Politician turned TV star and back again Fred Thompson, dead at 73

Former U.S. Senator Fred Thompson, a folksy Tennessee lawyer whose career led him from politics to Hollywood and back again, died Sunday. He was 73. At 6ft 6in with a booming voice, Thompson appeared in at least 20 movies and in the TV series “Law & Order”. His film credits include “In the Line of Fire,” “The Hunt for Red October,” “Die Hard II” and “Cape Fear.” By the early ‘90s, Thompson said he had become bored with his 10-year stint in Hollywood and wanted to enter public service. He then headed back to Nashville and launched his Senate campaign.

It is with a heavy heart and a deep sense of grief that we share the passing of our brother, father and grandfather who died peacefully in Nashville.

Thompson family statement

Lamar Alexander, who succeeded Thompson in the Senate, said: “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." Thompson took stock of his life after the January 2002 death of his daughter, Elizabeth Thompson Panici, 38, following an accidental prescription drug overdose.

They ran me for a while and then they took me out of the race, and all the time I was kind of a bystander.

Fred Thompson on his aborted presidential bid