---
name: "Fred Thompson"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/fred-thompson"
fi1m_id: "fred-thompson"
imdb_id: "nm0000669"
tmdb_id: 17874
wikidata_id: "Q298016"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "19 August 1942"
died: "1 November 2015"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 6
average_fi1m_score: 72
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 6
updated: "2026-10-04T23:08:18.515743+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Fred Thompson

## Identity

Fred Thompson

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/fred-thompson
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** fred-thompson
- **IMDb ID:** nm0000669
- **TMDB ID:** 17874
- **Wikidata ID:** Q298016
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Thompson, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q298016, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000669/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/17874

Actor. Born 19 August 1942 in Sheffield, Alabama, U.S.. Died 1 November 2015.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 19 August 1942, Sheffield, Alabama, U.S.
- **Died:** 1 November 2015
- **Active:** 1990–1993
- **Also known as:** Fred Dalton Thompson, Senator Fred Thompson, Фред Далтон Томпсон, フレッド・ダルトン・トンプソン
- **Average Fi1m score:** 72, as actor, over 6 titles
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 72 to 63 across 5 titles
- **Score spread:** 1 at 80+, 5 at 60–79, 0 under 60
- **Lead roles:** 0 of 4 acting credits billed first or second
- **Genres:** Action 4, Drama 4, Thriller 4, Crime 3, Adventure 1, Mystery 1
- **Screen time:** 10 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $958m across 5 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Thompson, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q298016, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000669/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/17874

## Streaming the US now

- **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Cape Fear*](https://film.one/film/cape-fear-1991.md) (71)
- **Apple TV:** [*Days of Thunder*](https://film.one/film/days-of-thunder.md) (61)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Fred Thompson

> Fred Thompson played the man behind the desk: admirals, directors, chiefs of staff and, for five years, a district attorney. He did it by not appearing to act at all, and the films that hired him for it were usually right to.

Watch him in a control room. He is a head taller than everyone else, he speaks last, and he speaks slowly, in a Southern baritone that sounds as though it has already reached the decision the others are still arguing about. That is the whole performance, and it kept him in work for thirty years.

He did not train for it. His first screen part, in *Marie* (1985), was himself, the lawyer he had actually been in the Tennessee case the film dramatises, and Roger Donaldson, who directed it, used him again as a CIA director in *No Way Out* (1987). Directors had noticed that he was believable as a man with power and kept hiring him to have it. In 1990 alone he was Rear Admiral Painter in *The Hunt for Red October*, Trudeau in the *Die Hard 2* control tower and Big John, the president of the sport, in *Days of Thunder*. *Cape Fear* (1991) and *In the Line of Fire* (1993), the latter as a White House chief of staff, followed. Then he left the screen for the best part of a decade and came back in 2002 as District Attorney Arthur Branch on *Law & Order*, a part he kept until 2007.

Our own reviews of *Die Hard 2* and *Days of Thunder* do not mention him, and that is not an oversight. The parts are furniture: a man in a tower saying the situation is in hand, a man in a suit saying what the rules are. We liked having him in that tower all the same, because when Trudeau said something was being dealt with we believed it for exactly as long as the scene needed, which is more than the film's villain ever managed. But nobody goes home talking about him, and he seems to have known it. The criticism that follows him about, that he played the same steady official in every film and himself in most of them, is fair as far as it goes.

He once described acting as "the knack of being natural in unnatural circumstances", and that is a working definition of what he did. Around explosions and in front of cameras he behaved like a man who had spent his mornings in offices where real decisions were taken, which he had. Television suited that better than cinema. A district attorney is a boss, someone who turns up, weighs in and goes back to his desk, and Thompson did that on *Law & Order* for five years without once seeming to work at it.

If you want to see what he did, do not go looking for a Fred Thompson film; there is not one. Put on any of the 1990 pictures and wait for the tall man to speak. He will be right, and then the scene will move on without him, which was the job.

## Biography

Fred Thompson (credited as Fred Dalton Thompson) was an American actor and politician. Born in Sheffield, Alabama, he trained as a lawyer and entered acting after portraying himself in the 1985 film *Marie*.

He appeared in numerous films, often in authoritative roles, including *The Hunt for Red October* (1990), *Days of Thunder* (1990) as Big John, *Die Hard 2* (1990), *Cape Fear* (1991) and *In the Line of Fire* (1993). On television he played District Attorney Arthur Branch in *Law & Order* (2002–2007) and its spin-offs.

Thompson served as a Republican U.S. Senator from Tennessee from 1994 to 2003 and sought the party's presidential nomination in 2008.

