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Alan Stuart "Al" Franken (born May 21, 1951) is an American comedian, actor, politician, and writer. He is currently the junior United States Senator from Minnesota. He became well known in the 1970s and 1980s as a writer and performer on ''Saturday Night Live''. After several decades as a comedic actor and writer, he became a prominent liberal political activist and was elected to the United States Senate, narrowly defeating incumbent Republican Senator Norm Coleman in 2008. Franken is a member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), an affiliate of the Democratic Party. Born in New York City, Franken moved to the Twin Cities and attended Harvard College. With his writing partner Tom Davis, with whom he had developed an interest in improvisational theatre in high school, he was hired as a writer for ''SNL'' at its inception in 1975. He worked on the show as a writer and performer until 1980 and returned from 1985 to 1995. After leaving ''SNL'', he wrote and acted in movies and television shows. He also hosted a nationally syndicated, political radio talk show, ''The Al Franken Show'', and authored six books, four of which are political satires critical of conservative politics. Franken ran for the U.S. Senate from Minnesota in 2008 and after a close race, he trailed Norm Coleman by 215 votes. After a statewide manual recount, required because of the closeness of the election, Franken was declared the winner by a margin of 312 votes. After an election contest and subsequent lawsuit by Coleman, the Minnesota Supreme Court unanimously upheld Franken's victory on June 30, 2009 and Franken was sworn into the Senate on July 7, 2009.〔 He was re-elected to a second term in office in 2014. ==Early life and education== Franken was born on May 21, 1951, in New York City, to Joseph Franken, a printing salesman, and Phoebe (Kunst), a real estate agent. His paternal grandparents immigrated from Germany; his maternal grandfather came from Grodno, Belarus, and his maternal grandmother's parents were also from the Russian Empire. The Franken family moved to Albert Lea, Minnesota, when Al was four years old.〔http://www.alfranken.com/meet-al/〕 His father had hopes of opening a quilting factory – but after just two years, the factory failed, and the family moved to St. Louis Park, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. His older brother Owen is a photojournalist, and his cousin Bob is a journalist for MSNBC. Franken graduated from The Blake School in 1969, where he was a member of the wrestling team. He then attended Harvard College where he majored in government, graduating ''cum laude'' with a Bachelor of Arts in 1973. Franken began performing in high school where he, along with his friend and long-time writing partner Tom Davis were known for their humor. The two first performed on stage at Minneapolis' Brave New Workshop theater, specializing in political satire. They soon found themselves in what was described as "a life of near-total failure on the fringes of show business in Los Angeles."〔Hill, Doug and Weingrad, Jeff, ''Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live'' p. 57. (Vintage Books, 1987) ISBN 0-394-75053-5.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Al Franken」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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