Thompson died on November 1 in Nashville after a recurrence of lymphoma at 73.
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Thompson was a lobbyist and lawyer for the next decade, until 1983.
In a multifaceted career, Thompson represented his state in the U.S. Senate from 1994 to 2003.
Thompson said, “I was walking the walk when others weren’t even talking the talk yet”.
Mr Thompson served eight years in the Senate before leaving his seat in 2002 for a role on Law & Order.
“My only reaction to the case had been a vague feeling that every political campaign has a few crackpots who cause embarrassment”, he said in his 1975 Watergate memoir “At that Point in Time”. The film, starring Sissy Spacek, was based on the life of Marie Ragghianti, the head of the Tennessee Board of Pardons and Paroles and a whistleblower, who revealed a clemency-selling scandal that brought down the Tennessee governor, Leonard Ray Blanton. He won re-election in 1996, but decided not to run again in 2002. He ended his attempt in January 2008. Of all that occurred at the hearings, one of the most breathtaking incidents was the revelation that White House conversations had been surreptitiously recorded. “It also occurred to me that this was a pretty doggone expensive way to achieve a little humility”, he wrote, describing his candidacy as his first endeavor in life that “couldn’t accomplish something I had set out to do”.
His most notable TV role was as the no-nonsense New York D.A. Arthur Branch in the long-running “Law & Order” series, in which he appeared from 2002 to 2007.
When someone says an actor is playing himself, it’s usually meant as a bit of a slap, suggesting the actor has no range. “I got to do it, you know, with Paul Newman”.
Thompson was born in 1942 in Sheffield, Alabama. On leaving school he worked in a bicycle factory and in a post office. Having chose to go to university, he studied Philosophy and Political Science, first at Florence State College and later at Memphis State University. He found employment under Howard Baker, a longtime senator of Tennessee.
Presidential hopeful Sen. Fred Thompson (R-TN) walks on stage with his wife Jeri (R) and their young daughter Hayden before speaking to the Legislative Action Arm of the Family Research Council October 19, 2007, in Washington, DC. He used his magic as a lawyer, actor, Watergate counsel, and United States senator to become one of our country’s most principled and effective public servants.
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In a 2014 article in Vanderbilt Law magazine, Thompson said his role in the Watergate committee whose investigation led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon made him change his mind about entering politics.
