Fred Tuttle

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Fred H. Tuttle (July 18, 1919–October 4, 2003) was an American dairy farmer, film actor and one-time candidate for the U.S. Senate from the state of Vermont. He was born in Tunbridge, Vermont.

Tuttle left high school in his sophomore year to work on his family's farm. He served in the United States Army during World War II. Fred married his wife Dorothy in 1961. Fred retired from farming in 1984.

After his retirement, he appeared in several movies, including Nosey Parker and Man with a Plan. He starred in Man with a Plan, playing himself, a retired farmer who decides to run for U.S. Representative for Vermont.

In 1998, in an attempt to publicize the film Man with a Plan, Tuttle was persuaded to run for Senate as a Republican. His opponent was Jack McMullen, a multi-millionaire who had lived in Massachusetts for most of his life. McMullen and the state Republican Party challenged Tuttle's ballot petition and got 95 of his signatures invalidated. Tuttle needed 23 more to stay on the ballot and he received 2,309 more signatures. McMullen then gave flowers to Tuttle in the hospital while Tuttle was there for knee surgery.

During the televised debate, McMullen was unable to correctly answer Fred's question "How many teats a Holstein got?," answering "Six," instead of the correct "Four." In the primary, Tuttle defeated McMullen by ten percentage points. Winning the primary with 55 percent of the vote, Tuttle promptly endorsed the incumbent Democrat, Patrick Leahy.

Tuttle's campaign against Senator Leahy was notable for the continuing publicity Tuttle received and for his endorsement of Leahy. Tuttle commented that he did not really want to win because he would have to move to Washington, D.C.. Despite his endorsement of his opponent, Tuttle garnered 48,051 votes (22 percent of the vote).

Tuttle was described by Senator Leahy as "the distilled essence of Vermonthood." He was the considered by many to be an example of both the "everyman" and of the unique individualist. He was seen as a warm and friendly man who even into his eighties would charm the people that he met at the fairs and farming conventions he attended.

Tuttle died of a heart attack after a day spent digging potatoes, surrounded by loved ones at his home in Tunbridge, Vermont. He was buried in his overalls, with a pen in his pocket for autograph signing and a can of Moxie by his side.

In the film Man with a Plan, the primary election is somewhat sensationalized, and some things are changed. Firstly, Tuttle's opponent is named Blachly, not McMullen. Another difference is that Tuttle starts out way behind, but ultimately wins the election by a razor-thin margin thanks to the votes in a single village which put him over the top. And perhaps most memorably, he made use of his first name and associated buzzwords with each of the letters: Friendly, Renewable, Extraterrestrial, and Dinky.

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