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Fred Thomson

American actor (1890-1928)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 2, 2026
Entity authorityQ1388934 ↗
Source-derived summary

Frederick Clifton Thomson (February 26, 1890 – December 25, 1928) was an American silent film cowboy who rivaled Tom Mix in popularity before dying at age 38 of tetanus.

Birth and athletic achievement

Born in Pasadena, California to Clara and Williell Thomson, he was the third of four sons. His father was a Presbyterian minister. His brother Samuel Harrison Thomson also attended Princeton University and won the all-round athlete of America title for 1919.

He attended the Princeton Theological Seminary from 1910–13 and he won the All-Around Champion title given out by the Amateur Athletic Union in 1910, 1911, and 1913.

He married his college sweetheart, Gail Jepson and was ordained by the Presbytery of Los Angeles in September 1913. Three years later, Gail Jepson died of tuberculosis.

During World War I, Thomson served in the 143rd Field Artillery Regiment, known informally at the time as the Mary Pickford Regiment. Thomson joined the 143rd in Arcadia, California as a U. S. Army chaplain. While playing football, he broke his leg.

Editorial summary

“Fred Thomson” enters the record as american actor (1890-1928). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Fred, Thomson and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1890, 1928, 1919, 1910—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1890-02-26. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Fred, Thomson and American.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Fred Thomson” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Fred, Thomson and American provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1388934. VIAF identifies the subject as 30335918. The Library of Congress control number is n88107205. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1890, 1928, 1919 and 1910.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Fred Thomson”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Fred Thomson primary sources, Fred Thomson archive and Fred research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Fred Thomson”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Fred Thomson” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.