American actor and politician
Fredrick Lawrence Grandy
(born June 29, 1948) is an American actor who played "Gopher" on the TV series
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.
Early life
[
edit
]
Grandy was born in
Sioux City, Iowa
, the youngest of three sons of William Grandy, who worked in his father's insurance business, and his wife, Bonnie. When Grandy was eleven, his father died of a heart attack. His mother died of an aneurysm a year later.
[1]
[2]
The young Grandy was then raised by Margaret Avery, his mother's best friend (a widow who later married his father's doctor). He went to public schools until ninth grade, after which he attended high school at
Phillips Exeter Academy
in
Exeter, New Hampshire
, as his father and brothers had done.
[1]
[2]
At Exeter, Grandy was the roommate of
David Eisenhower
, the grandson of President
Dwight D. Eisenhower
, and was later best man at Eisenhower's wedding to
Julie Nixon
, the daughter of then?president-elect
Richard Nixon
, in December 1968.
[2]
Grandy graduated
magna cum laude
with a bachelor's degree in English studies from
Harvard University
in 1970. In 1971, he joined an improvisational group at Harvard called "The Proposition" and then rejoined the show when it moved off-Broadway in 1971. Among his co-stars was future
Saturday Night Live
star
Jane Curtin
.
[1]
[2]
Although of service age, Grandy had a high
lottery
number and was not drafted for Vietnam.
[3]
Acting career
[
edit
]
Grandy played
purser
Burl "Gopher" Smith on the American television series
The Love Boat
. The series aired for nine seasons (1977?86). He also wrote several
vignettes
for the show. In 1982, while visiting Turkey to film scenes for the show, Grandy suffered severe burns when a balloon filled with hydrogen exploded.
[4]
Before gaining prominence on
The Love Boat
, Grandy had guest roles on many shows, including
Love, American Style
(1969);
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
(1970);
Maude
(1973);
Phyllis
(1975); and
Welcome Back, Kotter
(1975). Grandy also acted in the 1973 made-for-TV movie
The Girl Most Likely to...
, as Ted Gates.
He starred in the Saturday morning TV series
Monster Squad
(1976) as Walt, a criminology student working as a night watchman at "Fred's Wax Museum". He also appeared in a number of
Match Game
episodes from 1979 to 1981. He usually sat in the male guest-star seat in the top row left. He also did one week's worth of episodes on its sequel, the
Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour
.
In May 2013 Grandy returned to the stage, starring in a production of
Sleuth
at the Surflight Theatre in
Beach Haven, New Jersey
. In 2014 Grandy had a recurring role on Season 3 of
The Mindy Project
for which his son,
Charlie Grandy
, is a writer. He portrayed Dr. William Ledreau. He has also had recurring roles in two TV series,
Knight Squad
and
Sprung
. He has also performed around the country in regional theatre productions of
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
,
On Golden Pond
,
I'm Not Rappaport
, and
Give 'em Hell, Harry!
.
[
citation needed
]
Grandy holds a master of fine arts (MFA) degree from the Washington Shakespeare Theatre and
George Washington University
.
[5]
Political career
[
edit
]
Grandy's political interests preceded his acting career. Between 1970 and 1971, he served as a speechwriter for
Wiley Mayne
, the
Republican
congressman from his home district,
Iowa's 6th congressional district
.
[6]
With Mayne's successor,
Democrat
Berkley Bedell
, deciding not to run in 1986, Grandy, a Republican, campaigned for the open Iowa
United States House of Representatives
seat, beating Clayton Hodgson by two percentage points (51.0% to 49.0%).
Although Grandy tried to distance himself from his acting career (at the time), he said to
People
magazine that "if there were no Gopher, there would be no Fred Grandy for Congress."
[2]
During his four terms in Congress, he served on a variety of committees, including
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, Grandy declined to run for another Congressional term and instead entered
the Republican primary race
for
governor of Iowa
against incumbent
Terry Branstad
, but lost the election by nearly four percentage points.
Career as a radio commentator and other work
[
edit
]
Grandy served as president and CEO of
Goodwill Industries International
from 1995 to 2000. He later became a political commentator for
National Public Radio
and served as a visiting professor teaching a course on
nonprofit
organizations at the School of Public Affairs at the
University of Maryland, College Park
.
