Michael Edwards (actor)

Last updated

Michael Edwards
Born
John Chalmers Edwards Jr. [1]

(1944-09-16) September 16, 1944 (age 80)
Occupations
  • Actor
  • model
Years active1972present
Spouse
Grace Ward
(m. 1966;div. 1968)
Children1

John Chalmers Edwards Jr. (born September 16, 1944), known professionally as Michael Edwards, is an American actor and model.

Contents

Early life

Edwards is the son of John Chalmers Edwards Sr. and Charlotte Caroline Anderson, a high school teacher. [2] He has an older sister named Jeannie. [3] Shortly after his birth, the family moved to Pensacola, Florida. When he was six months old, his father left the family for a "buxom blonde Texas heiress". [4]

Career

In 1962, Edwards enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and received his training at Parris Island. [5] After his discharge from the service, he began his career as a model, appearing in TV commercials and magazine layouts. While modeling, he had a dialogue-free cameo in Play It as It Lays (1972) opposite Tuesday Weld. Edwards is pictured and interviewed in the book Male Model: The World Behind the Camera, published in 1979.

Edwards' most prominent acting role was as Joan Crawford's lover Ted Gelber in the 1981 film Mommie Dearest with Faye Dunaway and Mara Hobel. He appeared briefly as "General John Connor" in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991).

Personal life

On June 4, 1966, Edwards married flight attendant Grace Ward, of Boston. [6] [7] They had a daughter, Caroline (born 1967). Edwards and Ward divorced in October 1968. [8]

Edwards dated Priscilla Presley on and off between 1978 and 1984. After they broke up, he wrote a book titled Priscilla, Elvis, and Me (1988), in which he admitted being attracted to Presley's teenage daughter Lisa Marie. [9] [10] Lisa Marie reported in a 2003 interview with Playboy that Edwards would make drunken attempts to enter her room and be "inappropriate" with her. [11] In 2024, these claims were restated in more graphic detail in Presley's posthumous memoir, From Here to the Great Unknown , with Lisa Marie claiming that he molested her. [12] [13]

Filmography

YearTitleRoleNotes
1972 Play It as It Lays Rick LacyUncredited
1981 Mommie Dearest Ted Gelber
1991 Terminator 2: Judgment Day General John Connor
2021SkynetGeneral John ConnorFan film

Bibliography

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References

  1. "Births". The Miami Herald. September 29, 1944. p. 10-A. EDWARDS, John Chalmers. 383 E. Fifth st., Hialeah, boy, John Chalmers, Sept. 16.
  2. "Charlotte Anderson Edwards, 1910-2007". Pensacola News Journal. January 21, 2007. p. 4C.
  3. Edwards 1988, p. 15.
  4. Edwards 1988, p. 14.
  5. Edwards 1988, p. 16.
  6. Alabama Marriage Index, 1936-1969. Alabama Center for Health Statistics, Montgomery, Alabama.
  7. "Grace Ward Edwards, 1945-2016". Pensacola News Journal. p. A15.
  8. Florida Divorce Index, 1927-2001. Jacksonville, FL, USA: Florida Department of Health.
  9. "Book Review - PRISCILLA, ELVIS AND ME: In the Shadow of the King". Kirkus Reviews . October 14, 1988.
  10. "A Model Lover Kisses And Tells On Priscilla". The Philadelphia Inquirer . September 29, 1988. Archived from the original on December 31, 2013.
  11. "Complete Lisa Marie Presley Playboy Interview | Lisa Marie Presley". Playboy . Retrieved January 16, 2023 via www.elvis.com.au.
  12. DeSantis, Rachel; Tracey, Brianne (October 9, 2024). "Lisa Marie Presley's Book Claims She 'Woke Up' to Mom Priscilla Presley's Boyfriend Molesting Her at Age 10". People. Retrieved October 16, 2024.
  13. Parkel, Inga (October 8, 2024). "Lisa Marie Presley alleges mother's boyfriend abused her for years when she was a child". The Independent. Retrieved October 9, 2024.