Arthur Branch

Arthur Branch
Law & Order character
First appearance	"American Jihad" (L&O) "Fallacy" (SVU) "The Abominable Snowman" (TBJ)
Last appearance	"The Family Hour" (L&O) "Gone" (SVU) "Eros in the Upper Eighties" (TBJ)
Portrayed by	Fred Thompson
Time on show	2002–2007
Preceded by	Nora Lewin (L&O & SVU)
Succeeded by	Jack McCoy (L&O & SVU)
Information
Family	Lillian Branch (wife) Bobby Branch (son) Unknown Grandson (grandson) Unknown Granddaughter (granddaughter)

Arthur Branch is a fictional character on the TV crime drama Law & Order and one of its spinoffs, Law & Order: Trial by Jury. Branch has also appeared on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and Conviction. He appeared in 142 episodes of the various series in the franchise (116 episodes of Law & Order, 11 episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, one episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, all 13 episodes of Law & Order: Trial by Jury, and one episode of Conviction).

Branch was portrayed by former U.S. Senator Fred Thompson, making Thompson one of the few actors to have a regular role on two TV series simultaneously as the same character. When Thompson first accepted the role, he was still a sitting member of the United States Senate — his term would not expire for several more weeks — thus making Thompson the first sitting U.S. Senator to accept an acting job playing someone other than himself; however, he had already been an actor for many years before being elected.

Thompson was the only regular on Law & Order who was once a prosecutor. He worked as an assistant United States Attorney from 1969 to 1972.^[1]

Character background

Branch graduated from Yale University and Yale Law School. He was later a professor at Yale Law School. He and his wife, Lillian, have lived in New York City since moving in the early 1980s from the state of Georgia. They have at least one child, a son named Bobby.^[2] They also have a grandson and a granddaughter.^[3] He speaks with a southern accent and commonly uses colorful metaphors.

Branch is elected the Manhattan District Attorney in 2002, replacing Nora Lewin (Dianne Wiest).^[4] He and Abbie Carmichael are the only known Republicans on the show. Branch's administration is a sharp contrast to that of Lewin, as he has little difficulty in accepting capital punishment in certain cases (L&O: "Tragedy on Rye") and does not believe in the existence of a Constitutional right to privacy. He had written a book on the justice system^[5] and represented the Chinese government when he worked in private practice.^[6]

His legal and political conservatism often puts him in conflict with Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston), a relatively liberal centrist, as well as his previous assistant Serena Southerlyn (Elisabeth Röhm), a liberal idealist and feminist. He has few quarrels with Alexandra Borgia (Annie Parisse), who is more conservative in her viewpoints than Southerlyn, in the mold of Southerlyn's predecessor, Abbie Carmichael (Angie Harmon). He is portrayed as having an amicable working relationship with Junior ADA Connie Rubirosa (Alana de la Garza).

While his legal philosophy is decidedly conservative, he is not blindly partisan; he ascribes cynical, political motives to drug prohibition, refers to the National Guard as "the Dan Quayle Brigade", and is not averse to seeking alternatives to the death penalty when he thinks it appropriate.

Although he is personally pro-life, he describes himself as even more "pro-law", and orders Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Casey Novak (Diane Neal) to arrest a doctor who deliberately misleads a young pregnant woman to ensure her pregnancy would develop past the legal time limit for the procedure, thus prompting her to desperately ask her boyfriend to assault her to induce a still birth.^[7]

He fires Southerlyn because he feels she is inappropriately sympathetic towards the defendant she is prosecuting. Despite her parting fears, Branch says he is not firing her because she's a lesbian.^[8]

In May 2007 Fred Thompson left the cast of Law & Order to run for the Republican Party's 2008 nomination for President.^[9] On the show, no reason is given for Branch's departure, and McCoy is chosen to serve out the remainder of his term.^[10] In Branch's final scene he suggests that McCoy might run for District Attorney in the future; McCoy says, "I'm no politician, Arthur" and Branch replies, "Yeah... everybody says that."^[11]

In October 2009,^[12] Executive ADA Michael Cutter tells McCoy that the producers of a reality TV show set in Long Island want Arthur Branch to be a judge, where he will preside in a trial featuring the heads of two dysfunctional households that are both suspects in the murder of the mother of one of the two households.

1. ^ "About Fred Dalton Thompson, Fred Thompson Bio, Lawrenceburg Tennessee Hometown of Fred Thompson". http://www.lawrenceburgs.com/fred-thompson.html. 
2. ^ "Sheltered". Law & Order. episode 22. season 13. May 14, 2003. NBC. 
3. ^ "True Crime". Law & Order. episode 3. season 13. October 16, 2002. NBC. 
4. ^ "American Jihad". Law & Order. episode 1. season 13. October 2, 2002. NBC. 
5. ^ "Shangri-La". Law & Order. episode 2. season 13. October 9, 2002. NBC. 
6. ^ "The Wheel". Law & Order. episode 9. season 13. December 11, 2002. NBC. 
7. ^ "Rockabye". Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. episode 9. season 7. November 22, 2005. NBC. 
8. ^ "Ain't No Love". Law & Order. episode 13. season 13. January 12, 2005. NBC. 
9. ^ Associated Press and Cameron, Carl. "Fred Thompson Quits 'Law & Order,' Moves Closer to 2008 White House Bid", Fox News (2007-05-31).
10. ^ "Blinded". Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. episode 7. season 9. November 13, 2007. NBC. 
11. ^ "'Law & Order’ survives again". http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2007/may/18/law_order_survives_again/. 
12. ^ "Reality Bites". Law & Order. episode 4. season 20. October 16, 2009. NBC. 

References

v t e Law & Order Quotes · Dick Wolf · Law & Order franchise Characters Police Senior homicide detectives Sgt. Max Greevey • Sgt. Phil Cerreta • Lennie Briscoe • Joe Fontana • Ed Green • Cyrus Lupo Junior homicide detectives Mike Logan · Rey Curtis · Ed Green · Nick Falco · Nina Cassady · Cyrus Lupo · Kevin Bernard Commanding officers Captain Donald Cragen • Lieutenant Anita Van Buren District attorneys Executive assistant district attorneys Benjamin Stone • Jack McCoy • Michael Cutter Assistant district attorneys Paul Robinette · Claire Kincaid · Jamie Ross · Abbie Carmichael · Serena Southerlyn · Alexandra Borgia · Connie Rubirosa Manhattan district attorneys Adam Schiff · Nora Lewin · Arthur Branch · Jack McCoy Recurring characters Dr. Elizabeth Olivet • Emil Skoda, M.D. • Elizabeth Rodgers, M.D. Seasons 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 TV film Exiled: A Law & Order Movie See also List of characters · List of episodes · List of actors and actresses who have appeared in the series