From 2003 to 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 allegedly over a dispute about his and his wife's statements about
Islamic extremism
or low
listenership
.
[7]
[8]
Grandy was also the host of a show on
Retirement Living TV
called
Daily Cafe
(with
MSNBC
anchor
Alex Witt
).
[9]
Since then he has been a Senior Fellow for National Security Affairs at the Washington-based
Center for Security Policy
,
[10]
a
far-right
,
[11]
[12]
anti-Muslim,
[13]
[14]
Washington, D.C.
-based
think tank
, developing and managing projects on domestic terrorism and counterintelligence.
[15]
Personal life
[
edit
]
Grandy has been married twice. He married Jan Gough in 1969, a student at
Radcliffe
. They had a son,
Charlie Grandy
, and a daughter before divorcing in 1983. On March 28, 1987, Grandy married romance novelist Catherine Mann, whom he had met when she interviewed him as one of the first reporters for
Entertainment Tonight
. They have one daughter (born 1989).
[1]
[2]
In 1993, Grandy and his wife sporadically toured Iowa with a stage production of the play
Love Letters
for charity (especially children's charities).
[1]
Filmography
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Longden, Tom (July 6, 2008). "Talk-show career satisfies Grandy".
The Des Moines Register
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Kunen, James S. (December 16, 1985).
"Iowa-Born Actor Fred Grandy, Alias Love Boat's Gopher Smith, Plots a Course for Washington"
.
People
. Retrieved
March 29,
2021
.
- ^
"Do as I say, not as I did"
.
Spy
. Vol. 6, no. 7. May 1991. p. 26.
- ^
Snierson, Dan (September 7, 2007).
"
The Love Boat
flashback"
.
Entertainment Weekly
. Archived from
the original
on December 12, 2013
. Retrieved
December 10,
2011
.
- ^
"Fred Grandy"
.
Faith Under Fire Conference: The Global Threat to Religious Freedom
. Retrieved
March 31,
2019
.
- ^
"Biography - GRANDY, Frederick Lawrence, (1948 - )"
.
Biographical Directory of the United States (US) Congress
. Retrieved
March 31,
2019
.
- ^
"Ex-Rep, 'Gopher' Leaves Radio Show After Alleged Pressure Over Islam Comments"
.
Fox News
. March 5, 2011.
- ^
"Fred Grandy: If we ignore stealth jihad we've won nothing in Afghanistan/Iraq".
The Jawa Report
. May 3, 2012.
- ^
"RLTV Shows: Daily Cafe"
.
Rl.tv
. Archived from
the original
on April 20, 2009
. Retrieved
December 10,
2011
.
- ^
Grandy, Fred (December 1, 2011).
"Forget 'creeping shariah'; here comes 'galloping shariah'
"
.
centerforsecuritypolicy.org
. Retrieved
March 30,
2024
.
- ^
Bertrand, Natasha
(August 4, 2017).
"The knives are coming out for H.R. McMaster"
.
Business Insider
.
Archived
from the original on January 31, 2018
. Retrieved
January 29,
2018
.
- ^
O’Donnell, S. Jonathon (December 19, 2017).
"Islamophobic conspiracism and neoliberal subjectivity: the inassimilable society"
.
Patterns of Prejudice
.
52
: 1?23.
doi
:
10.1080/0031322X.2017.1414473
.
- ^
Zaveri, Mihir (October 17, 2019).
"Mar-a-Lago Again Under Fire for Hosting Group That Promoted Islamophobia"
.
The New York Times
.
ISSN
0362-4331
. Retrieved
November 23,
2019
.
- ^
Cetoute, Devoun (October 17, 2019).
"Another anti-Muslim group wants to hold event at Trump's Palm Beach resort, Mar-a-Lago"
.
Miami Herald
. Retrieved
July 22,
2021
.
- ^
"Fred Grandy: Exposing and Countering the Activities of Radical Islam"
.
Gates of Vienna
. October 4, 2011.
External links
[
edit
]
|
---|
International
| |
---|
National
| |
---|
People
| |
---|
Other
| |
---|