Bigger Than Life

But the folks in Lawrenceburg bristle when they hear Thompson described as a lazybones. No one gets out of a small town like that by whistlin' "Dixie."

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The record shows that, particularly as a younger man, Thompson, now 65, was driven, pretty much a workaholic and in a very literal sense opportunistic. People saw things in Fred Dalton Thompson -- he dropped "Freddie" after law school -- that he may not have seen in himself. They offered him chances, and he jumped.

Thompson fit an archetype: the solid guy. He isn't charismatic in a traditional sense. He has no flash, no dazzle. His charisma is physical: He fills up a room.

Young Freddie developed into a big man, with a deep, aged-bourbon voice that other men would kill for, plus a face that looked older than its years, interesting and fleshy, with all kinds of creases, furrows, jowls and a bulldog mouth.

He became a formidable presence, someone who could win a lot of battles just by showing up. Identity is a collaboration between actor and audience, and Thompson always benefited from the way others responded to him. People cast Thompson in roles; his job was to hit the mark.

Lucky, some have called him, but he also leveraged his good luck to maximum effect. "He definitely took advantage of every opportunity offered him," says his childhood friend Jan Clifton.

Even the worst jam of his life -- when his sweetheart Sarah came to him with that startling news -- turned out to be fortuitous.

"We were upset about it," says Ed Lindsey, Sarah's uncle. "The whole family was. It was quite a shock to us because Sarah was a very fine person, and still is." He says Sarah's father, Oscar, was "dumbfounded" by the situation.

The family sat down at the dinner table of the patriarch, W.H. "Bid" Lindsey Sr., to figure out what to do. Sarah Lindsey declined to give an interview, but her brother, Oscar Lindsey III, says he recently discussed the matter with her and she recounted what happened. Everyone in the room expressed an opinion about how to handle this calamity. Finally, the patriarch asked Sarah to speak.

She thanked everyone for their thoughts. And then she said, "But I intend to marry Freddie Thompson."

"We more or less embraced Fred," Ed Lindsey recalls. "We said: Okay, you're part of the family now. We'll take you in -- no questions asked. But we expect something in return."

Thompson didn't want to discuss the reasons for his early marriage, but he acknowledges that he had to grow up quick. Of his own parents, he says, "I'm sure they were upset." His father didn't offer advice, but treated him differently -- more like a man. A couple of weeks after he turned 17, he and Sarah wed at the Lindseys' church, Coleman Methodist.