Fred Dalton Thompson

As an actor and former United States Senator, Fred Dalton Thompson had been both widely-recognized in prominent onscreen roles and active in important historical events. A former litigator, Thompson was plucked from private practice by former Tennessee senator Howard Baker in 1973 to serve as the Republican counsel for the Senate Watergate Committee. Thompson made an immediate splash, asking Richard Nixon's former deputy assist Alexander Butterfield the famous question, "[A]re you aware of the installation of any listening devices in the Oval Office of the president?" Since then, Thompson achieved moderate success in all three fields of expertise - acting, politics and litigation. But it was his film and television persona - one incidentally not far afield from his political self - that made him a recognized face, but by no means, a household name. Fred Thompson died on November 1, 2015 of a recurrence of lymphoma. He was 73.