62 Facts About Fred Thompson

Freddie Dalton Thompson was an American politician, attorney, lobbyist, columnist, actor, and radio personality.

Fred Thompson frequently portrayed governmental authority figures and military men.

Fred Thompson attended public school in Lawrenceburg, graduating from Lawrence County High School in 1960, where he played high-school football.

In September 1959, at the age of 17, Fred Thompson married Sarah Elizabeth Lindsey.

Fred Thompson attended Florence State College, becoming the first member of his family to attend college.

Fred Thompson later transferred to Memphis State University, where he earned a double degree in philosophy and political science in 1964.

Fred Thompson then received a scholarship to study law at the Vanderbilt University Law School, graduating with a Juris Doctor degree in 1967.

Fred Thompson was admitted to the state bar of Tennessee in 1967.

Fred Thompson worked as an assistant US attorney from 1969 to 1972, successfully prosecuting bank robberies and other cases.

Fred Thompson was the campaign manager for Republican US Senator Howard Baker's re-election campaign in 1972, and was minority counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee in its investigation of the Watergate scandal.

Fred Thompson accepted appointments as special counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, special counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee, and member of the Appellate Court Nominating Commission for the State of Tennessee.

Fred Thompson's clients included a German mining group and Japan's Toyota Motors Corporation.

In 1973, Fred Thompson was appointed minority counsel to assist the Republican senators on the Senate Watergate Committee, a special committee convened by the US Senate to investigate the Watergate scandal.

In 1977, Fred 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.

Fred Thompson earned about $1 million in total from his lobbying efforts.

Lobbyist disclosure records show Fred Thompson had six lobbying clients: Westinghouse, two cable television companies, the Tennessee Savings and Loan League, the Teamsters Union's Central States Pension Fund, and a Baltimore-based business coalition that lobbied for federal grants.

Fred Thompson received $1,600 for communicating with some congressional staffers on this issue.

When Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was overthrown in 1991, Thompson made a telephone call to White House Chief of Staff John H Sununu advocating restoration of Aristide's government, but said that was as a private citizen, not on a paid basis on Aristide's behalf.

The resulting film, Marie, was Fred Thompson's first acting role and was released in 1985.

Fred Thompson played the head of FBI special-agent training in the 1988 comedy Feds; in the trailer, the FBI disclaimed any connection with the film.

Fred Thompson went on to appear in many films and television shows.

In 1994, Fred Thompson was elected to finish the remaining two years of Al Gore's unexpired US Senate term.

In 1996, Fred Thompson was a member of the Committee on Governmental Affairs when the committee investigated the alleged Chinese attempts to influence American politics.

Fred Thompson says he was "largely stymied" during these investigations by witnesses declining to testify, claiming the right not to incriminate themselves or by simply leaving the country.

Fred Thompson became committee chairman in 1997, but was reduced to ranking minority member when the Democrats took control of the Senate in 2001.

Fred Thompson served on the Finance Committee, the Intelligence Committee, and the National Security Working Group.

In July 1996, Fred Thompson began dating Jeri Kehn was born on 1966 and and the two married almost six years later on June 29,2002.

When Fred Thompson was asked in a December 2007 Associated Press survey of the candidates to name his favorite possession, he replied, tongue-in-cheek, "trophy wife".

Fred Thompson had previously stated that he was unwilling to make serving in the Senate a long-term career.

The only lobbying work Fred Thompson did after leaving the Senate in 2003 was for the London-based reinsurance company Equitas Ltd.

Fred Thompson was paid $760,000 between 2004 and 2006 to help prevent passage of legislation that Equitas said unfairly singled them out for unfavorable treatment regarding asbestos claims.

Fred Thompson was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of cancer, in 2004.

From 2002 to 2005, Fred Thompson was head of the Federal City Council, a group of business, civic, education, and other leaders interested in economic development in Washington, DC.

Fred Thompson did voice-over work at the 2004 Republican National Convention.

Until July 2007, Fred Thompson was Chair of the International Security Advisory Board, a bipartisan advisory panel that reports to the Secretary of State and focuses on emerging strategic threats.

Fred Thompson, who had never met Libby before volunteering for the advisory board, said he was convinced Libby was innocent.

Fred Thompson hosted a fundraiser for the Libby defense fund at his home in McLean, Virginia.

Fred Thompson used that platform to spell out his positions on a number of political issues.

Fred Thompson ran for the Republican nomination in the 2008 United States presidential election cycle.

Fred Thompson ultimately won 11 delegates in the Republican primaries before dropping out of the race in January 2008.

On March 11,2007, Fred Thompson appeared on Fox News Sunday to discuss the possibility of a 2008 candidacy for the presidency.

Fred Thompson formed a presidential exploratory committee regarding his possible 2008 campaign for president on June 1,2007, but unlike most candidate exploratory groups, Fred Thompson's organized as a 527 group.

Fred Thompson continued to be mentioned as a potential candidate, but did not officially declare his candidacy.

On September 5,2007, Fred Thompson made his candidacy official, announcing on The Tonight Show that "I'm running for president of the United States" and running an ad during a Republican Presidential candidates' debate on Fox News.

Fred Thompson was endorsed by the Virginia Society for Human Life and several other anti-abortion organizations.

On January 22,2008, after attracting little support in the early primaries, Fred Thompson confirmed he had withdrawn from the Presidential race.

Fred Thompson spoke at the 2008 Republican National Convention on September 2 in Minnesota, where he described in graphic detail presumptive Republican nominee John McCain's torture at the hands of the North Vietnamese during his imprisonment, and gave an endorsement of McCain for president.

Fred Thompson campaigned in support of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.

Fred Thompson signed an agreement to be represented as an actor by the William Morris Agency.

Fred Thompson portrayed Frank Michael Thomas in the CBS series The Good Wife.

Fred Thompson had roles in Disney's Secretariat and the horror film Sinister.

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.

Fred Thompson's final show for Westwood One was aired on January 21,2011.

In May 2010, Fred Thompson became an advertising spokesman for American Advisors Group, a reverse mortgage lender.

Fred Thompson's memoir, Teaching the Pig to Dance: A Memoir of Growing up and Second Chances, was published in 2010.

Fred Thompson's funeral was held on November 6,2015, in Nashville, Tennessee, with US Senators John McCain and Lamar Alexander in attendance.

Fred Thompson was interred at Mimosa Cemetery in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, that same day.

However, Fred Thompson stated the government should not criminally prosecute women who undergo early-term abortions.

Fred Thompson did not support a federal ban on gay marriage, but would have supported a constitutional amendment to keep one state's recognition of such marriages from resulting in all states having to recognize them.

Fred Thompson said citizens are entitled to keep and bear arms if they do not have criminal records, and the Gun Owners of America says that he voted pro-gun in 20 of 33 gun-related votes during his time in the Senate.

Fred Thompson initially supported the McCain-Feingold campaign finance legislation, but he later said that certain parts should be repealed.

Fred Thompson was skeptical that human efforts cause global warming and pointed to parallel warming on Mars and other planets as an example.