John F. Kennedy.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy

John F. Kennedy — Journalist

Born 29 May 1917 Brookline, United States

Died 22 Nov 1963 Dallas, United States

Citizenship United States

Would Be 109 yr If Living

15 min read

Reading time

2,944

Words

Feb 16, 2026

Published

234

Film credits

16

Awards

TL;DR

John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, at age 46. He was the youngest man elected president and the first Catholic to hold the office. During his presidency, he navigated the Cuban Missile Crisis and established the Peace Corps. His book ‘Profiles in Courage’ won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957.

Identity & family.

KIN · 15

Names, aliases, and relatives of John F. Kennedy — birth name, kin, and personal ties.

Birth Name John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Nicknames J.F.K., Jack, Crash Kennedy, Shafty, Rat Face

Aliases JFK, Jack Kennedy, John Kennedy, Pres. John F. Kennedy, President John F. Kennedy, President John F Kennedy, President Kennedy, Sen. John F. Kennedy, Senator John F. Kennedy, The Kennedys, Kennedy, The President of the United States

PARENTS: Rose Kennedy Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.
SPOUSES: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
CHILDREN: John F. Kennedy Jr. Patrick Bouvier Kennedy Arabella Kennedy Caroline Kennedy
SIBLINGS: Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Rosemary Kennedy Kathleen Cavendish Eunice Kennedy Shriver Patricia Kennedy Lawford Robert F. Kennedy Jean Kennedy Smith Ted Kennedy

At a glance.

STATS

John F. Kennedy by the numbers — life, work, and family.

46 Years lived

234 Film credits

16 Awards

1 Marriage

4 Children

Who was John F. Kennedy?

BIOGRAPHY

John F. Kennedy — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.

Early life

The second of nine children in a competitive Irish Catholic family, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born on May 29, 1917, in Brookline, Massachusetts, to Rose and Joseph P. Kennedy. He was named after his maternal grandfather, John HoneyFitz Fitzgerald, the mayor of Boston. As a child, Kennedy was severely ill, receiving last rites five times, the first as a newborn. He was the second of nine children in a competitive Irish Catholic family; he and his older brother Joseph Jr. often wore matching clothes and fought for attention. The family moved from Boston to New York when John was young. He attended Choate, a private school, but was frequently too sick to attend. His father became ambassador to England in the late 1930s, taking John and Robert with him. He later studied at Princeton, then Harvard, where he wrote his senior thesis on why England avoided war until late. It was published in 1940 as Why England Slept.

Career

In 1940, John F. Kennedy published his senior thesis as Why England Slept, which became a bestseller. He served in the Navy during World War II, earning the Navy and Marine Corps Medal and Purple Heart. After the war, in 1946, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and then to the Senate in 1952. In 1954, while recovering from back surgery, he wrote Profiles in Courage, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 1957. He ran for president in 1960 against Richard Nixon and narrowly won, becoming the youngest elected president at 43. His administration faced the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. He also created the Peace Corps and pushed for civil rights legislation.

Personal life

John F. Kennedy married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier on September 12, 1953. They had four children: Caroline born 1957, John Jr. born 1960, and two who died in infancy — Arabella stillborn 1956 and Patrick Bouvier died 1963 after two days. He suffered from Addison’s disease and chronic back pain, but insisted on a public image of rugged fitness. He privately endured numerous illnesses and was once so exhausted he fell asleep standing. His younger brother Robert F. Kennedy was his closest advisor and friend; after John’s death, Robert was devastated and never the same.

Legacy

Kennedy’s assassination on November 22, 1963, shocked the world and inspired conspiracy theories. He was the fourth U.S. president to be assassinated. His creation of the Peace Corps in 1961 continues to promote global volunteerism. He posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and is honored on the U.S. half-dollar coin. His portrait is on the five-cent memorial stamp issued in 1964. He remains the only president to have predeceased both his parents and a grandparent. His legacy centers on his call to ask not what your country can do for you and his embodiment of youthful optimism cut short.

Filmography.

FILMS · 234

Browse the complete filmography of John F. Kennedy — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.

TV

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

2015
TV

American Experience

1988
TV

R. L. Stine's the Haunting Hour

2010
TV

Cosmos

2014
TV

American Masters

1986
TV

Finding Your Roots

2012
Movie

The Irishman

2019
TV

Startime

1959
TV

Mentiras Verdaderas

2011
TV

Dispatches

1987
TV

The Vietnam War

2017
Movie

Bobby

2006
TV

World in Action

1963
Movie

In the Line of Fire

1993

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Awards & honors.

AWARDS · 16

Every award, honor, and recognition received by John F. Kennedy — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.

