the Cuban Missile Crisis Films based on non-fiction books Films based on works by Martin Dugard (author) Films based on works by Bill O'Reilly (political commentator) Films directed by Nelson McCormick Films scored by Geoff Zanelli Films set in the 1960s Films set in Dallas Films set in Minsk Films set in the White House Films shot in Virginia National Geographic (American TV channel) original programming Scott Free Productions films American drama television films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films