Fred Thompson was born in 1942 and grew up in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. He earned the baccalaureate degree from Memphis State University in philosophy and political science (1964). He then received the JD from Vanderbilt (1967). In 1969 he was named an assistant US attorney, and then was appointed minority counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee, where he served in 1973 and 1974. He served as special counsel to Governor Lamar Alexander (1980); special counsel, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations (1980–81), and special counsel, Senate Intelligence Committee (1982).
In 1977 Thompson served as the attorney in the Tennessee Parole Board investigation, exposing a cash-for-clemency scheme that ultimately sent Governor Ray Blanton to prison. The scandal became the subject of a best-selling book and, subsequently, the movie Marie, in which Thompson played himself. He then appeared in more than 18 movies, including feature roles in Cape Fear, Line of Fire, Die Hard II, and The Hunt for Red October. He has appeared as a guest star on many TV shows and has played a continuing role on the TV series Law and Order.
In 1994 Thompson was elected to the US Senate to fill the unexpired term of Albert Gore Jr. He was reelected in 1996 to a term ending on January 3, 2003, and did not seek reelection. Thompson donated his senatorial papers to the UT Libraries’ Special Collections in late 2002, and when he announced his (unsuccessful) bid for the Republican nomination for president in 2007, his papers were in great demand by the national media.
Thompson is the author of a book about his work on the Watergate Committee, At That Point in Time: The Inside Story of the Senate Watergate Committee (1975).