Fred Dalton Thompson: From Watergate to the Silver Screen and Beyond

Freddie Dalton Thompson (August 19, 1942 - November 1, 2015) was an American politician, attorney, lobbyist, columnist, actor, and radio personality whose career spanned law, politics, and entertainment. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a United States Senator from Tennessee from 1994 to 2003. Thompson's life was marked by significant achievements in various fields, making him a notable figure in American public life.

Early Life and Education

Fred Thompson was born on August 19, 1942, in Sheffield, Alabama, at Colbert County Hospital (now Helen Keller Memorial Hospital). He was the son of Ruth Inez (née Bradley) and Fletcher Session Thompson, a used car salesman born in Lauderdale County, Alabama, on August 26, 1919, and who died in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, on May 27, 1990. Raised in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, Thompson often credited his values to both his family upbringing and church teachings, attending churches of Christ.

Thompson's educational journey began in the public schools of Sheffield, Alabama, before his family moved to Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, where he attended Lawrence County High School. The 6'5" Thompson played football and basketball for the school. Thompson married Sarah Elizabeth Lindsey in 1959 while still in high school, resulting in Thompson being banned from participating in school sports. The couple had one daughter and two sons. In 1960, Thompson moved his family to Alabama so that he could attend Florence State College (present-day University of North Alabama), in Colbert County, but he transferred to Memphis State University two years later, graduating in 1964 with a double major in political science and philosophy. Thompson then earned a law degree from Vanderbilt University and was admitted to the Tennessee State Bar in 1967 and shortened his name to Fred.

He earned the baccalaureate degree from Memphis State University in philosophy and political science (1964). He then received the JD from Vanderbilt (1967). Vanderbilt Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos noted, “He served his country during a dark, difficult time, and throughout his career he stood up for what he believed in."

Legal and Political Career

Early Legal Career

Thompson was admitted to the state bar of Tennessee in 1967. Thompson began his professional life as an attorney and played a significant role in the Watergate scandal hearings of 1973. In 1969 he was named an assistant US attorney, with a focus on felony theft including bank robbery. Three years later, he was named campaign manager for the successful re-election bid of Tennessee Republican senator Howard Baker.

Read also: Piano Tutorial: Fred again..

Watergate Committee

In 1973, Thompson's career took a significant turn when he was appointed minority counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee. When the Watergate scandal erupted during the presidency of Richard M. Nixon, Baker was named the ranking minority party member of the Senate Watergate Committee, and he appointed Thompson as minority legal counsel to the committee. During the hearings, Thompson gained national attention for his role in questioning witnesses. A Republican staff member, Donald Sanders, found out about the White House tapes and informed the committee on July 13, 1973. Thompson was informed of the existence of the tapes, and he, in turn, informed Nixon's attorney, J. Fred Thompson crafted Baker's now-famous "What did the President know, and when did he know it?" question in the hearings. Three days after Sanders's discovery, at a public, televised committee hearing, Thompson asked former White House aide Alexander Butterfield the famous question,

Thompson's appointment as minority counsel to the Senate Watergate committee reportedly upset Nixon, who believed Thompson was not skilled enough to interrogate unfriendly witnesses and would be outfoxed by the committee Democrats. According to historian Stanley Kutler, however, Thompson and Baker "carried water for the White House, but I have to give them credit-they were watching out for their interests, too …

Journalist Scott Armstrong, a Democratic investigator for the Senate Watergate Committee, is critical of Thompson for having disclosed the committee's knowledge of the tapes to Buzhardt during an ongoing investigation, and says Thompson was "a mole for the White House" and that Thompson's actions gave the White House a chance to destroy the tapes. Thompson was later accused by some scholars of feeding information regarding the investigation to the White House, including warning Nixon aides that the committee knew of the existence of Nixon's recordings of Oval Office conversations. Both Thompson and Baker worked with the White House behind scenes to assist Nixon's defense. But, Thompson revealed the tapes to the public when he questioned aide Alexander Butterfield about his knowledge of them in the hearings. The tapes would become the center of a Supreme Court case and important to impeachment proceedings prompting Nixon's August 1974 resignation.