Navy and Marine Corps Medal
Purple Heart
American Defense Service Medal
American Campaign Medal
Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
World War II Victory Medal
Pacem in Terris Award
Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
Presidential Medal of Freedom
Pulitzer Prize for Biography
Grand Officer of the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity
Laetare Medal
Time Person of the Year
Jane Addams Children's Book Award
James Cardinal Gibbons Medal
Grand Cross of the Order of the Orthodox Crusaders of the Holy Sepulchre

Notable quotes.

QUOTES · 20

A wall of memorable lines from John F. Kennedy — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.

Ask Not What Your Country Can Do for You; Ask What You Can Do for Your Country.
Let Every Nation Know, Whether It Wishes Us Well or Ill, That We Shall Pay Any Price, Bear Any Burden, Meet Any Hardship, Support Any Friend, Oppose Any Foe to Assure the Survival and the Success of Liberty.
Forgive Your Enemies, but Never Forget Their Names.
I Am Certain That After the Dust of Centuries Has Passed Over Our Cities, We, Too, Will Be Remembered Not for Victories or Defeats in Battle or in Politics but for Our Contributions to the Human Spirit.
Victory Has a Thousand Fathers but Defeat Is an Orphan.
Conformity Is the Jailer of Freedom and the Enemy of Growth.
All My Life, I’ve Known Better Than to Depend on the Experts.
Let Us Never Negotiate Out of Fear, but Let Us Never Fear to Negotiate.
We Shall Do Our Part to Build a World of Peace Where the Weak Are Safe and the Strong Are Just. We Are Not Helpless Before the Task or Hopeless of Its Success. Confident and Unafraid, We Must Labor on Not Towards a Strategy of Annihilation but Towards a Strategy of Peace.
In the Final Analysis, Our Most Basic Common Link Is That We All Inhabit This Small Planet. We All Breathe the Same Air. We All Cherish Our Children’s Futures. and We Are All Mortal.
Our Problems Are Manmade. Therefore, They Can Be Solved by Man. and Man Can Be as Big as He Wants. No Problem of Human Destiny Is Beyond Human Beings.
Some People Have Their Liberalism Made by the Time They Reach Their Late 20S. I Didn’t. I Was Caught in Crosscurrents and Eddies. It Was Only Later That I Got into the Stream of Things.
I Must Say, in Defense of Our Own Country, If the United States Had Not Emphasized the Military Since 1945, the Shape of the Globe Would Be Very Different Than It Is Today. so That Those Who Feel That We Overemphasize It Might Consider the Fate of Freedom If We Had Not Emphasized It.
We Are Tied to the Ocean. and When We Go Back to the Sea, Whether It Is to Sail or Watch We Are Going Back from Whence We Came.
We Don’t Have a Prayer of Staying in Vietnam. Those People Hate Us. They Are Going to Throw Our Asses Out of There at Any Point. but I Can’t Give up That Territory to the Communists and Get the American People to Re Elect Me.
There Is No Complete Evidence That Hitler Died. the Russians Doubt That He Is Dead.
We Are Going to Put a Man on the Surface of the Moon.
The Room Where Hitler Is Supposed to Have Met His Death Showed Scorched Walls and Traces of Fire. There Is No Complete Evidence, However, That the Body That Was Found Was Hitler’s Body.
Capitalism Is on the Way Out Although Many Englishmen Feel This Is Not Applicable to England. Socialism Is Inefficient; I Will Never Believe Differently, but You Can Feed People in a Socialistic State, and That May Be What Will Insure Its Eventual Success.
After Visiting These Two Places You Can Easily See How That Within a Few Years Hitler Will Emerge from the Hatred That Surrounds Him Now as One of the Most Significant Figures Who Ever Lived. He Had Boundless Ambition for His Country, Which Rendered Him a Menace to the Peace of the World, but He Had a Mystery About Him in the Way That He Lived and in the Manner of His Death That Will Live and Grow After Him. He Had in Him the Stuff of Which Legends Are Made.

Did you know?

FACTS · 47

Little-known facts about John F. Kennedy — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.

