US:The Republican race for the White House is about to receive a shake-up with the entry of former Tennessee senator turned actor Fred Thompson (64), who has taken the first steps towards becoming a candidate.
Best known as Manhattan district attorney Arthur Branch in the television series Law & Order, Mr Thompson was already polling above most Republican candidates before he said he was going to run.
This week the 6ft6in southerner, who served in the Senate from 1996 to 2003 before taking up a full-time acting career, set up a committee to start raising funds for a presidential bid. In meetings with supporters and contributors, he said he was planning a full-scale campaign, with a formal launch expected around July 4th.
He has told NBC he will not be available to film a sixth series of Law & Order in September and asked supporters to try to raise $50,000 each by the end of June.
"I've got to fight to have the guts enough to follow my own instincts. Everybody is going to make mistakes anyway. Things are going to happen. You're going to have good days and bad. You might as well do it your way," he told USA Today.
With a more solidly conservative record than Republican frontrunners Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Mitt Romney, Mr Thompson hopes to win support from the disgruntled grass roots in the party, who have shown little enthusiasm for the current field of candidates.
Mr Giuliani's three marriages and his liberal stance on abortion and gay rights have upset some religious conservatives; Mr McCain's support for immigration reform and his authorship of campaign finance laws have long made him suspect among Republican activists; and Mr Romney's shifting positions on many hot button issues have exposed him to charges that he lacks principle.
Staunchly anti-abortion and tough on border control, Mr Thompson has excited Republicans who yearn for a candidate with the moral certitude and communication skills of their late hero Ronald Reagan.
Mr Thompson believes Republicans lost control of Congress not because of the Iraq war but because of out-of-control spending and unrestrained partisanship. "It's been kind of a pox on both your houses. There's a disconnect out there between the people and Washington . . . It seems lately whoever has power, whoever has control makes the same predictable mistakes," he said.