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Actors who ran for office or were approached to?

Shirley Temple ran for Congress... in 1967... as a Reaganite... in a Liberal Republican district... at the height of the anti-Vietnam War movement... on a pro-war platform. Needless to say, The Good Ship Lollipop was torpedoed.

Some Democratic Party high-ups tried to persuade Andy Griffith (Sheriff Andy, Ben Matlock) to run against Jesse Helms in 1990.

The problem is that once beloved tv and film stars elect to run for office, they will have to start saying stuff that many people who like them from TV and the movies don't like. They won't be harmless nostalgia figures anymore.
 
I had a half formulated idea once of doing an obituary for Minnesotan Farmer-Labor Senator Peter Graves, galvanised into politics in oppostion to the Vietnam War.
 
Outside of America: Glenda Jackson was a UK Labour MP, Tracy Brabin off of Coro won the Batley and Spen by-election, Andrew Lloyd Webber is a Tory peer. Then there's Al Murray, who stood in South Thanet in 2015 as an attention-seeking twit. Oh, and the guy who played Captain Yates of UNIT in Doctor Who stood for the Lib Dems in 1992, the Referendum Party in 1997, UKIP in 2001 and his own micro-party in 2005.

Also, Eva Peron was an actress before she married Juan and got into politics.

My favourite, though, has to be Gina Lollobrigida, who stood in the 1999 European elections for the Democrats and did absolutely terribly.
 
Not strictly an actor, but Neil Hughes ran for the Liberal Democrats in Carlisle back in 2010 and received a respectable 6,567 (in that he held his deposit), as well a having been a Councillor in Hackney. Those familiar with the name may remembering him as having been one of the children of the Up Series, and those who don't, he was one of the focus children in an ITV series called 'Up', in which every seven years a documentary crew track down children they interviewed back in 1964 to see where their lives have led them, and Neil was once of the more depressing ones.

Another Lib Dem from 2010 is of course Anna Arrowsmith, a former porn star and director who ran for Gravesham, and does a lot of activism about feminism and its relationship with pornography and how modern feminist movements should embrace the sex industry and trying to make it a better environment for those working within it is far better than lurid condemnation.
 
John Wayne was asked to run for national office in 1968, and also asked to be George Wallace's running mate, but rejected both offers. However Wayne's explicit racism would create problems for him (although it does make him perfect for the Wallace campaign).
"Acting president Wayne assaults native rights activist"
 
We all know about Jiang Qing, who was one of the members of the Gang of Four and Mao’s wife. Given that she pissed everyone off in the party, it’s unlikely that she could thrive.

Helen Gahagan Douglas was an actress who served in Congress before losing to Richard Nixon. IOTL she alienated much of the party by running against an incumbent and was accused of being a pinko. Have her run for higher office later or have an unpopular Republican as the incumbent, and you might have her as president.

More recently, Julia Louis-Dreyfus said that she was approached to run for office by the DNC, yet she rejected any possibility (that could also be because she was suffering with breast cancer).

In Britian, John Cleese has been involved with SDP and LibDems for quite a while, despite having some unorthodox views. As with many other celebrities, I’d imagine him running for the ceremonial president if Britain became a republic.

Alec Baldwin almost ran for mayor of NYC in 2013 and floated runs for governor and president.

While I still think of him for his rapping days, Ice T has been involved with activism for a while. In the 1990s, he and Jello Biafra even made a collaborative album protesting music censorship (this actually happened). Given how he’s been in Law and Order for all these years, I imagine he would have a fairly decent shot.

Another rapper involved in acting is Youssou N’Dour, who ran for president of Senegal in 2012 before being kicked off the ballot by president Wade (who ended up losing the election).

Henry Cabot Lodge’s brother John Davis Lodge was an actor who also served as
Governor of Connecticut. Roger Stone got his start in politics working for him, funnily enough.

Ben Stein came from a political family. I could see him keeping on the Nixonian Republican tradition if he entered politics.
 
I remember everyone getting excited about Fred Thompson making a run for the Republican nomination in 2008 and flaring out pretty quickly. Still not certain why everyone was so excited about it.
 
I remember everyone getting excited about Fred Thompson making a run for the Republican nomination in 2008 and flaring out pretty quickly. Still not certain why everyone was so excited about it.
In 2008, the candidates were rather mediocre and Thompson entered as a dark horse. He was still rather well respected in the GOP. If McCain’s campaign had collapsed like many predicted, he could have won the nomination.
 
I remember everyone getting excited about Fred Thompson making a run for the Republican nomination in 2008 and flaring out pretty quickly. Still not certain why everyone was so excited about it.
He's a figure who'd of done incredibly well in 2004 had Gore won 2000, from what I recall from discussions by some of the more knowledgable members here.
 
Outside of America: Glenda Jackson was a UK Labour MP, Tracy Brabin off of Coro won the Batley and Spen by-election, Andrew Lloyd Webber is a Tory peer. Then there's Al Murray, who stood in South Thanet in 2015 as an attention-seeking twit. Oh, and the guy who played Captain Yates of UNIT in Doctor Who stood for the Lib Dems in 1992, the Referendum Party in 1997, UKIP in 2001 and his own micro-party in 2005.
Interestingly, Helen Griffin, the actress who played Mrs Moore from the 'Rise of the Cybermen' story, was the lead candidate for Respect in Wales in 2004. She had a very minor part in the TL I did on the other place, first as the leader of Welsh Respect, then as a Senator in a reformed upper house.

Then there's also Vanessa Redgrave, and though she's not an actor, Esther Rantzen ran as an Independent in Luton in 2010.

You've also got some actors who are well known activists for Labour, like Steve Coogan and Martin Freeman, who have both been known to do campaign stuff for them, though in the latter case it might have been paid. I don't know if he is a Labour member, but Michael Sheen has been involved with politics in the past, and has generally expressed left wing viewpoints.

I've thought about doing a wikibox for a TL where he is nominated for Aberavon (his home constituency) and works his way up to party leader then PM, ending up with a situation where someone who played a Labour PM three times goes onto become a Labour PM themselves.
 
Michael Sheen has been involved with politics in the past, and has generally expressed left wing viewpoints.

I've thought about doing a wikibox for a TL where he is nominated for Aberavon (his home constituency) and works his way up to party leader then PM, ending up with a situation where someone who played a Labour PM three times goes onto become a Labour PM themselves.
This reminds me of the story about him and Martin Sheen talking to each other in character as Bartlett and Blair at an awards ceremony once.
 
Jesse Ventura winning the Minnesota governship led to a bunch of wrestlers trying a run at politics at the time and continues on and off to this day, most recently Glen Jacobs becoming Mayor of Knox County, Tennessee.

Failed ones have been Bob Backlund running for Congress in 2000 in Connecticut, Jerry Lawyer ran for Mayor of Memphis in 1999, etc.
 
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