Ronald Reagan
Active - 1937 - 2004 | Born - Feb 6, 1911 in Tampico, Illinois, United States | Died - Jun 5, 2004 in Bel Air, CA | Genres - Drama, History, Comedy, Crime | Height: 6' 1"
It is a fairly safe assumption that if not for a career change which, ironically enough, took him out of the motion picture industry, Ronald Reagan would not rank among Hollywood's best-known stars; a genial if not highly skilled actor, he made few memorable films, and even then he rarely left much of a lasting impression. Of course, in 1980 Reagan became the President of the United States, and with his political ascendancy came a flurry of new interest in his film career. His acting work -- especially the infamous Bedtime for Bonzo -- became the subject of much discussion, the majority of it highly satirical. Still, there is no denying that he enjoyed a long and prolific movie career. Moreover, he remains among the first and most famous actors to make the move into politics, a trend which grew more and more prevalent in the wake of his rise to power.
Born February 6, 1911, in Tampico, IL, Ronald Wilson Reagan began his acting career while studying economics at Eureka College. He broke into show business as a sportscaster at a Des Moines, IA, radio station, and from there assumed the position of play-by-play announcer for the Chicago Cubs. By the mid-'30s, he relocated to Hollywood, signing with Warner Bros. in 1937 and making his screen debut later that year in Love Is on the Air. Reagan made over a dozen more films over the course of the next two years, almost all of them B-movies. In 1939, however, he won a prominent role in the Bette Davis tearjerker Dark Victory, a performance which greatly increased his visibility throughout the Hollywood community. It helped him win his most famous role, as the ill-fated Notre Dame football hero George Gipp in the 1940 film biography Knute Rockne: All American. At the film's climax he delivered the immortal line "Win one for the Gipper!," an oft-quoted catchphrase throughout his White House tenure.
In 1940, Reagan married actress Jane Wyman, with whom he had two children. The following year, he co-starred in Sam Wood's acclaimed Kings Row, arguably his most accomplished picture. During World War II, he served as a non-combative captain in the Army Air Corps, producing a number of training films. Upon returning to Hollywood in 1947, he began a five-year term as president of the Screen Actors Guild, a position he again assumed in 1959. It was during this period that Reagan, long a prominent liberal voice in Hollywood politics, became embroiled in McCarthy-era battles over communism in the film industry, and gradually his views shifted from the left to the right. He also continued appearing in films and in 1950 co-starred in the well-received melodrama The Hasty Heart. A year later, Reagan accepted perhaps his most notorious role, in Bedtime for Bonzo, in which he portrayed a college professor who befriends his test subject, a chimpanzee; throughout his political career, the picture was the butt of a never-ending series of jokes.
During the 1950s, Reagan freelanced among a variety of studios. Still, his film career began to wane, and in 1954 he began an eight-year stint as the host of the television series General Electric Theater. Among Reagan's final film appearances was 1957's Hellcats of the Navy, where he appeared with actress Nancy Davis, his second wife. He did not make another film prior to narrating 1961's The Young Doctors, and with 1964's remake of The Killers, he effectively ended his performing career.
That same year he entered politics, actively campaigning for Republican Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. In 1966, Reagan was elected Governor of California, and over the course of his eight-year gubernatorial stint emerged as one of the Republican party's most powerful and well-recognized voices. In 1976, Reagan ran against Gerald Ford in the Republican Presidential primary, but was unsuccessful; four years later, however, he defeated Jimmy Carter to become the nation's 40th President. The rest, as they say, is history.
Available Films:
Active - 1937 - 2004 | Born - Feb 6, 1911 in Tampico, Illinois, United States | Died - Jun 5, 2004 in Bel Air, CA | Genres - Drama, History, Comedy, Crime | Height: 6' 1"
It is a fairly safe assumption that if not for a career change which, ironically enough, took him out of the motion picture industry, Ronald Reagan would not rank among Hollywood's best-known stars; a genial if not highly skilled actor, he made few memorable films, and even then he rarely left much of a lasting impression. Of course, in 1980 Reagan became the President of the United States, and with his political ascendancy came a flurry of new interest in his film career. His acting work -- especially the infamous Bedtime for Bonzo -- became the subject of much discussion, the majority of it highly satirical. Still, there is no denying that he enjoyed a long and prolific movie career. Moreover, he remains among the first and most famous actors to make the move into politics, a trend which grew more and more prevalent in the wake of his rise to power.
