Opinion: The other Thompson brother is an actor, too

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

We meant to write about this last evening, but got tied up in describing President Bush’s speech as a strategic communications mistake. So, better late than never, here it is.

There is a fun story on this website for the last several hours now and in Friday’s print editions. Don’t miss it. It’s by our colleague Joe Mathews and it’s about a brother.

Now, usually brothers of famous people--especially famous politicians, it seems--show up in the news pages for bad news reasons. Think Richard Nixon’s brother, Jimmy Carter’s brother, Bill Clinton’s brother, Hillary Clinton’s brother, George W. Bush’s brother.

But there’s a new brother of a famous politician on the scene. His name is Ken Thompson. And just like his brother Fred, who’s now running for the Republican nomination for president, Ken is an actor.

But while Fred, the lawyer, virtually fell into an acting job playing himself, Kenny Thompson did it the old-fashioned hard way by starring in high school and college plays and traveling in repertory companies and working his way up.

Now, the jovial, good-natured actor works in a Nashville dinner theatre where he waits tables pouring sweet tea between his stage appearances and he’s laughing about the different lives the two brothers are leading. Check out the rest of Joe’s feature story here.

--Andrew Malcolm