Former Sen. Thompson, dead at 73, had presence in politics, on screen

NASHVILLE — Fred Thompson, a folksy former Republican U.S. senator from Tennessee who appeared in feature films and television, including a role on “Law & Order,” died Sunday, his family said.

He was 73.

Thompson, at 6-foot-6 with a booming voice, appeared in at least 20 motion pictures. His credits include “In the Line of Fire,” “The Hunt for Red October,” “Die Hard II” and “Cape Fear.” By the early 1990s, Thompson said he had become bored with his 10-year stint in Hollywood and wanted to go into public service. That's when he headed back to Nashville and began his Senate campaign. A man of many roles in life and on the screen, he was a lawyer by training and once served as a chief minority counsel during the Senate Watergate hearings.

The family statement said Thompson died in Nashville during a recurrence of lymphoma.

“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,” it said. “Fred was the same man on the floor of the Senate, the movie studio, or the town square of ... his home.”

Thompson, a lawyer, alternated between politics and acting much of his adult life. Once regarded as a rising star in the Senate, he retired when his term expired in January 2003.

“I simply do not have the heart for another six-year term,” Thompson said in a statement at the time. “Serving in the Senate has been a tremendous honor, but I feel that I have other priorities that I need to attend to.”

However, he returned to politics in 2007 by announcing he would seek the Republican presidential nomination. But he dropped out in January 2008 after faring poorly in the early caucuses and primaries. “I hope that my country and my party have benefited from our having made this effort,” Thompson said at the time.

After leaving the race, he campaigned extensively for his party's presidential nominee, John McCain, then sought support to become chairman of the Republican National Committee but quit that quest after a few months.

Thompson took stock of his life after the January 2002 death of his daughter, Elizabeth Thompson Panici, 38, after an accidental prescription drug overdose.

After retiring from the Senate, Thompson took a role on the TV show “Law & Order.” In 2007, he portrayed Ulysses S. Grant in the TV movie “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.”

In June 2002, Thompson married Jeri Kehn, a political and media specialist.

After retiring from politics, Thompson hosted a conservative radio talk show between 2009 and 2011, and became a TV advertising pitchman for a reverse mortgage financial company.