Fred Grandy
Encyclopedia
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.
.
. He received his bachelor's degree
in English studies
from Harvard University
in 1970 and is conversant in both French
and Arabic
.
, 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. He appeared in the 1973 made for TV movie The Girl Most Likely to...
, as Ted Gates.
Grandy appeared in a number of Match Game
episodes in the mid-1970s, at first sitting in the male guest star seat in the top row left, then later filling in for Charles Nelson Reilly
when he was working on other projects.
(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
.
, 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.
, from 1995–2000, became a political commentator on 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, alongside 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 later 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
. He has most recently joined the Washington based Center for Security Policy as a Senior Fellow 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 also stated that "Occupy Wall Street
is fully supported by CAIR
".
The Love Boat
The Love Boat is an American television series set on a cruise ship, which aired on the ABC Television Network from September 24,1977, until May 24,1986.The show starred Gavin MacLeod as the ship's captain...
and who later became a member of the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
from the state of Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
. Grandy was most recently the host of "The Grandy Group," a morning drive time radio talk show
Talk show
A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
on 630 WMAL in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
.
Early life
Grandy was born in Sioux City, IowaSioux City, Iowa
Sioux City is a city in Plymouth and Woodbury counties in the western part of the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 82,684 in the 2010 census, a decline from 85,013 in the 2000 census, which makes it currently the fourth largest city in the state....
. He received his bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in English studies
English studies
English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...
from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1970 and is conversant in both French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
.
Television career
Grandy was a recurring character on the 1970s sitcom MaudeMaude (TV series)
Maude was an American television sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS network from September 12, 1972 until April 22, 1978.Maude starred Beatrice Arthur as Maude Findlay, an outspoken, middle-aged, politically liberal woman living in suburban Tuckahoe, Westchester County, New York with...
, playing the boyfriend of Maude's daughter Carol. He played the ship's purser
Purser
The purser joined the warrant officer ranks of the Royal Navy in the early fourteenth century and existed as a Naval rank until 1852. The development of the warrant officer system began in 1040 when five English ports began furnishing warships to King Edward the Confessor in exchange for certain...
Burl "Gopher" Smith for nine seasons (1977–1986) on the American television series The Love Boat
The Love Boat
The Love Boat is an American television series set on a cruise ship, which aired on the ABC Television Network from September 24,1977, until May 24,1986.The show starred Gavin MacLeod as the ship's captain...
. In 1982, while visiting Turkey to film scenes for the show, Grandy suffered severe burns when a balloon filled with hydrogen exploded. He appeared in the 1973 made for TV movie The Girl Most Likely to...
The Girl Most Likely to...
The Girl Most Likely to... is a black comedy with slight psychological thriller elements written by Joan Rivers and starring Stockard Channing and Edward Asner. The film was released on November 6, 1973 as a made-for-television movie broadcast on the ABC Movie of the Week...
, as Ted Gates.
Grandy appeared in a number of Match Game
Match Game
Match Game is an American television game show in which contestants attempted to match celebrities' answers to fill-in-the-blank questions...
episodes in the mid-1970s, at first sitting in the male guest star seat in the top row left, then later filling in for Charles Nelson Reilly
Charles Nelson Reilly
Charles Nelson Reilly was an American actor, comedian, director and drama teacher known for his comedic roles in theater, movies, children's television, animated cartoons, and as a panelist on the game show Match Game....
when he 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 EisenhowerDavid Eisenhower
Dwight David Eisenhower II is an American author, public policy fellow, and eponym of the U.S. Presidential retreat, Camp David. He is the grandson of the 34th President of the United States, Dwight D...
(grandson of President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
) at Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy is a private secondary school located in Exeter, New Hampshire, in the United States.Exeter is noted for its application of Harkness education, a system based on a conference format of teacher and student interaction, similar to the Socratic method of learning through asking...
and later was best man at Eisenhower's wedding to Julie Nixon
Julie Nixon Eisenhower
Julie Nixon Eisenhower is the younger daughter of 37th U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon, and sister to Patricia Nixon Cox....
. He also served as a speechwriter for Iowa Congressman Wiley Mayne
Wiley Mayne
Wiley Mayne was a four-term Republican United States Congressman from Iowa's 6th congressional district. He was one of several Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee who were defeated in the fall of 1974 after voting against resolutions to impeach President Richard M...
.
US House of Representatives
Grandy, a RepublicanRepublican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
, 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
People (magazine)
In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...
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 IndustriesGoodwill Industries
Goodwill Industries International is a not-for-profit organization that provides job training, employment placement services and other community-based programs for people who have a disability, lack education or job experience, or face employment challenges...
, from 1995–2000, became a political commentator on National Public Radio, and served as a visiting professor teaching a course on non-profit organizations at the University of Maryland, College Park
University of Maryland, College Park
The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...
, School of Public Affairs.
From 2003 - 2010, Grandy, alongside radio veteran Andy Parks, were the hosts of The Grandy & Andy Morning Show, a conservative radio talk show
Talk show
A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
on 630 WMAL in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
. In May 2010, the program was reconfigured and was later 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
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
. Grandy was also the host of a show on Retirement Living TV
Retirement Living TV
Retirement Living TV is an American cable television network targeted at a demographic aged 50 years and older. Its topics and programs include health care, finance, travel, lifestyle, comedy, and drama....
called Daily Cafe with MSNBC
MSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
anchor Alex Witt
Alex Witt
Alex Witt is an anchor for MSNBC. She joined the network in January 1999.-Professional:Alex Witt serves as anchor for "Weekends with Alex Witt" and contributing anchor for msnbc Live. Before joining MSNBC, Witt was a reporter at KCBA from 1990–1992 and WNYW-TV from 1996–1998...
. He has most recently joined the Washington based Center for Security Policy as a Senior Fellow 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
Southern Poverty Law Center
The Southern Poverty Law Center is an American nonprofit civil rights organization noted for its legal victories against white supremacist groups; legal representation for victims of hate groups; monitoring of alleged hate groups, militias and extremist organizations; and educational programs that...
and the ACLU are supported by the Muslim Brotherhood
Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers is the world's oldest and one of the largest Islamist parties, and is the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states. It was founded in 1928 in Egypt by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna and by the late 1940s had an...
. Grandy also stated that "Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Wall Street is an ongoing series of demonstrations initiated by the Canadian activist group Adbusters which began September 17, 2011 in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district...
is fully supported by CAIR
CAIR
- Fictional :* Cair Andros, a fictional island in Tolkien's fiction* Cair Paravel, a castle from C. S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia- Acronyms :* Council on American-Islamic Relations, American Muslim civil rights advocacy organization...
".