Thompson's 1975 book At That Point in Time, in turn, accused Armstrong of having been too close to The Washington Post's Bob Woodward and of leaking committee information to him.

Representation of Marie Ragghianti

In 1977 Thompson served as the attorney in the Tennessee Parole Board investigation, exposing a cash-for-clemency scheme that ultimately sent Governor Ray Blanton to prison. In 1977, Thompson represented Marie Ragghianti, a former Tennessee Parole Board chair, who had been fired for refusing to release felons after they had bribed aides to Democratic Governor Ray Blanton to obtain clemency. With Thompson's assistance, Ragghianti filed a wrongful termination suit against Blanton's office.

Read also: Educational Opportunities Unveiled

Marie Ragghianti's case became the subject of a book, Marie, which was written by Peter Maas and published in 1983. The film rights were purchased by director Roger Donaldson, who, after traveling to Nashville to speak with the people involved with the original case, asked Thompson if he wanted to play himself.

Lobbying Career

Thompson's career also included a stint as a lobbyist. Thompson lobbied Congress on behalf of the Tennessee Savings and Loan League to pass the Garn-St. He earned about $1 million in total from his lobbying efforts. Fred Thompson earned about half a million dollars from Washington lobbying from 1975 through 1993 . When Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was overthrown in 1991, Thompson made a telephone call to White House Chief of Staff John H. Billing records show that Thompson was paid for about 20 hours of work in 1991 and 1992 on behalf of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, a family planning group trying to ease a George H. W.

His clients included a German mining group and Japan's Toyota Motors Corporation. Thompson served on various corporate boards.

U.S. Senate Career (1994-2003)

In 1994 Thompson was elected to the US Senate to fill the unexpired term of Albert Gore Jr. In 1993, Tennessee senator Al Gore resigned from the seat to serve as vice-president in the administration of Pres. Bill Clinton. Thompson mounted a campaign for the seat and garnered media attention for renting a red pickup truck to take on the campaign trail. During the 1994 campaign, Thompson's opponent was longtime Nashville Congressman Jim Cooper. Thompson campaigned in a red pickup truck, and Cooper charged Thompson "is a lobbyist and actor who talks about lower taxes, talks about change, while he drives a rented stage prop." In the 1994 election, he defeated the Democratic candidate, Congressman Jim Cooper, in a landslide.

On the same night Thompson was elected to fill Gore's unexpired term, political newcomer Bill Frist, a Nashville heart surgeon, defeated three-term incumbent Democrat Jim Sasser, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, for Tennessee's other Senate seat, which was up for a full six-year term. He was reelected in 1996 to a term ending on January 3, 2003, and did not seek reelection. In 1996, Thompson was a member of the Committee on Governmental Affairs when the committee investigated the alleged Chinese attempts to influence American politics. Thompson's work included investigation of the "Umm Hajul controversy" which involved the death of Tennessean Lance Fielder during the Gulf War.

On February 12, 1999, the Senate voted on the Clinton impeachment. The perjury charge was defeated with 45 votes for conviction, and 55, including Thompson, against. The obstruction of justice charge was defeated with 50, including Thompson, for conviction, and 50 against. During the 1999 vote to impeach Pres. Clinton, Thompson was one of 44 senators who voted against the measure. He served on the Committee on Governmental Affairs, being named chair in 1997, as well as on the Judiciary Committee, the Foreign Relations Committee, and the Special Committee on Aging, and he chaired the Subcommittee on Youth Violence and the Subcommittee on International Policy, Export, and Trade Promotion.

In the 2000 Republican Party presidential primaries, Thompson backed former Tennessee Governor Lamar Alexander, who eventually succeeded Thompson in the Senate two years later. When Alexander dropped out, Thompson endorsed Senator John McCain's bid and became his national co-chairman. In 2000, he was co-chair of the committee to elect Arizona senator John McCain president and was among those considered as a running mate by George W.

Thompson's rating from the American Conservative Union was 86.1 (1995 to 2002), compared to 89.3 for Bill Frist, and 82.3 for John McCain. Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) characterized her colleague this way: "I believe that Fred is a fearless senator. With Thompson's decision to campaign for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, his Senate record received some criticism from people who say he was "lazy" compared to other senators. Critics say that few of his proposals became law, and point to a 1998 quote: "I don't like spending 14- and 16-hour days voting on 'sense of the Senate' resolutions on irrelevant matters. There are some important things we really need to get on with-and on a daily basis, it's very frustrating." Defenders say he spent more time in preparation than other senators.