Kennedy was a natural speed reader who could read about 2,500 words per minute, often reading six newspapers from front to back during breakfast.
He was the first Catholic U.S. president.
Despite privately suffering from numerous illnesses, he insisted on a public image of rugged fitness, famously tanning and working out after his debate with Nixon.
At 43 years 236 days, he was the youngest elected U.S. president.
He created the Peace Corps in 1961.
He had numerous bizarre distant connections with Abraham Lincoln, including being shot in a Ford Lincoln while Lincoln was shot in Ford’s Theater.
Jacqueline Kennedy gave birth to their first child, Arabella, stillborn in 1956.
He appointed his brother Robert F. Kennedy as U.S. Attorney General, prompting Congress to later ban immediate family members from cabinet roles.
His favorite film was Spartacus 1960.
He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II.
He graduated from Harvard in 1940.
He considered his younger brother Robert his top advisor and closest friend; Robert was devastated by his death.
He was the first U.S. president born in the 20th century.
He was the fourth U.S. president assassinated, and the eighth to die in office.
He suffered from Addison’s disease.
On November 17, 1963, a private screening of Tom Jones was organized for him; it was the last film he saw.
His portrait appears on the U.S. half-dollar coin.
In June 1963, he became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Ireland.
He died on the same day as C.S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley.
His son Patrick Bouvier Kennedy died from infant respiratory-distress syndrome two days after birth in 1963.
His Secret Service code names were: Lancer President, Lace Jacqueline, Lyric Caroline, Lark John Jr..
His funeral occurred on the same day as those of Lee Harvey Oswald and Officer J.D. Tippit.
He was not the youngest person to become president; that was Theodore Roosevelt, who succeeded after McKinley’s assassination.
He was the 35th President of the U.S. 1961-1963.
Daughter Caroline Kennedy was born on November 27, 1957.
In 1940 he wrote the best-selling book While England Slept about decisions leading to WWII.
His great-grandfather Patrick Kennedy emigrated from Ireland and died on November 22, 1858, exactly 105 years before JFK’s assassination.
Believed to have been shot by Lee Harvey Oswald, who was later killed by Jack Ruby.
Uncle of Maria Shriver, Tim Shriver, Mark Shriver, Robert Shriver, and Anthony Shriver.
Attended the installation of Pope Pius XII in Rome with his family.
In 1961 he was chosen as Time Magazine’s Man of the Year.
His assassination inspired Hunter S. Thompson to create the phrase Fear and Loathing.
His funeral featured the riderless horse Black Jack, which also served at funerals of Presidents Hoover and Johnson, and General MacArthur.
After the Dallas parade, he was scheduled to attend a Texas barbecue and stay at Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson’s ranch.
Pictured on a 5¢ U.S. memorial postage stamp issued May 29, 1964.
The Lincoln Continental limousine in which he was riding is on display in Dearborn, Michigan.
One of only two U.S. presidents entombed at Arlington National Cemetery.
Fourth-Degree member of the Knights of Columbus.
Only U.S. president to predecease both his parents and a grandparent.
First Irish-American Catholic president; all grandparents born in Massachusetts to Irish parents.
His father never called him Jack, always Johnny.
He, Lee Harvey Oswald, and Jack Ruby all died at Parkland Hospital in Dallas.
An avid reader, he expressed fondness for Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels, influencing the production of From Russia with Love as the second Bond film.
Elected to the House in 1946 and the Senate in 1952.
His book Profiles in Courage won the Pulitzer Prize, though Ted Sorenson later admitted writing most of it.
His sister Jean Kennedy Smith served as U.S. ambassador to Ireland from 1993 to 1998.
His younger sister Kathleen Kick Kennedy married an English nobleman, angering their father.

You wanted to know.

FAQ · 35

Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about John F. Kennedy.

When was John F. Kennedy born?

John F. Kennedy was born on May 29, 1917, in Brookline, Massachusetts. He was the second of nine children in a prominent Irish Catholic family.
Where was John F. Kennedy born?

He was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. His parents were Rose and Joseph P. Kennedy, and his maternal grandfather was the mayor of Boston.
When did John F. Kennedy die?

He died on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. He was assassinated while riding in an open car during a motorcade.
How did John F. Kennedy die?

He was assassinated by gunshot wounds inflicted by Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald fired from the Texas School Book Depository as Kennedy’s motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza.
How old was John F. Kennedy when he died?

He was 46 years old at the time of his death. He was the youngest president to be assassinated.
Where did John F. Kennedy die?

He died in Dallas, Texas, at Parkland Hospital. He was pronounced dead at 1:00 PM on November 22, 1963.
What was John F. Kennedy's birth name?

His birth name was John Fitzgerald Kennedy. He was named after his maternal grandfather, John HoneyFitz Fitzgerald.
What did John F. Kennedy do for a living?

He was primarily a politician, serving as a U.S. Representative, Senator, and the 35th President. He also worked as a writer, authoring books like Why England Slept and Profiles in Courage.
What nationality was John F. Kennedy?

He was American, holding United States citizenship. He was the first U.S. president of Irish Catholic descent.
What language did John F. Kennedy speak?

