U.S. Senator and Actor. A member of the Republican Party, he represented Tennessee in the United States Senate from December 1994 until January 2003. He is also fondly remembered for his role as 'District Attorney Arthur Branch' on NBC's "Law and Order" series from 2002 until 2007. His acting career spanned four decades from 1985 until 2015, appearing in over 40 cinema and television movies, as well as television commercials and episodes. Born Freddie Dalton Thompson, his father was an automobile salesman. After graduating from high school, he attended Florence State College (now the University of North Alabama) at Florence, Alabama, then transferred to the University of Memphis at Memphis, Tennessee, and graduated in 1964 with a bachelor's degree in philosophy and political science. In 1967, he earned his law degree from Vanderbilt Law School in Nashville, Tennessee and from 1969 until 1972, he was an assistant U.S. attorney. In 1972, he became U.S. Senator Howard Baker's re-election campaign manager, followed by minority counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee. He served as Special Counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (1980 to 1981) and the Senate Intelligence Committee (1982). In 1994, he was elected to finish Al Gore's unexpired U.S. Senate term when he was elected vice-president on Democrat Bill Clinton's Presidential ticket and was re-elected in 1996. While in the Senate, he served as chairman of the International Security Advisory Board at the U.S. Department of State, was a member of the Committee on Government Affairs, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, and Council on Foreign Relations. In February 1999, he voted against the perjury charge and for the obstruction of justice charge for President Bill Clinton's impeachment. He chose not to run for re-election to the US Senate in 2002 and after vacating his seat, he became a senior analyst on ABC News Radio and vacation replacement for Paul Harvey and contributed articles for Salem Communication's (now Salem Media Group) magazine "Townhall." In 2004 he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and responded well to treatment. In September 2007, he threw his hat into the ring as a Republican nominee for U.S. President but withdrew four months later due to lack of support. From March 2009 until January 2011, he hosted the radio talk program "The Fred Thompson Show." As an actor, he made his first film appearance in "Marie" (1985). His other notable films include: "No Way Out" (1987), "Feds" (1988), "Fat Man and Little Boy" (1989), "The Hunt for Red October" (1990), "Days of Thunder" (1990), "Die Hard 2: Die Harder" (1990), "Flight of the Intruder" (1991), "Curly Sue" (1991), "Cape Fear" (1991), "Thunderheart" (1992), "In the Line of Fire" (1993), "Baby's Day Out" (1994), "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" (2007), "Secretariat" (2010), "The Last Ride" (2011), "Sinister" (2012), "23 Blast" (2013), "Persecuted" (2014) and "90 Minutes to Heaven" (2015). His television credits include: "Wiseguy," "Matlock," "The Good Wife," and "Allegiance." He died from a recurrence of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma at the age of 73.