Comedian and actor Rosanne Barr recently announced she would seek the Green Party's presidential nomination to run against President Barack Obama and whoever becomes the Republican Party's nominee this fall. As unorthodox as it might seem, Barr is hardly the first celebrity to seek the nation's highest office.
Ronald Reagan (Election of 1980)
Long before the Democrat-turned-Republican became president, he had a fairly lengthy career as a B-movie actor and president of the Screen Actors Guild in Hollywood. Reagan appeared as an actor in more than 70 films and television shows from the 1930s into the 1960s. In 1967 he was elected to the first of two terms as governor of California, launching his national political career and the rest, as they say, is history.
Fred Thompson (Election of 2008)
This lawyer and Republican took over Al Gore's vacant Tennessee senate seat in late 1994. He was elected in his own right in 1996. But more than his senatorial career it was acting that helped to make Thompson a nationally recognized figure. He began his work on the silver screen long before he walked the halls of Congress, playing himself in the 1985 real-life political corruption drama Marie. He went on to appear in dozens of films and television shows, including a long-time role as district attorney Arthur Branch on Law and Order that helped to turn him into a household name. In September 2007, Thompson announced he would be a candidate for the Republican Party's nomination for president in 2008. After initially shooting to the top of the polls Thompson's lackluster campaign fizzled and he dropped out of the race a few months later.
Naked Cowboy (Election of 2012)
First he tried to run for mayor of New York, then the Times Square icon, known for little more than wearing underwear and nothing else, decided he wanted to bring his schtick to the White House. The cowboy, whose real name is Robert John Burck, announced in October 2010 that he would challenge President Obama this year. He even wrote a self-published book that is billed as "A fantastic autobiographical journey in self motivation and the successful attainment of Super Stardom."
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