Born February 6, 1911, in Tampico, IL, Ronald Wilson Reagan began his acting career while studying economics at Eureka College. He broke into show business as a sportscaster at a Des Moines, IA, radio station, and from there assumed the position of play-by-play announcer for the Chicago Cubs. By the mid-'30s, he relocated to Hollywood, signing with Warner Bros. in 1937 and making his screen debut later that year in Love Is on the Air. Reagan made over a dozen more films over the course of the next two years, almost all of them B-movies. In 1939, however, he won a prominent role in the Bette Davis tearjerker Dark Victory, a performance which greatly increased his visibility throughout the Hollywood community. It helped him win his most famous role, as the ill-fated Notre Dame football hero George Gipp in the 1940 film biography Knute Rockne: All American. At the film's climax he delivered the immortal line "Win one for the Gipper!," an oft-quoted catchphrase throughout his White House tenure.
In 1940, Reagan married actress Jane Wyman, with whom he had two children. The following year, he co-starred in Sam Wood's acclaimed Kings Row, arguably his most accomplished picture. During World War II, he served as a non-combative captain in the Army Air Corps, producing a number of training films. Upon returning to Hollywood in 1947, he began a five-year term as president of the Screen Actors Guild, a position he again assumed in 1959. It was during this period that Reagan, long a prominent liberal voice in Hollywood politics, became embroiled in McCarthy-era battles over communism in the film industry, and gradually his views shifted from the left to the right. He also continued appearing in films and in 1950 co-starred in the well-received melodrama The Hasty Heart. A year later, Reagan accepted perhaps his most notorious role, in Bedtime for Bonzo, in which he portrayed a college professor who befriends his test subject, a chimpanzee; throughout his political career, the picture was the butt of a never-ending series of jokes.
During the 1950s, Reagan freelanced among a variety of studios. Still, his film career began to wane, and in 1954 he began an eight-year stint as the host of the television series General Electric Theater. Among Reagan's final film appearances was 1957's Hellcats of the Navy, where he appeared with actress Nancy Davis, his second wife. He did not make another film prior to narrating 1961's The Young Doctors, and with 1964's remake of The Killers, he effectively ended his performing career.
That same year he entered politics, actively campaigning for Republican Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. In 1966, Reagan was elected Governor of California, and over the course of his eight-year gubernatorial stint emerged as one of the Republican party's most powerful and well-recognized voices. In 1976, Reagan ran against Gerald Ford in the Republican Presidential primary, but was unsuccessful; four years later, however, he defeated Jimmy Carter to become the nation's 40th President. The rest, as they say, is history.
Available Films:
Trivia:
Governor of California. Term of service: 2 January 1967 - 6 January 1975.
President of the Screen Actors Guild from 1947 to 1952 and 1959-1960.
40th president of the United States (20 January 1981 - 20 January 1989).
When Reagan's long-time friend and first Hollywood agent, studio mogul Lew Wasserman, died on 3 June 2002, AP reported that their friendship was the subject of a controversial book called "Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA and the Mob" (1988). The book reviewed the federal investgation into the Reagan- Wasserman relationship and charges that alleged payoffs were made in the 1950s by Wasserman's mammoth MCA agency to Reagan and some of his fellow officers of the Screen Actors Guild. Ultimately, Reagan was cleared in the inquiry.
Because of his Alzheimer's disease, he was unaware that his daughter Maureen Reagan had died. Wife Nancy Reagan chose not to tell him.
Was the first guest of honor on the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts, in 1973.
Although he was 30 when the United States entered World War II, he volunteered for military service. He was turned down for combat duty due to his poor eyesight.
For two weeks in 1954, Reagan opened as a stand-up comic at the Ramona Room of the Hotel Last Frontier in Las Vegas, Nevada.
He was the first president to beat the "zero factor." Before him, every president elected in a year ending in zero (beginning with 1840) had died in office.
