Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death at age 48 in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visible public face of a period in the United States in which Cold War tensions fueled fears of widespread communist subversion. He alleged that numerous communists and Soviet spies and sympathizers had infiltrated the United States federal government, universities, film industry, and elsewhere. Ultimately he was censured by the Senate in 1954 for refusing to cooperate with and abusing members of the committee established to investigate whether or not he should be censured. The term "McCarthyism", coined in 1950 in reference to McCarthy's practices, was soon applied to similar anti-communist activities. Today the term is used more broadly to mean demagogic, reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations, as well as public attacks on the character or patriotism of political opponents.

Filmography

• Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War — Self - U.S. Senator, Wisconsin (archive footage)
• 1971USA: danger from the right. Demoniac from Wisconsin — Archive Footage

Appearances as themselves (22)

• The Lincoln Project — Self (archive footage)
• 2021The Real Charlie Chaplin — Self (archive footage)
• 2020McCarthy — Self - (archive footage)
• 2020The Soul of America — Self (archive footage)
• 2019Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn — Self (archive footage)
• 2019Coup 53 — Self - Politician (archive footage)
• Greatest Events of World War II in Colour — Self (archive footage)
• 2019The Lavender Scare — Self (archive footage)
• 2019Where's My Roy Cohn? — Self (archive footage)
• 2018RBG — Self (archive footage), Self (uncredited)
• 2017Stewart & Mitchum: The Two Faces of America — Self (uncredited)
• 2015Imminent Threat — Self (archive footage)
• 2012Ethel — Self (archive footage)
• 2008The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer — Self (archive footage)
• 2005Good Night, and Good Luck. — Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
• 2004Heir To An Execution — Self - Senator
• 1980The Day After Trinity — Self (archive footage)
• 1975McCarthy: Death of a Witch Hunter — Self (archive footage)
• 1974Hearts and Minds — Self (archive footage)
• 1973Grierson — Self (archive footage)
• 1966Too Near the Sun — self (archive footage)
• 1964Point of Order! — Self