Fred Thompson, 'Law & Order's' Most Conservative, Folksy D.A., Has Died
Fred Thompson, who played D.A. Arthur Branch on Law & Order, has died at age 73. With his honeyed baritone speaking voice and barrel-chested assertiveness, Thompson was frequently called upon to play authority figures. In the movies, he was a lawyer, an admiral, a President (including two real ones, Ulysses S. Grant and Andrew Jackson), and the president of NASCAR (in Days of Thunder).
But by far his best-known role was as Arthur Branch, Manhattan District Attorney in Law & Order. Branch was an anomaly on the series: an avowed conservative who stood in sometimes argumentative contrast to Sam Waterston’s centrist-liberal Jack McCoy.
Casting Thompson in Law & Order was a shrewd idea. When Thompson came aboard in 2002, he replaced Dianne Wiest, who played Nora Lewin with a finely neurasthenic air. Thompson’s Branch, by contrast, was firm but folksy — Thompson allowed his Tennessee accent to course through Branch’s body. (Instead of telling Jack to keep him on his toes, Arthur would phrase it more Southern-colloquially: “Ah need someone to tell me when mah britches are unbuttoned.”) Where Thompson was something of a controversial figure in real life — a Republican with unpredictable views on a variety of issues who was involved with everything from the Watergate hearings to the deregulation of the Savings and Loan industry — Arthur Branch was simply a widely beloved character on Law & Order: a uniter, not a divider.
Thompson got his start in showbiz playing himself, as a lawyer who represented the former head of the Tennessee Board of Pardons and Paroles in the 1985 film Marie. From that point on, Thompson mixed the law, a real-life political career, and acting for the rest of his life. He left Law & Order in 2007 to run for the Republican Party’s 2008 nomination for President. Given the way that went, he may have wished he’d stayed on as a weekly TV D.A.
Related: Former Senator, Law & Order Veteran Fred D. Thompson Dead at 73
His Arthur Branch character also appeared in other L&O franchises: 11 episodes of Special Victims Unit, one episode of Criminal Intent, and all 13 episodes of the dud Law & Order: Trial By Jury.
When someone says an actor is playing himself, it’s usually meant as a bit of a slap, suggesting the actor has no range. For Thompson, it was more like a point of pride: He projected a firm-minded sensibility that any viewer, no matter what his or her politics might be, would find an enviable sign of confidence and strength.
