
Died at 83
male
Freddie Dalton 'Fred' Thompson (August 19, 1942 - November 1, 2015), credited as Fred Thompson and Fred Dalton Thompson, is an American politician, actor, attorney, lobbyist, columnist, and radio host. He served as a Republican U.S. Senator from Tennessee from 1994 through 2003. He served as chairman of the International Security Advisory Board at the United States Department of State, was a member of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and is a Visiting Fellow with the American Enterprise Institute, specializing in national security and intelligence. As an actor, he has appeared in a large number of movies and television shows. He has frequently portrayed governmental figures. In the final months of his U.S. Senate term in 2002, he joined the cast of the long-running NBC television series Law & Order, playing Manhattan District Attorney Arthur Branch. In May 2007, he took a break from acting in order to run for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. In 2009, he returned to acting with a guest appearance on television series; and co-starred with Brian Dennehy in the movie Alleged, about the Scopes Monkey Trial. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

A massive meteor shower destroys the orbiting Space Shuttle Atlantis, before entering the atmosphere and bombarding New York City. NASA discovers that the meteors were pushed out of the asteroid belt by a Texas-sized asteroid that will impact the Earth in 18 days, causing an extinction level event that will wipe out all life on the planet. NASA scientists plan to drill a deep shaft into the asteroid and plant a nuclear weapon into it that, when detonated, will split the asteroid into two halves that will fly safely past Earth. NASA contacts Harry Stamper, considered the best deep sea oil driller in the world, for assistance. Harry departs for Houston with his daughter Grace, where they are told about the asteroid and Harry agrees to participate in the mission, but explains that he will need his team as well, including Chick, Rockhound, Max, Oscar, Bear, Noonan and Grace's lover A.J. They also agree to help, but only after their unusual list of demands are met.

