Biography

Was the victim of a drunk driving accident as a passenger in a taxi while vacationing on Tortola, British Virgin Islands in April 2014. Both he and his oldest brother Michael were critically injured. O'Donnell credits his "NBC family" for arranging medivac flights for Lawrence to be flown back to New York City, and for Michael to be flown back to Boston for necessary surgeries to be performed where each of their families were located. Lawrence was operated on at The Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan, a nationally ranked hospital for orthopedic (bone) surgeries. Lawrence opened with his account of this horrific, but ultimately life affirming ("I'm lucky to be alive...") episode of his life on his return to the anchor chair for his MSNBC program, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell (2010) on Monday, June 23, 2014.

O'Donnell was a staff assistant to US Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan from 1989 to 1995. This included serving as a senior advisor (1989-1991), staff director for Committee on Environment and Public Works (1991 to 1993), and staff director of the Committee on Finance (1993-1995).

Guest hosted most of the political talk shows on MSNBC multiple times each before finally landing his own show on the network.

One daughter with his wife Kathryn Harrold.

Irish-American.