While as an actor he is thought of mostly as a Western/Action-Adventure star, his two best-remembered lines were from straight dramatic roles and delivered while he was flat on his back in bed, his character either dying or horribly crippled: "Win just one more for the Gipper!" in Knute Rockne All American (1940) and "Where's the rest of me?" in Kings Row (1942).
Spent World War II making Army training films for Hal Roach Studios.
Reagan and his wife Nancy were close friends of Rock Hudson, whose death in 1985 spurred the President to provide funds for AIDS research.
His closest friend in Hollywood was Robert Taylor.
Although Reagan advertised cigarettes during his time in Hollywood, he is believed never to have taken up the habit in real life. Some early photographs show him holding a pipe, but it never seems to have been lit. In later life he was very anti-smoking, especially since his best friend Robert Taylor died of lung cancer at the age of 57, and his older brother Neil Reagan lost a vocal chord in cancer surgery.
To date (2013), first (and only) divorced US President (from Jane Wyman in 1948).
Longtime friend of Fess Parker.
Favorite film was High Noon (1952).
[in the 1980 campaign] "Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours. Recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his."
[on the death of Rita Hayworth from Alzheimer's disease, a disease which Reagan would be afflicted with just a few years after Hayworth's death] "Rita Hayworth was one of our country's most beloved stars. Glamorous and talented, she gave us many wonderful moments on the stage and screen and delighted audiences from the time she was a young girl."
Governor of California. Term of service: 2 January 1967 - 6 January 1975.
President of the Screen Actors Guild from 1947 to 1952 and 1959-1960.
40th president of the United States (20 January 1981 - 20 January 1989).
When Reagan's long-time friend and first Hollywood agent, studio mogul Lew Wasserman, died on 3 June 2002, AP reported that their friendship was the subject of a controversial book called "Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA and the Mob" (1988). The book reviewed the federal investgation into the Reagan- Wasserman relationship and charges that alleged payoffs were made in the 1950s by Wasserman's mammoth MCA agency to Reagan and some of his fellow officers of the Screen Actors Guild. Ultimately, Reagan was cleared in the inquiry.
Because of his Alzheimer's disease, he was unaware that his daughter Maureen Reagan had died. Wife Nancy Reagan chose not to tell him.
Was the first guest of honor on the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts, in 1973.
Although he was 30 when the United States entered World War II, he volunteered for military service. He was turned down for combat duty due to his poor eyesight.
For two weeks in 1954, Reagan opened as a stand-up comic at the Ramona Room of the Hotel Last Frontier in Las Vegas, Nevada.
He was the first president to beat the "zero factor." Before him, every president elected in a year ending in zero (beginning with 1840) had died in office.
While as an actor he is thought of mostly as a Western/Action-Adventure star, his two best-remembered lines were from straight dramatic roles and delivered while he was flat on his back in bed, his character either dying or horribly crippled: "Win just one more for the Gipper!" in Knute Rockne All American (1940) and "Where's the rest of me?" in Kings Row (1942).
Spent World War II making Army training films for Hal Roach Studios.
Reagan and his wife Nancy were close friends of Rock Hudson, whose death in 1985 spurred the President to provide funds for AIDS research.
His closest friend in Hollywood was Robert Taylor.
Although Reagan advertised cigarettes during his time in Hollywood, he is believed never to have taken up the habit in real life. Some early photographs show him holding a pipe, but it never seems to have been lit. In later life he was very anti-smoking, especially since his best friend Robert Taylor died of lung cancer at the age of 57, and his older brother Neil Reagan lost a vocal chord in cancer surgery.
To date (2013), first (and only) divorced US President (from Jane Wyman in 1948).
Longtime friend of Fess Parker.
Favorite film was High Noon (1952).
[in the 1980 campaign] "Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours. Recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his."
[on the death of Rita Hayworth from Alzheimer's disease, a disease which Reagan would be afflicted with just a few years after Hayworth's death] "Rita Hayworth was one of our country's most beloved stars. Glamorous and talented, she gave us many wonderful moments on the stage and screen and delighted audiences from the time she was a young girl."
