{"id":2482550,"date":"2026-06-30T21:28:46","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T21:28:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2482550"},"modified":"2026-06-30T21:28:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T21:28:46","slug":"the-film-and-tv-actors-who-have-held-public-office-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/the-film-and-tv-actors-who-have-held-public-office-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The film and TV actors who have held public office"},"content":{"rendered":"

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While some people may grow up dreaming of a career in public office, politicians sometimes come from a less conventional source: Hollywood. There\u2019s a long list of film and television actors who have gone on to roles in politics, including President Donald Trump, who expanded his standing in the public eye as the host of \u201cThe Apprentice.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Al Franken<\/h2>\n

Al Franken took perhaps the most ironic leap in U.S. politics: going from parodying a U.S. senator on television to actually getting elected as one. Franken was widely known for his time on \u201cSaturday Night Live,\u201d during which he often portrayed<\/a> former Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.) during the show\u2019s cold open sketches. But it turns out he wasn\u2019t satisfied with merely pretending to be a politician.<\/p>\n

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In 2009, Franken became a Democratic senator for Minnesota in a contest that saw \u201cmore than 2.9 million Minnesotans cast votes in the state\u2019s U.S. Senate race \u2014 one of the most expensive in the country,\u201d said PBS News<\/a>. After a judicial review, the election ended when Franken \u201cwon by 312 votes,\u201d one of the closest Senate races ever. However, Franken\u2019s political career abruptly concluded in 2018 when he resigned<\/a> after several women said he \u201cgroped or tried to forcibly kiss them,\u201d said Politico<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Arnold Schwarzenegger<\/h2>\n

Action star Arnold Schwarzenegger dominated the 1980s in projects like \u201cThe Terminator,\u201d<\/a> \u201cPredator\u201d and \u201cConan the Barbarian.\u201d But the Austrian-born actor became an \u201cincreasingly politically active Republican during the 1990s,\u201d and he \u201cran for the California governorship and won when Gray Davis was recalled in 2003,\u201d said Schwarzenegger\u2019s gubernatorial biography<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Thus, the Terminator became the \u201cGovernator,\u201d and despite initial skepticism, proved to be a popular leader of the Golden State. In 2006, despite a \u201cpoor year nationally for the GOP, he was re-elected with 56% of the vote\u201d and a \u201cmargin of well over 1 million votes,\u201d said Politico<\/a>. But after this, Schwarzenegger\u2019s popularity waned, and he left office in 2011 \u201cwith a record-low 23%\u201d approval rating, only \u201c1% higher than that of Davis when he was recalled.\u201d Schwarzenegger has since taken on an active role in denouncing MAGA<\/a> and the Trump wing of the GOP.<\/p>\n


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Clint Eastwood<\/h2>\n

After getting his start as a major Western star<\/a>, Clint Eastwood publicly espoused a wide variety of political views, supporting both Democrats<\/a> and Republicans<\/a>. \u201cPolitics are evidently always simmering with Eastwood,\u201d said The Guardian<\/a>, though in his later years he became much more associated with the GOP. But even then, his views often remained fluid.<\/p>\n

This became even more evident in 1986, when Eastwood was elected the nonpartisan mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. Though associated with conservative values, during his time as mayor Eastwood was \u201csympathetic to environmental concerns and less sympathetic to big business,\u201d said The Guardian, bucking traditional GOP tenets. After leaving office, Eastwood remained in the political sphere, most notably the bizarre moment when he \u201cspoke to that empty chair at the 2012 Republican National Convention,\u201d said The Washington Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Jerry Springer<\/h2>\n

While Jerry Springer<\/a> made several film and television appearances over the years, it was his eponymous television show<\/a> that made him a household name, often featuring \u201ccontroversial subjects like adultery, occasional nudity, and even physical violence,\u201d said Biography<\/a>. But the show was a second career for Springer, who started in the Democratic political arena.<\/p>\n

After working as a campaign adviser for Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-N.Y.) in the 1960s, Springer made his way to Ohio and was \u201celected to Cincinnati City Council in 1971 but unexpectedly resigned in 1974,\u201d said Biography. But the hiatus didn\u2019t last long, as Springer was re-elected to the city council in 1975 and \u201cbecame Cincinnati mayor in 1977.\u201d Though he only served as mayor for one year before his political career largely fizzled out, Springer \u201cconsidered runs for the U.S. Senate and a second attempt as Ohio governor in 2018.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Ronald Reagan<\/h2>\n

When thinking of actors who turned to politics, there is one name everyone probably thinks of instantly: While other Hollywood stars have held important positions, former President Ronald Reagan is the only one to have occupied the nation\u2019s highest office. But before moving into the Oval Office, Reagan\u2019s career started on screen in 1937, when a contest \u201cwon him a contract with Warner Brothers in Hollywood,\u201d said the White House Historical Association (WHCA)<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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Over the next 20 years, Reagan \u201cappeared in 53 films, including \u2018Kings Row\u2019 and \u2018Knute Rockne, All American.\u2019\u201d He later turned to politics with a staunch Republican platform<\/a>, and in 1966 \u201cdefeated incumbent Pat Brown to become governor of California, and was re-elected in 1970.\u201d From there, Reagan looked to the national stage, and amid the Democratic Party\u2019s rising unpopularity, he defeated sitting President Jimmy Carter<\/a> in a landslide during the 1980 election.<\/p>\n

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Sean Duffy<\/h2>\n

Several television personalities occupy spaces in President Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s White House, most notably Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. Before earning his law degree, Duffy \u201cgot his TV start in his 20s on \u2018The Real World,\u2019 appearing on the Boston edition of the show’s sixth season,\u201d said People<\/a>. This version of the show, as with the other seasons of \u201cThe Real World,\u201d followed Duffy and six other strangers who lived together in a converted firehouse in Boston.<\/p>\n

After his reality television debut, Duffy \u201cmoved into law in his home state of Wisconsin, serving as the district attorney of Ashland County for a decade,\u201d said People. He went on to serve Wisconsin in Congress<\/a>, \u201crepresenting the state’s 7th Congressional District, from 2011 to 2019.\u201d After winning the 2024 election, Trump nominated Duffy to lead the Transportation Department. Several controversies<\/a> have marked his tenure.<\/p>\n

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Sonny Bono<\/h2>\n

Sonny Bono remains best known for the singing duo <\/a>he formed with his wife Cher, which made the pair two of the most iconic celebrities of the 1960s. But Bono was also a longstanding member of the Republican Party<\/a> and was active in GOP politics throughout his life. His entrance into the political sphere came after he \u201cfell almost completely out of the public eye following the cancellation of \u2018The Sonny and Cher Show\u2019 in 1977,\u201d said History<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Soon after the show was axed, though, Bono began to make a new name for himself in politics, and he was elected mayor of Palm Springs, California, in 1988. After serving as mayor for four years, Bono \u201cset his sights on national office,\u201d and in 1994 he was \u201celected to Congress as a representative from California\u2019s 44th Congressional District,\u201d said Biography<\/a>. While in Congress, Bono became known for his \u201cwit and his deeply conservative views,\u201d and he remains the only member of Congress to have scored a number one single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source theweek.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While some people may grow up dreaming of a career in public office, politicians sometimes come from a less conventional source: Hollywood. There\u2019s a long list of film and television actors who have gone on to roles in politics, including President Donald Trump, who expanded his standing in the public eye as the host of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2482552,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2482550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/The-film-and-TV-actors-who-have-held-public-office.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2482550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2482550"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2482550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2482554,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2482550\/revisions\/2482554"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2482552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2482550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2482550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2482550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}