Entertainment Dornan was involved in the entertainment industry as an actor. He starred in the film
The Starfighters, cast as Lt. Witkowski, an Air Force pilot who was the son of a U.S. congressman.
The Starfighters aired on
Mystery Science Theater 3000 on October 29, 1994. In 1962, he portrayed Air Force Lieutenant Alden in the episode "Dennis at Boot Camp" of the
CBS sitcom Dennis the Menace, starring
Jay North and
Gale Gordon, with
Roy Roberts in this segment as Captain Stone. In 1966 he co-starred in and possibly co-wrote
To the Shores of Hell. Dornan had a frequent role as Captain Fowler on
ABC's ''
12 O'Clock High'' television series and smaller roles on ABC's
Bewitched and
NBC's
I Dream of Jeannie. Dornan was an
Emmy-award-winning television
talk show host on
Tempo and
The Robert K. Dornan Show broadcast from
Los Angeles from 1967 to 1973.
Politics Dornan has said he took an active role in the
civil rights movement. He did attend the historic 1963
March on Washington led by
Martin Luther King Jr.; when this claim was questioned in 1994, he circulated a photo of himself in his Air Force uniform seated in the audience for King's speech. Dornan moved into politics in 1973 as national spokesman for the
Citizens for Decency Through Law advocacy group. He made an unsuccessful run for
mayor of Los Angeles the same year. In 1976, Dornan was elected to the House of Representatives, representing the 27th congressional district in western
Los Angeles County. He was re-elected twice. He was such an unswerving advocate for the development of the
B-1 bomber, that he was soon nicknamed "B-1 Bob". In November 1977, he was an opposition speaker at the
1977 National Women's Conference with Lottie Beth Hobbs, Dr.
Mildred Jefferson,
Phyllis Schlafly and
Nellie Gray. After the 1980 census, California's congressional map was redrawn. Dornan's district, previously a Republican-leaning swing district, was made significantly more Democratic. Believing he had no chance of winning this new district, he opted to run for the United States Senate
in 1982. He finished fourth in the Republican primary behind
San Diego mayor and future
Governor Pete Wilson, who won in November. Dornan moved to
Garden Grove, in the more Republican
Orange County. In 1984, he was elected to Congress from the 38th district in central Orange County, defeating 10-year Democratic incumbent
Jerry M. Patterson by a 53% to 45% margin amid
Ronald Reagan's massive landslide that year. In 1986, he won a tough race against Democratic state Assemblyman Richard Robinson, winning by a 55% to 43% margin. He was re-elected four more times and served on the
Intelligence Committee. Dornan made headlines in March 1985 for a confrontation with Representative
Thomas Downey (a Democrat from New York) on the House floor. Downey asked Dornan about comments he had made calling Downey "a draft-dodging wimp". aircraft during a visit to
Torrejon Air Base,
Spain, September 20, 1988 Dornan's record was staunchly conservative. However, he did hold some positions that some might call liberal, including sponsoring animal protection acts, earning him the recognition of
PETA in 1988. During the summers of 1991 and 1992, future U.S. representative
Randy Fine was an assistant for Dornan. In 1994, during his final successful run for Congress, it was reported that Dornan's wife, Sallie, had made multiple allegations of domestic violence against him earlier in their marriage. In 1966, Dornan had been convicted of a domestic violence offense and sentenced to jail time; however, it was unclear whether his sentence had ever been served. After the allegations were made public, Sallie Dornan retracted them, stating that she had made false claims about her husband during a period when she was struggling with prescription drug addiction. The Dornans' five children asserted that their father had not been physically abusive. During the same campaign, Dornan had signs posted at polling places that warned voters in
Spanish that they should be prepared to prove their citizenship in order to vote. The signs suggested that immigration officials would be present at the polls. The success of this action was believed to have kept enough Latino voters away from the polls to eke out a victory for Dornan against Mike Farber. Dornan was a
dark horse candidate for
president of the United States in 1996. In a GOP debate in Iowa on January 13, Dornan called Clinton a "criminal" and a "pathological liar". Dornan later dropped out of the presidential race and ran for reelection to his seat in the House; he was defeated by Democrat
Loretta Sanchez by less than 1,000 votes. Following the narrow defeat, Dornan alleged that Sanchez's winning margin was provided by illegal voting from non-U.S. citizens. A thirteen-month House of Representatives investigation ensued, during which Sanchez was seated provisionally, pending the inquiry. A task force found 748 votes that had been cast illegally—624 from non-citizens in addition to 124 that had already been thrown out by California officials. This was not enough to overturn Sanchez's margin of victory and she was allowed to keep her seat. However, in consultation with the
INS, the House committee identified 4,762 questionable registration affidavits. In September 1997, while his 1996 bid against Sanchez was still being contested, Dornan confronted then-Representative
Bob Menendez on the House floor, using profanity and calling Menendez an "anti-Catholic coward". This encounter led to Menendez filing a resolution to bar Dornan from the House floor until the election was resolved, which passed by a vote of 289–65.
Controversial statements During his political career, Dornan became known for his controversial or offensive statements. Among his remarks: • During a House debate in 1994, Dornan
outed fellow Republican representative
Steve Gunderson, accusing him of having a "revolving door on his
closet." • In a 1986 U.S. House speech, he called Soviet journalist
Vladimir Posner a "disloyal, betraying little
Jew who sits there on television claiming that he is somehow or other a newsman." This was the only statement Dornan apologized for, saying, "That's the only thing in my life I ever lost sleep over." Dornan also said that he intended "to say '
Judas', not 'Jew'," as a rebuttal to Posner's insistence that the
Soviet Union was free of
anti-Semitism. • On a January 28, 1994, appearance on
Politically Incorrect, Dornan declared it was "The Year of the Penis" due to recent events in the news. This was a joke in regard to the 1992 media and political reference as that election being referred to as "
The Year of the Woman", when four women won election to the United States Senate. • "You are a slimy coward. Go register in another party" to Orange County Republican Central Committee member William Dougherty after he supported Dornan's opponent in 1996. In 1994, a 120-page book of quotations of Dornan was compiled by Nathan Callahan and William Payton and published as
Shut Up, Fag! The quotation that gives the book the title was actually shouted by Dornan's wife, Sallie, at an
AIDS activist during an Orange County town forum. Dornan claimed the book was backed by director
Oliver Stone, whom Dornan labeled "a
Bolshevik enemy". Dornan's comments and behavior led his political opponents to question his
mental health. Mike Kaspar of the Orange County Democratic Party said, "The primary issue is Bob Dornan, himself. I think his character and his own
sanity are an issue here." At a
White House Correspondents Dinner,
Al Franken, who had worked once on
Politically Incorrect with Dornan, joked "having
Al D'Amato leading an
ethics investigation is like getting Bob Dornan to head up a mental health task force."
Michael Moore devoted an entire chapter of his book
Downsize This! to his efforts to get Dornan involuntarily committed for psychiatric examination.
Later career Dornan ran against
Loretta Sanchez again in 1998, but was defeated. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Dornan hosted
The Bob Dornan Show, a radio talk show syndicated nationally by
Talk Radio Network. In 2004, Dornan challenged Congressman
Dana Rohrabacher, a fellow Republican, in the primary. Dornan charged Rohrabacher with being soft on terrorism and being too close to Islamic extremists. However, he lost by 84% to 16%. During the summer of 2005, Dornan briefly expressed interest in the
48th congressional district seat that became vacant when then U.S. Congressman
Christopher Cox resigned to become
chairman of the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He was interested in running as the nominee of the
American Independent Party but did not, allegedly rebuffed by party officials. ==Personal life==