Fred Grandy

Fredrick Lawrence "Fred" Grandy (born June 29, 1948) is a former actor best known for his role as 'Gopher' on the sitcom The Love Boat and who later became a member of the United States House of Representatives from the state of Iowa. Grandy was most recently the host of "The Grandy Group," a morning drive time radio talk show on 630 WMAL in Washington, D.C..^[1]

Early life

Grandy was born in Sioux City, Iowa. He received his bachelor's degree in English studies from Harvard University in 1970 and is conversant in both French and Arabic.

Television career

Grandy played a recurring character on the 1970s sitcom, Maude, playing the boyfriend of Maude's daughter, Carol. He played the ship's purser, Burl "Gopher" Smith, for nine seasons (1977–1986) on the American television series The Love Boat. In 1982, while visiting Turkey to film scenes for the show, Grandy suffered severe burns when a balloon filled with hydrogen exploded.^[2]

Grandy appeared in the 1973 made for TV movie, The Girl Most Likely to..., as Ted Gates. He also appeared in a number of Match Game episodes in the mid-1970s. He first sat in the male guest-star seat in the top row left, then later sat in the iconic center square while he filled in for Charles Nelson Reilly when Reilly was working on other projects.

Political career

Unknown to most television viewers during the height of his The Love Boat stardom, Grandy's political interests preceded his acting career. Prior to college, he was the roommate of David Eisenhower (grandson of President Dwight D. Eisenhower) at Phillips Exeter Academy and later was best man at Eisenhower's wedding to Julie Nixon. He also served as a speechwriter for Iowa Congressman Wiley Mayne.

US House of Representatives

Grandy, a Republican, won the election to an Iowa US House of Representatives seat in 1986 by 3,000 votes. Although he tried to distance himself from his acting career at the time, he told People magazine: "If there were no Gopher, there would be no Fred Grandy for Congress."

During his four terms in Congress, he served on a variety of committees, including House Ways and Means, Agriculture, Standards of Official Conduct, and Education and the Workforce. While a member of Congress, Grandy won eight "Watchdog of the Treasury" awards. In 1994, he entered the Republican primary race for Governor of Iowa against incumbent Terry Branstad; he lost the election by 4 percentage points.

Post-Congressional career

Grandy later served as president and CEO of Goodwill Industries from 1995–2000.He became a political commentator for National Public Radio, and served as a visiting professor teaching a course on non-profit organizations at the University of Maryland, College Park, School of Public Affairs.

From 2003 - 2010, Grandy and radio veteran Andy Parks were the hosts of The Grandy & Andy Morning Show, a conservative radio talk show on 630 WMAL in Washington, D.C.. In May 2010, the program was reconfigured and was afterward called The Grandy Group. On March 3, 2011, Grandy resigned from the program over a dispute about his and his wife's statements about radical Islam.

Grandy was also the host of a show on Retirement Living TV called Daily Cafe (with MSNBC anchor Alex Witt).^[3]

He has most recently joined the Washington-based Center for Security Policy^[4] as the Senior Fellow for National Security Affairs; developing and managing projects on domestic terrorism and counter intelligence.

In 2011, Grandy was on a panel at a conservative rally in Annapolis, Maryland, where he stated that the Southern Poverty Law Center and the ACLU are supported by the Muslim Brotherhood. Grandy has also stated that "Occupy Wall Street" is fully supported by CAIR.^[5]

References

External links

• WMAL Morning News
• Snopes.com debunking of an urban legend involving Fred Grandy
• Fred Grandy at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Fred Grandy at the Internet Movie Database