Thompson was not a candidate for reelection in 2002. He had previously stated that he was unwilling to make serving in the Senate a long-term career.

Political Views

Thompson was generally centrist in his political views but supported many conservative viewpoints on issues such as gun control, abortion, and climate change. Fred D. Thompson said that federalism was his "lodestar", which provides "a basis for a proper analysis of most issues: 'Is this something government should be doing? Thompson said that "Roe v.

Acting Career

The scandal became the subject of a best-selling book and, subsequently, the movie Marie, in which Thompson played himself. The resulting film, Marie, was Thompson's first acting role and was released in 1985. Roger Donaldson then cast Thompson in the part of CIA director Marshall in the 1987 film No Way Out. He then appeared in more than 18 movies, including feature roles in Cape Fear, Line of Fire, Die Hard II, and The Hunt for Red October. He played the head of FBI special-agent training in the 1988 comedy Feds; in the trailer, the FBI disclaimed any connection with the film. Thompson went on to be cast in many films including as Tom Broadbent in Cape Fear (1991) and White House Chief of Staff Harry Sargent in In the Line of Fire (1993).

As Thompson prepared to depart the Senate, he resumed his acting career. In 2002, during the final months of his Senate term, Thompson joined the cast of the NBC television series Law & Order, playing conservative District Attorney Arthur Branch, a role that he would ultimately portray for the next five years. During these years, Thompson also had roles in films including Racing Stripes (2005) and Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (2005). He portrayed a fictional president of the United States in Last Best Chance (2005), as well as two historical presidents in TV movies: Ulysses S.

Thompson signed an agreement to be represented as an actor by the William Morris Agency. In 2009, he returned to acting with a guest appearance on the ABC television series Life on Mars, and as William Jennings Bryan in the TV movie Alleged (2010), based on the Scopes Monkey Trial. Thompson portrayed Frank Michael Thomas in the CBS series The Good Wife, based on himself. He also had roles in Disney's Secretariat (2010) and the horror film Sinister (2012).

2008 Presidential Campaign

Thompson, in 2007, again paused his acting career in order to pursue political options, this time stepping back from acting in order to accommodate a potential campaign for the presidency. Thompson ran for the Republican nomination in the 2008 United States presidential election cycle. On March 11, 2007, Thompson appeared on Fox News Sunday to discuss the possibility of a 2008 candidacy for the presidency. Thompson continued to be mentioned as a potential candidate, but did not officially declare his candidacy.

Thompson never earned higher than third in polling and dropped out in January 2008. He then threw his support behind John McCain once again. He was one of the featured speakers at the Republican National Convention in September of that year.

Radio Career

On March 2, 2009, he took over Westwood One's East Coast noon time slot, hosting the talk radio program The Fred Thompson Show, after Bill O'Reilly ended The Radio Factor. It was co-hosted for a time by his wife, Jeri. Thompson's final show for Westwood One was aired on January 21, 2011. In 2006, he signed on with ABC News Radio to serve as senior analyst and vacation replacement for Paul Harvey. He used that platform to spell out his positions on a number of political issues.

Personal Life and Health

Thompson was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), a form of cancer, in 2004. In 2007, Thompson stated, "I have had no illness from it, or even any symptoms. My life expectancy should not be affected. I am in remission, and it is very treatable with drugs if treatment is needed in the future-and with no debilitating side effects." Reportedly indolent, Thompson's NHL was the lowest of three grades of NHL, and was the rare nodal marginal zone lymphoma.

Thompson married Sarah Elizabeth Lindsey in 1959 while still in high school, resulting in Thompson being banned from participating in school sports. The couple had one daughter and two sons. In 2002, Thompson married political consultant Jeri Kehn, with whom he had a daughter and a son.

Later Years and Death

After the election, he returned to radio and television, becoming the national spokesman for reverse-mortgage lender American Advisors Group. Thompson died on November 1, 2015, of complications related to cancer.

tags: #fred #dalton #thompson #education #and #career