MovieChat Forums > Thirteen Days (2001) Discussion > Sad Footnote

Sad Footnote

posted 15 years ago by tjshan1214
9 replies | jump to latest

I had read a number of books about this topic. Kenny O'Donnell's bio of JFK ("Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye") was excellent. I had not seen this movie till today and out of curiosity I looked up O'Donnell's biography. It turns out that both he and his wife died of alcoholism about fifteen years after the events portrayed in this film. Although they showed O'Donnell with a drink on a couple of ccasions, there is not apparent reference to him having a drinking problem at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. I guess he took the assassinations of JFK and RFK very hard.

[–] efs2 15 years ago

I don't know anything about O'Donnell or his wife. But I would not draw any real-life conclusions from the fact that Thirteen Days does not portray him as a drinker.

Move along. Nothing to see here.

[–] njdocisin 15 years ago

He did indeed take the assassinations very hard. He was riding in the car right behind JFK the day he was killed, and always blamed himself for what happened. Bobby's assassination hit him even harder. Between that and some failed runs for office, he spiraled downward into alcoholism.

[–] pe81171 15 years ago

Yes, I believe he was very bitter. On RFK's funeral train O'Donnell made the famous quote ,in reply to Arthur Schlesinger Jr.'s comment on the huge crowds, "What good are they now?"

I found a nice copy of 'Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye' and really enjoyed reading it.

Frank: Just a man.
Harmonica: An ancient race.

[–] Jeff-01 14 years ago

I don't know anything about him outside of the movie (I do have a copy of Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye, though I haven't yet read it) but I noticed that when he returned to find the note from Bobby ("Couldn't find you," I think?), he drank a big glass of liquor in the middle of the day, during a crisis. That's what we might call a clue. ;-)

[–] bfuente1 14 years ago

i'm sure several members of kennedy's administration knocked back a couple to get thru the crisis

[–] bo7047 11 years ago

According to a documentary about the 24 hrs after the assassination, one of the historians interviewed stated that several Kennedy aids ( o'donnell included) were drinking pretty heavily on the flight back from Dallas.

[–] Prismark10 11 years ago

There were a couple of drunks in the Kennedy family, apparently.

Its that man again!!

[–] heyuactor 10 years ago

Yes one can believe he took the assassinations very hard. I recall Ted Sorenson in an interview many years later said that since the assassination of JFK, 'Life wasn't ever same' for him. A low-key way of saying just how devastating it was. Must have been devastating for O'Donnell, too.

"Did you make coffee...? Make it!"--Cheyenne.

[–] siakoonsiew-277-73876 10 years ago

JFK was good at making male friends, wasn't he? Lem Billings was in love with him too and I think Sorenson, O'Donnell and a few others worshipped him.