*Sources: imdb.com, en.wikipedia.org, britannica.com.*

## On Fi1m (6)

- *In the Line of Fire* (1993), Fi1m 78, as Harry Sargent — [page](https://film.one/film/in-the-line-of-fire.md)
- *Cape Fear* (1991), Fi1m 71, as Tom Broadbent — [page](https://film.one/film/cape-fear-1991.md)
- *Days of Thunder* (1990), Fi1m 61, as Big John — [page](https://film.one/film/days-of-thunder.md)
- *Die Hard 2* (1990), Fi1m 70, as Trudeau — [page](https://film.one/film/die-hard-2.md)
- *Law & Order* (1990), Fi1m 72, as Arthur Branch — [page](https://film.one/tv/law-and-order.md)
- *The Hunt for Red October* (1990), Fi1m 82, as Rear ADM Joshua Painter (Enterprise Carrier Battle Group) — [page](https://film.one/film/the-hunt-for-red-october.md)

## Complete filmography (51)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *God's Not Dead 2* (2016), as Senior Pastor
- *90 Minutes in Heaven* (2015), as Jay B. Perkins
- *Allegiance* (2015), series, as FBI Director
- *A Larger Life* (2014), as Robert Parker
- *23 Blast* (2014), as Coach Powers
- *Persecuted* (2014), as Dr. Charles Luther
- *Unlimited* (2013), as Harold Finch · Executive Producer
- *Sinister* (2012), as Sheriff
- *The Last Ride* (2012), as O'Keefe
- *Alleged* (2010), as William Jennings Bryan
- *The Genesis Code* (2010), as Judge Hardin
- *Secretariat* (2010), as Bull Hancock
- *The Good Wife* (2009), series, as Frank Michael Thomas — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-good-wife.md)
- *Life on Mars* (2008), series, as Chief Harry Woolf
- *Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee* (2007), as President Ulysses S. Grant
- *Conviction* (2006), series, as Arthur Branch
- *Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World* (2006), as Sen. Fred Dalton Thompson
- *Law & Order: Trial by Jury* (2005), series, as Arthur Branch
- *Racing Stripes* (2005), as Sir Trenton (voice)
- *Last Best Chance* (2005), as President Charles Ross
- *Evel Knievel* (2004), as Jay Sarno
- *Law & Order: Criminal Intent* (2001), series, as Arthur Branch
- *Law & Order: Special Victims Unit* (1999), series, as Arthur Branch
- *Baby's Day Out* (1994), as FBI Agent Grissom
- *In the Line of Fire* (1993), as Harry Sargent — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/film/in-the-line-of-fire.md)
- *Born Yesterday* (1993), as Senator Hedges
- *Barbarians at the Gate* (1993), as Jim Robinson
- *Keep the Change* (1992), as Otis
- *Stay the Night* (1992), as Det.Malone
- *White Sands* (1992), as Arms Dealer (Uncredited)
- *Thunderheart* (1992), as William Dawes
- *Bed of Lies* (1992), as Richard 'Racehorse' Haynes
- *Iron Eagle III* (1992), as Stockmann
- *Cape Fear* (1991), as Tom Broadbent — Fi1m 71, [page](https://film.one/film/cape-fear-1991.md)
- *Curly Sue* (1991), as Bernard Oxbar
- *Necessary Roughness* (1991), as Carver Purcell
- *Class Action* (1991), as Dr. Getchell
- *Flight of the Intruder* (1991), as Court-Martial Captain (uncredited)
- *Law & Order* (1990), series, as Arthur Branch — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/tv/law-and-order.md)
- *Die Hard 2* (1990), as Trudeau — Fi1m 70, [page](https://film.one/film/die-hard-2.md)
- *Days of Thunder* (1990), as Big John — Fi1m 61, [page](https://film.one/film/days-of-thunder.md)
- *The Hunt for Red October* (1990), as Rear ADM Joshua Painter (Enterprise Carrier Battle Group) — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/film/the-hunt-for-red-october.md)
- *Fat Man and Little Boy* (1989), as Melrose Hayden Barry
- *Feds!* (1988), as Bill Belecki
- *Roseanne* (1988), series, Actor — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/tv/roseanne.md)
- *Unholy Matrimony* (1988), as Frank Sweeny
- *China Beach* (1988), series, Actor
- *Wiseguy* (1987), series, Actor
- *No Way Out* (1987), as CIA Director Marshall
- *Matlock* (1986), series, as Gordon Lewis
- *Marie: A True Story* (1985), as Fred Thompson

## Gallery

- ![Senate website (2001)](https://film.one/media/person/78305/gallery-24917a117f96.png) Senate website (2001) — Office of Senator Fred Thompson, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/04/Email_Fred_Thompson.png/1280px-Email_Fred_Thompson.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Fred Thompson, former U.S. Senator, actor, and candidate for President.](https://film.one/media/person/78305/gallery-f93546a0e06f.jpg) Fred Thompson, former U.S. Senator, actor, and candidate for President. — United States Senate, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/Fred_Thompson-cropped.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Fred Thompson](https://film.one/media/person/78305/gallery-fcb7edba2816.jpg) Fred Thompson — United States Senate, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Fred_Thompson.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Fred Thompson, former U.S. Senator, actor, and candidate for President.](https://film.one/media/person/78305/gallery-95ffcac35cfe.jpg) Fred Thompson, former U.S. Senator, actor, and candidate for President. — United States Senate, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Fred_Thompson_%28cropped%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![fred thompson (2008)](https://film.one/media/person/78305/gallery-73fa615217d7.jpg) fred thompson (2008) — Lindsey Turner from Nashville, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/89/Fred_Thompson_shoe_prints_%282801380033%29.jpg/1280px-Fred_Thompson_shoe_prints_%282801380033%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/fred-thompson