On Sunday, he succumbed to cancer.
Fred Thompson was the kind of person who demanded respect, not in the sense of beating a person into submission on the issue, but in a dignified manner: when he entered a room or submitted a manuscript, the immediate impression witnesses took was to respect the man, whether he was present himself was irrelevant. A television interviewer once asked him why - during his presidential run when he was openly 'spat' upon by co-candidate John McCain - he did not strike back. Thompson's answer was so typical of the man: "I just cannot criticize that man," he said, "I just cannot." McCain, for all of his bluster since returning to these United States, had endured, with extreme dignity, a long run as a POW in a hell hole of a prison camp in Hanoi, North Vietnam. In Thompson's view, McCain had earned eternal respect, not just from him but from all Americans.
One of the most obvious and remembered characteristics of Fred Thompson was his reputation for thoroughness. It is nearly ironic that this is so. With so varied a career, it would be almost expected that Thompson would cut corners or skimp in order to complete all of the assignments that were necessary for a person performing so many roles. But Fred Thompson never skimped and certainly never cut corners. In 1973 and 1974, Thompson was the minority chief counsel of the Senate Watergate Committee. During his relentless questioning of then CIA Chief, Alexander Butterfield was forced to reveal the existence of the audio taping system that led directly to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon, still the only United States President to resign in disgrace.
Despite vigorous opposition, Thompson won the Senate Seat formerly occupied by Al Gore, Sr. and Al Gore, Jr. The man he defeated, Harlan Matthews, had been appointed to the Senate when Gore the Junior assumed the vice-presidency of these United States. Six years later, Congressman Jim Cooper took on Thompson in a very contentious election fight. According to the Los Angeles Times, "Cooper blasted away at what he suggested was a huge gap between Thompson the good ol' boy and Thompson the politician. Cooper called him "a Gucci wearing, Lincoln driving, Perrier-drinking, Grey Poupon spreading millionaire Washington special-interest lobbyist." In fact, Thompson was a highly successful lobbyist, representing clients including the Teamsters Union pension fund, Westinghouse, GE and Toyota. Still, his constituents in Tennessee liked his style and he handily won" both the 1994 and 1996 elections (the 1994 election was for the purpose of completing the Gore term. Thompson then ran for election on his own to a six year term in 1996). In the 1996 election, Thompson collected a stunning 61% of the Tennessee vote.
From 2002 to 2007 he was cast as DA Arthur Branch in the long-running NBC Law and Order crime drama series. Thompson also portrayed authority figures in a number of hit Hollywood big screen productions. Included in his credits are "The Hunt for Red October" and "Cape Fear." In a 1997 interview with the New York Times, Thompson recalled playing in a travelling stage production with the late screen star Paul Newman.
According to the LA Times, Thompson was born in 1942 in the small Alabama Town of Sheffield. He grew up in Tennessee, however, when his father obtained work as an automobile salesman in Lawrenceburg. History buffs may recall that Lawrenceburg is the birthplace of legendary American frontiersman Davy Crockett.
Thompson attended Memphis State University on a basketball scholarship, no doubt in part because of his 6-foot, 6-inch frame. He had already married his high school sweetheart and fathered, with her, two children. He was able to graduate from Memphis State even though he had to quit school one semester in order to work. The employment he found in that time was in a church pew factory, a drive-in movie and a bicycle factory. After Memphis State he applied to and was accepted at Vanderbilt University Law School. Thompson graduated from there in 1967. Thompson returned, then, to Lawrenceburg to practice law. He also founded a Young Republicans chapter and worked in various political campaigns. Notable GOP stalwarts such as Baker and Lamar Alexander took notice of Thompson during this time.
Alexander released a statement on Sunday after learning of Thompson's passing. "Very few people can light up the room the way Fred Thompson did...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."
After his Watergate work, Thompson again returned to Tennessee to practice law. One case he handled successfully - for his client - was the representation of Marie Ragghianti, an assistant for then Tennessee Governor Ray Blanton. Ragghianti alleged that she had been unfairly fired from her job with Blanton. In the trial that the case led to, revelations emerged about corruption in the Blanton administration. A corruption probe followed and Blanton and other Tennessee officials were sent to jail.
Fred Thompson, who said that his name was not appropriate for Hollywood, had his first movie role in 1985 when he portrayed Sissy Spacek's attorney in the film "Marie: a True Story." Other movie roles included Die Hard 2, Fat Man and Little Boy (with Paul Newman), In the Line of Fire, Aces: Iron Eagle III and "The Rise and Fall of RJR Nabisco."
Despite all of the notoriety he earned, Thompson retained a humble air about him. In fact, his death caught many of his friends and admirers by surprise. Counting himself among those friends was Mark Levin, who spared no effort in praising Thompson effusively during his Tuesday broadcast. His ability to have a pulse on America and the challenges facing it was one of the things the essential Mr. Levin recalled in describing his friend. Most poignant of all, Levin said, was Thompson's grave concern about illegal border crossers - illegal immigrants in the current vernacular - and his equally grave concern about the amount of damage resulting from the uber Leftist policies of Barak H. Obama.
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