If it was one thing that Fred Thompson always had, it was presence. Whether it was dominating a scene in a television show or a film or whether it was dominating a conversation or debate in the Senate floor. Fred Thompson, the former actor and United States Senator from Tennessee, died of lymphoma complications on Sunday. He was 73.

Thompson, who was born in Alabama and grew up in Tennessee, was a law school graduate and successful prosecutor who made a national name for himself during the Watergate trials. At and dominating 6’6″, Thompson commanded a room, or a scene, like few others have been able to do, according to The Washington Post. In 1978, Thompson successfully prosecuted a corruption case in Tennessee which ended up launching a movie and television career that lasted a couple of decades. His movie debut came in the 1985 film about the case, “Marie: A True Story”.

Following that, he was in demand in Hollywood. He played memorable roles in such popular and successful films as “Die Hard 2”, “The Hunt for Red October”,  and “In the Line of Fire”. In 1994, however, a U.S. Senate seat in Tennessee was vacated by Al Gore and Thompson won the run off election for the seat. He ran for the seat, and won, on his own in 1996 and served the six year term until 2002. After that, he announced that he would retire from politics.

Acting, it seemed, was calling him back. This time it was as a major character on the legendary television show, “Law and Order”. He played a district attorney and had a highly successful run until he contracted non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2007. A couple of months later, he revealed on a late night talk show that he was going to run for the presidency of the United States. Four months later however, he canceled that campaign due mostly to poor showings in early polls.

Upon his retirement from both acting and politics, Thompson became a celebrated pitch man for a reverse mortgage company as well as the successful radio host of a conservative leaning political program.