West Wing star Rob Lowe will portray the character of former U.S. President John Kennedy in a TV movie to be made to mark the 50th anniversary of the president's assassination in 1963.

The two-hour National Geographic production titled Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot, is based on a book co-written by Bill O'Reilly, a Fox News commentator, and Martin Dugard. Filming begins in June in Richmond, Virginia.

To play Jacqueline Kennedy is Ginnifer Goodwin from Once Upon a Time.

Lowe, 49, stars in two U.S. sitcoms, Parks and Recreation. He also appears as a plastic surgeon in the bioepic movie of pianist Liberace, Behind the Candelabra, which was recently shown at the Cannes Film Festival.

Lowe was also in the TV drama Brother and Sisters as a senator married to the character of Calista Flockhart.

He became famous for his roles in 1970s Brat Pack films like The Outsiders and St Elmo's Fire and as White House communications director Sam Seaborn in The West Wing.

Other stars in the JFK film are Michelle Trachtenberg from Gossip Girl, who will play the role of Marina, the Russian born wife of Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin. The actor to play the role of Oswald has not yet been cast.

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