Actor-politicians (a disease that has effected many countries like India, Canada, Poland, as well as the United States) are, you may have noticed, usually Republicans. I have heard that it is because (R)s are more interested in making you believe something, appealing to the dramatic, etc. The actor-politician has become much more common in national politics in the last 20 years. Is this caused by Reagan or was Reagan part of the trend? Will overwhelmingly Democratic Hollywood actors start running as Democrats one day? Do people like fake jerks who say things like they're really serious? (The answer to that one is Yes).
Here is a list of the major characters/politicians in our history:
Number one and chief among them is Ronald Reagan who was a pretty big movie star for a while and then a huge political hemorrhoid for eight years, my least favorite moment being everything associated with Iran/Contra. Did he end Communism, or did Communism just work badly and end? No one knows.
Next in importance is Arnold Swartzeneger, California's Governor from 2003-Present. It's actually still kind of hard to believe. He's from Austria. He talks like he learned English last year. He's not as bad as most Republicans, I have heard, but I don't live in California, so I'm not sure.
Next, maybe now more important than Swartz, is Fred Thompson. He was a politician, then an actor, then a politician then an actor again and now he wants to be a politician. We only have him to deal with because he became a Senator from TN to fill the seat vacated by Al Gore when Gore ran for Vice President. Fred was in hilarious and interesting Kevin Costner spy movie No Way Out 1987.
Another Senator was George Murphy, a Nixon era (R) from CA. You've never heard of him, but he was in almost 40 movies between 1930-1952 and was a US Senator from 1965-1971.
Then there's Fred Grandy- Gopher from Love Boat from 1977-1986 and (R) US Rep from Iowa 1986-1994. Yes, he went directly from the show into Congress. Of shorter tenure was...
Sonny Bono, (R) Congressman from CA 1995-98...not really an actor, but had a TV show with crappy skits for six years.
Of lesser importance, but still interesting are:
Alan Autry (Bubba from In the Heat of the Night 1988-1994) Republican, elected mayor of Fresno, CA 2001, and currently mayor.
Clint Eastwood- lifelong Repub- Mayor of Carmel, CA 1986-88.
Shirley Temple Black, child star, (R) from CA. Black trumpeted her hawkish sentiments on the Vietnam War and lost a few elections to public office. She was appointed to various embassy/diplomatic positions by Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Bush I.
__________________________
This is all I could find on the Democratic side of the issue. Pretty pathetic:
Ben Jones AKA Cooter from Dukes of Hazzard (the mechanic, friend of the Dukes, I don't remember him that well) 1979-1985. Then Dem US Representative from Georgia 1988-92. On the conservative side.
Helen Gahagan- on Broadway stage in the 20s and then in one movie, She. US Rep. from CA 1945-51, she then had an unsuccessful run against Richard Nixon for the open CA Senate seat.
AND (to make at least three) a guy named Stephen Peace who was a co-writer of the awful Attack of the Killer Tomatoes movies (and had acting parts in them too) who became a CA Assemblyman and then State Senator. He doesn't really compare in terms of acting or political prestige.