Fred Thompson, the former us senator and actor, died Sunday in Nashville, Tenn.
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Politically, Thompson was a staunch conservative who declared the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion “bad law and bad medical science”. It was only his presidential bid that fell short.
Thompson appeared on Broadway in the 2013 production of A TIME TO KILL. He also guest-starred on The Good Wife for multiple episodes. “Almost was.” His Republican credentials, however, led him to becoming a prosecutor for the district attorney in Nashville. He gave the Republican response to President Bill Clinton’s speech in December 1994 pushing for a tax cut. It was clear that Thompson was asking a question to which he already knew the answer. Thompson went on to appear in a number of feature films, including No Way Out, Die Hard 2, The Hunt for Red October In the Line of Fire and Days of Thunder.
Born in Alabama, Fred Dalton Thompson established himself as an accomplished trial lawyer and Republican political activist; he even played a role in the Watergate hearings.
“Mr. Butterfield”, Thompson began, “Are you aware of the installation of any listening devices in the Oval Office of the president?”
Reaction to Thompson’s death showed he was well-liked and respected by many people, who praised him for his integrity and larger than life personality. He tended to avoid the nitty-gritty of legislating.
Fred Thompson, a former Republican U.S. senator from Tennessee who also ran for president and was a longtime film and television actor, has died at age 73. First diagnosed with cancer in 2004, Thompson died after a recurrence of lymphoma. He was re-elected for a full term two years later and announced in 2002 that he would not run again.
Here is Thompson’s final scene as Arthur Branch in Law & Order in 2007.
He ended his 2002-2007 “Law and Order” run to seek the White House but left the 2008 presidential race after having failed to make an impact in the early-voting states. Aides described a candidate not deeply invested in traveling to places such as Iowa and New Hampshire or much interested in spending hours on the phone raising money. John McCain, ultimately went on to win the nomination (but not the presidency) later that year.
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Thompson said, “I thought I was going to be the best actor on the stage”. “On important stuff, where the interests are really dug in on both sides, it’s extremely hard to get anything done”, Thompson told the AP. He always had those abilities, so they didn’t seem as awesome to him. “I didn’t have time to get acquainted with anybody else and evaluate a bunch of legal stars”.
