"He had an enduring belief in the exceptionalism of our country"
November 1, 2015 5:21 PM   Subscribe

Fred Thompson, actor and senator who ran for president, dies at 73 - "An attorney who worked on the Watergate hearings, Thompson became a successful character actor after playing himself in the 1985 film Marie, based on a case in which he represented a whistleblower who exposed corruption in the government of Tennessee. He went on to be star in the TV series Law & Order."

From the same link:

"Other film credits included The Hunt for Red October and Days of Thunder (both 1990), Cape Fear (1991) and Secretariat (2010). On television he made appearances in Sex and the City, The Good Wife and many more series."
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome (26 comments total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
.
Not a big fan of his politics but always liked his performances.
posted by octothorpe at 5:25 PM on November 1, 2015 [8 favorites]


Sadness accrues. He was always struck me as one of those actors like Harry Dean Stanton: a limited range but absolutely fantastic in it, making everything he was in better, and instantly recognizable to boot.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:31 PM on November 1, 2015 [13 favorites]


i loved his acting work.
posted by nadawi at 5:34 PM on November 1, 2015 [3 favorites]


.
posted by gyc at 5:35 PM on November 1, 2015


When I watch the news and see people doing ridiculous crap in the Middle East a nautical mile or two from other people doing ridiculous crap, I can still hear his character from The Hunt For Red October saying "this business will get out of hand, this business will get out of hand and we'll be lucky to live through it."
posted by trackofalljades at 5:36 PM on November 1, 2015 [33 favorites]


Thunderheart as well.
posted by Windopaene at 5:38 PM on November 1, 2015 [1 favorite]


Fine actor. It's a shame that one of his final roles was helping AAG scam the elderly.
posted by demonic winged headgear at 5:46 PM on November 1, 2015 [19 favorites]


My father is often compared to Fred Thompson.
.
posted by josher71 at 6:03 PM on November 1, 2015 [2 favorites]


.
posted by kimberussell at 6:04 PM on November 1, 2015


.
posted by brennen at 6:25 PM on November 1, 2015


.
posted by tzikeh at 6:27 PM on November 1, 2015


.
posted by Cash4Lead at 7:23 PM on November 1, 2015


The shammy reverse mortgage math did it (him) in for me, but I did find amusement in the way he flipped the newsstand guy a coin in one of his commercials; like it was some great gift or something.
posted by buzzman at 7:49 PM on November 1, 2015 [1 favorite]


His great line about after two years in Washington he appreciated the honesty and sincerity of Hollywood. I liked his voice.
posted by Oyéah at 8:38 PM on November 1, 2015 [2 favorites]


As a careful planner, his line I from Red October that I use most often is, “Russians don't take a dump, Son, without a plan.”

Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Requiescat in pace.
posted by ob1quixote at 9:32 PM on November 1, 2015


Whatever you can say about his political stances, he probably had more actual experience and knowledge than any Republican presidential candidate in this election.
posted by Apocryphon at 11:06 PM on November 1, 2015 [1 favorite]


So do my houseplants.

Fred's acting lent authority and credence to his terrible politics. I can't mourn the actor when he so cynically used his Hollywood connections to build an electable persona.
posted by gingerest at 12:32 AM on November 2, 2015 [5 favorites]


.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:10 AM on November 2, 2015


He scamed the elderly. I say good riddance to bad rubbish.
posted by james33 at 2:41 AM on November 2, 2015 [5 favorites]


used his Hollywood connections to build an electable persona.

Fred Thompson was the chief minority counsel on the Senate Watergate committee. Here he is questioning Alexander Butterfield, a former aide to President Richard M. Nixon, who revealed in public that recording devices were installed in the Oval Office - which was the beginning of the end for Nixon. Even Kissinger didn't know he was being recorded.
posted by three blind mice at 3:23 AM on November 2, 2015 [2 favorites]


.
posted by Gelatin at 4:20 AM on November 2, 2015


I always used to confuse him with Joe Don Baker, particularly when he used to go by Fred Dalton Thompson. It was the three names combined with the gruff, imposing, Southern persona. Cape Fear had both of them in it, so that helped me figure out the difference between them. I always liked the way he played off of Sam Waterston in Law & Order. Not down with his politics but his acting was great.
.
posted by wabbittwax at 7:11 AM on November 2, 2015 [3 favorites]


What Fred Thompson Was Working on Before He Died
You probably lost track of Thompson after his 2008 presidential run, but he kept himself active on social media nearly to the end -- and he was really kind of a jerk until the end.

[...]

They say that a near-death experience can give a person a perspective on what really matters in life, that coming face-to-face with one's own mortality can make certain squabbles in one's life seem small and petty. Thompson got a cancer diagnosis in 2004. I don't know when he became aware of the recurrence that killed him. But it seems as if none of this ever made him think, "Y'know, I want to do more with my remaining days than script an ideological social-media Hee-Haw." He did this almost until the end.
posted by tonycpsu at 7:55 AM on November 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


I always used to confuse him with Joe Don Baker ...

Well, that's an understandable mistake ...
posted by octobersurprise at 8:37 AM on November 2, 2015


Pour a reverse mortgage out for him.
posted by tommasz at 10:49 AM on November 2, 2015 [2 favorites]




« Older This is Like a Pearl in My Hand – a collection of...   |   Jar Jar Binks was a trained Force user Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments