Former U.S. Senator Fred Thompson, a folksy Tennessee lawyer whose career led him from politics to Hollywood and back again, expired Sunday.
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He had used his magic as a lawyer, actor, Watergate counsel, and USA senator to become one of the country’s most principled and effective public servants.
“He enjoyed a hearty laugh, a strong handshake, a good cigar, and a healthy dose of humility”, the statement said.
Thompson, at 6-foot-6 with a booming voice, appeared in at least 20 motion pictures.
He went on to play numerous other roles in the following years, including a memorably grave Navy Admiral in The Hunt for Red October and a key supporting part as an air-traffic-control director forced to deal with a chaotic terrorist attack in 1990’s Die Hard 2. HOWARD BAKER (R-TN), whose 1972 campaign THOMPSON ran.
His rise to the Senate was atypical. He was elected to his own term in 1996, but grew frustrated with gridlock in Congress and made a decision to retire.
Former actor and U.S. Sen.
Carter spoke to the AP on Sunday, hours before participating in a Habitat for Humanity home-building effort today in Memphis, Tennessee.
Mr. Thompson is no ordinary freshman Senator, and even Democrats said today that the Republicans’ decision to put him forward as their prime-time spokesman was even savvier than it sounded.
Visa will pay 11.5 billion euros ($12.66 billion) in cash upfront plus stock valued at about $5.5 billion.
While Thompson had a down-home persona, he was also a sophisticated attorney and Beltway insider who immersed himself in politics.
During the Watergate hearings, Thompson was the questioner who elicited White House aide Alexander Butterfield’s stunning public revelation that then-President Richard Nixon had a secret taping system in the White House. A statement from his family noted, “Fred stood on principle and common sense, and had a deep love for and connection with the people across Tennessee whom he had the privilege to serve in the United States Senate”.
After Nixon’s resignation, Thompson went back to Nashville, where he practiced law and was hired in 1977 by Marie Ragghianti, who had been fired from a state job after becoming a whistleblower.
He said Thompson “anchored “Die Hard 2″ with his powerful presence in the air traffic control tower”.
Thompson’s acting career also began after he caught a break and exceeded expectations.
Thompson sought to capitalize on that same impression in his 2008 run for president, but he could never quite pull it off. In the debates, he never seemed quite well enough prepared, and the presidential persona he was obviously aiming for never quite stuck. He served in the Senate from 1994 until 2002, when he declined to run for reelection.
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Thompson died at the age of 73 after suffering a reoccurrence of lymphoma, leaving behind a wife Jeri, their two young children, and a son, Fred Thompson Jr., from a former marriage.