His native language was English. He was known for his eloquent speeches and use of rhetorical devices.
Who were John F. Kennedy's parents?

His parents were Rose Kennedy née Fitzgerald and Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. His father was a wealthy businessman and ambassador to the United Kingdom.
Who was John F. Kennedy married to?

He married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier on September 12, 1953. She was known as Jackie Kennedy and later married Aristotle Onassis.
Did John F. Kennedy have children?

Yes, he had four children: Caroline Kennedy born 1957, John F. Kennedy Jr. born 1960, and two who died in infancy — Arabella stillborn 1956 and Patrick Bouvier Kennedy died 1963.
Did John F. Kennedy have siblings?

Yes, he had eight siblings: Joseph Jr., Rosemary, Kathleen Kick, Eunice, Patricia, Robert F., Jean, and Ted Kennedy. Robert and Ted followed him into politics.
Where did John F. Kennedy go to school?

He attended multiple schools, including Choate Rosemary Hall, Harvard College, Princeton University, and Stanford Graduate School of Business. He graduated from Harvard in 1940.
What awards did John F. Kennedy win?

He won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 1957 for Profiles in Courage, the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, Purple Heart, and Presidential Medal of Freedom, among others.
How many awards did John F. Kennedy win?

He received at least 16 major awards, including military honors and civilian accolades like the Pacem in Terris Award and Time Person of the Year.
What is John F. Kennedy best known for?

He is best known for being the 35th President of the United States and for his assassination. He is also known for his role in the Cuban Missile Crisis and the creation of the Peace Corps.
How tall was John F. Kennedy?

He was 6 feet 1 inch tall, or 1.85 meters. His height gave him a commanding presence in public appearances.
What were John F. Kennedy's nicknames?

His nicknames included J.F.K., Jack, Crash Kennedy due to a car accident, Shafty, and Rat Face. He was commonly called Jack by his family.
What were John F. Kennedy's aliases?

He was known by many aliases, including JFK, President Kennedy, Senator Kennedy, and The President of the United States. He also went by Jack Kennedy informally.
How did John F. Kennedy's childhood illnesses affect him?

He was very ill as a child and received last rites five times, the first as a newborn. Despite this, he maintained a public image of vigor and athleticism.
What was John F. Kennedy's first book?

His first book was Why England Slept, published in 1940. It was based on his Harvard senior thesis about Britain’s appeasement policies before World War II.
What is 'Profiles in Courage' about?

Profiles in Courage is a book about eight U.S. senators who risked their careers or reputations to stand up for their principles. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957.
How did John F. Kennedy become president?

He ran against Richard Nixon in 1960 and won a narrow victory. He was the youngest elected president at 43 and the first Catholic.
What major events occurred during John F. Kennedy's presidency?

Key events include the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the creation of the Peace Corps, and the beginning of the space race with the Apollo program.
What was the Cuban Missile Crisis?

In 1962, the U.S. discovered Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. Kennedy imposed a naval blockade and negotiated their removal, avoiding a nuclear war.
Did John F. Kennedy serve in the military?

Yes, he served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He commanded a PT boat and was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism after his boat was sunk.
Who was Lee Harvey Oswald?

Lee Harvey Oswald was the alleged assassin of John F. Kennedy. He was arrested later that day and shot dead two days later by Jack Ruby.
Where is John F. Kennedy buried?

He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. An eternal flame marks his gravesite.
What is the Kennedy legacy?

He is remembered for his inspiring rhetoric, the Peace Corps, advancing civil rights, and his tragic death. He remains a symbol of youth and idealism in American politics.
What was John F. Kennedy's relationship with his brother Robert?

Robert F. Kennedy was his closest advisor and friend. He served as Attorney General and was devastated by John’s death, later running for president himself.
Did John F. Kennedy have any medical conditions?

He suffered from Addison’s disease, chronic back pain, and other ailments. He often used medications and wore a back brace, which was hidden from the public.
What is the John F. Kennedy half-dollar?

The U.S. Mint issued a half-dollar coin featuring his portrait in 1964, honoring his legacy. It remains in circulation today.
How did John F. Kennedy's assassination affect the nation?

The assassination shocked the world and led to widespread mourning. It also sparked numerous conspiracy theories and a lasting fascination with his life and death.

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Audited & updated by

Sophia has 4 years of editorial experience and a habit of becoming the person any team leans on when they need to know where something stands. At Famousy, she manages the content pipeline, coordinates reviews, and handles the detail work that keeps a large editorial operation from falling apart. She reads a lot of profiles in the process and she's developed a sharp instinct for when something doesn't feel right. She flags it. It usually is.

Published on February 16, 2026

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