Lawrence O'Donnell

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Lawrence O'Donnell

Lawrence O'Donnell AKA Lawrence Francis O'Donnell, Jr.

Born: 7-Nov-1951 [1]
Birthplace: Boston, MA

Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Journalist

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: MSNBC political analyst

O'Donnell has flitted between Hollywood and Washington, and seems to have established that as his "niche". He is the former senior advisor to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1989-92). On The McLaughlin Group (1 July 2005), with surprising candor he outed Karl Rove as the source for the Valerie Plame leak being investigated by a Federal Grand Jury:

What we're going to go to now in the next stage, when Matt Cooper's e-mails, within Time Magazine, are handed over to the grand jury, the ultimate revelation, probably within the week of who his source is.
And I know I'm going to get pulled into the grand jury for saying this but the source of... for Matt Cooper was Karl Rove, and that will be revealed in this document dump that Time magazine's going to do with the grand jury.

His book Deadly Force became the made-for-TV movie A Case of Deadly Force (1986) starring Richard Crenna. He wrote several episodes of The West Wing and was the creator and executive producer of the short-lived NBC drama, Mister Sterling (2003) As an actor, he has appeared on HBO's Big Love with Bill Paxton, on radio he was a frequent guest host on pre-Senator Al Franken's show, and on television he hosts a talking head program for MSNBC.

[1] There are no reliable sources for O'Donnell's birth date or year. What sources do exist indicate 1951 or 1955. An anonymous note states "Pat Taglilatelo quotes birth certificate noting that Wikipedia gives 1955 as birth year but that birth certificate is quite clearly marked 1951." This Taglilatelo person may well be fictional, and there is little trace of him or her in public discourse. O'Donnell's date of graduation from Harvard is known to be 1976, and his date of high school graduation to be 1970. Thus we can dismiss any 1955 date as spurious. See Kevin Patterson, "St. Sebastian's Alum Takes Olbermann's Primetime Spot", The Walrus (St. Sebastian's school newspaper), February 2001.

Father: Lawrence O’Donnell, Sr.
Mother: Frances Marie Buckley (b. circa 1918, d. 14-Aug-2011)
Brother: (three brothers)
Wife: Kathryn Harrold (actress, m. 1994, div. 2008, one daughter)
Daughter: Elizabeth Buckley Harrold O'Donnell
Girlfriend: Kerry Washington (actress, together 2008)
Girlfriend: Tamron Hall (together 2012, according to NY Post reports)

High School: St. Sebastian's School, Needham, MA (1970)
University: BA, Harvard University (1976)

Emmy Oustanding Drama, The West Wing (2001, shared)
Disorderly Conduct Boston, charges dropped
Irish Ancestry

TELEVISION
Big Love Lee Hatcher (2006-11)
The West Wing Producer/Writer (1999-2006)
MSNBC Political Analyst
Countdown
The Rachel Maddow Show
The McLaughlin Group Panelist

FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Weiner (24-Jan-2016) · Himself
Olympus Has Fallen (20-Mar-2013) · Himself
The Campaign (4-Aug-2012) · Himself
Swing Vote (20-May-2008) · Himself
Mrs. Harris (16-Sep-2005)

Author of books:
Deadly Force: The Wrongful Death of James Bouden, Jr.: A True Story of How a Badge Can Become a License to Kill (1983, true crime)

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