Ronald Reagan is, arguably, the most successful actor in history, having catapulted from a career as a Warner Bros. contract player and later television star into the governorship of California and two terms as President of the United States. As president, his folksy oratory skills earned him the sobriquet "The Great Communicator" while his his movie-star charisma helped him avoid responsibility for breaches of the public trust that might have resulted in impeachment for a lesser mortal. For that intrepid skill, being able to deflect the muck of partisan politics and the detritus left in the wake of his administration's own insalubrious activities, his reign became known as "The Teflon Presidency." His starlight remained strong even to the end of his term, when his contract with the American people lapsed, and it renewed itself before he shuffled off this mortal coil, hailed as the man who lifted the Iron Curtain.

The young Reagan was a staunch admirer of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (even after he evolved into a Republican) and was a Democrat in the 1940s, a self-described 'hemophilliac' liberal. He was elected president of the Screen Actors Guild in 1947 and served five years during the most tumultuous times to ever hit Hollywood. A committed anti-communist, Reagan not only fought more-militantly activist movie industry unions that he and others felt had been infiltrated by communists, but had to deal with the investigation into Hollywood's politics launched by the House Un-Amercan Activities Committee in 1947, an inquisition that lasted through the 1950s. The House Un-American Activities Committee investigations of Hollywood (which led to the jailing of the "Hollywood Ten" in the late '40s) sowed the seeds of the McCarthyism that would rack Hollywood and America in the 1950s.

In 1950, U.S. Representative Helen Gahagan Douglas (D-CA), the wife of "Dutch" Reagan's friend Melvyn Douglas, ran as a Democrat for the U.S. Senate and was opposed by the Republican nominee, the Red-bating Congresman from Whittier, Richard Nixon. While Nixon did not go so far as to accuse Gahagan Douglas of being a communist herself, he did charge her with being soft on communism due to her opposition to the House Un-Amercan Activities Committee. Nixon tarred her as a "fellow traveler" of communists, a "pinko" who was "pink right down to her underwear." Gahagan Douglas was defeated by the man she was the first to call "Tricky Dicky" because of his unethical behavior and dirty campaign tactics. Reagan was on the Douglases' side during that campaign.

The Douglases, like Reagan and such other prominent actors as Humphrey Bogart and Edward G. Robinson, were liberal Democrats, supporters of the late Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his New Deal, a legacy that increasingly was under attack by the right after World War II. They were NOT fellow-travelers; Melyvn Douglas had actually been an active anti-communist and was someone the communists despised. Melvyn Douglas, Robinson and Henry Fonda - a registered Republican! - wound up "gray-listed." (They weren't explicitly black-listed, they just weren't offered any work.) Reagan, who it was later revealed had been an F.B.I. informant while a union leader (turning in suspected communists), was never hurt that way, as he made S.A.G. an accomplice of the black-listing.

Reagan's career sagged after the late 1940s, and he started appearing in B-movies after he left Warners to go free-lance. However, he had a eminence grise par excellence in Lew Wasserman, his agent and the head of the Music Corp. of America. Wasserman, later called "The Pope of Hollywood," was the genius who figured out that an actor could make a killing via a tax windfall by turning himself into a corporation. The corporation, which would employ the actor, would own part of a motion picture the actor appeared in, and all monies would accrue to the corporation, which was taxed at a much lower rate than was personal income. Wasserman pioneered this tax avoidance scheme with his client James Stewart, beginning with the Anthony Mann western Winchester '73 (1950). It made Stewart enormously rich as he became a top box office draw in the 1950s after the success of "Winchester 73" and several more Mann-directed westerns, all of which he had an ownership stake in.

Ironicaly, Reagan became a poor-man's James Stewart in the early 1950s, appearing in westerns, but they were mostly B-pictures. He dd not have the acting chops of the great Stewart, but he did have his agent. Wasserman at M.C.A. was one of the pioneers of television syndication, and this was to benefit Reagan enormously. M.C.A. was the only talent agency that was allowed to also be a producer through an exemption to union rules granted by S.A.G. when Reagan was the union president, and it used the exemption to acquire Universal International Pictures. Talent agents were not permitted to be producers as there was an inherent conflict of interest between the two professions, one of which was committed to acquiring talent at the lowest possible cost and the other whose focus was to get the best possible price for their client. When a talent agent was also a producer, like M.C.A. was, it had a habit of steering its clients to its own productions, where they were employed but at a lower price than their potential free market value. It was a system that made M.C.A. and Lew Wasserman, enormously wealthy.

The ownership of Universal and its entry into the production of television shows that were syndicated to network made M.C.A. the most successful organization in Hollywood of its time, a real cash cow as television overtook the movies as the #1 business of the entertainment industry. Wasserman repaid Ronald Reagan's largess by structuring a deal by which he hosted and owned part of General Electric Theater, a western omnibus showcase that ran from 1954 to 1961. It made Ronald Reagan very comfortable financially, though it did not make him rich. That came later.

In 1960, with the election of the Democratic President John F. Kennedy, the black and gray lists went into eclipse. J.F.K. appointed Helen Gahagan Douglas Treasurer of the United States. About this time, as the civil rights movement became stronger and found more support among Democrats and the Kennedy administration, Ronald Reagan - fresh from a second stint as S.A.G. president in 1959 - was in the process of undergoing a personal and political metamorphosis into a right-wing Republican, a process that wold culminate with his endorsing Barry Goldwater for the Reublican presidential nomination in 1964. (He narrated a Goldwater campaign film played at the G.O.P. Convention in San Francisco.) Reagan's evolution into a right-wing Republican sundered his friendship with the Douglases. (After Reagan was elected President of the United States in 1980, Melvyn Douglas said of his former friend that Reagan turned to the right after he had begun to believe the pro-business speeches he delivered for General Electric when he was the host of the "G.E. Theater.")

In 1959, while Reagan was back as a second go-round as S.A.G. president, M.C.A.'s exemption from S.A.G. regulations that forbade a talent agency from being a producer was renewed. However, in 1962, the U.S. Justice Department under Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy successfully forced M.C.A. - known as "The Octopus" in Hollywood for its monopolistic tendencies - to divest itself of its talent agency.

When Reagan was tipped by the California Republican Party to be its standard-bearer in the 1965 gubernatorial election against Democratic Governor Pat Brown, Lew Wasserman went back in action. Politics makes strange bedfellows, and though Wasserman was a liberal Democrat, having an old friend like Reagan who had shown his loyalty as S.A.G. president in the state house was good for business. Wasserman and his partner, M.C.A. Chairman Jules Styne (a Republican), helped ensure that Ronald Reagan would be financially secure for the rest of his life so that he could enter politics. (At the time, he was the host of "Death Valley Days" on TV.)

According to the Wall Street Journal, Universal sold Ronald Reagan a nice piece of land of many acres north of Santa Barbara that had been used for location shooting. Reagan then converted the property into a small fortune by selling off most of the land, keeping only a small percentage for his own ranch. Reagan, who was now rich, could afford to throw his cowboy hat into the ring. Pulling himself up by his own boot-spurs (with a little help from his friends), Ronald Reagan won the governorship and began what is surely the greatest comeback for any actor in history, surpassing even that of Marlon Brando in 'The Godfather' (1972). For while "The Godfather" comeback meant that Marlon Brando was again a superstar, Reagan's comeback from B-movie actor and TV-series host culminated with him headlining the Free World. It's an act that cannot be topped!

"All the world's a stage," Shakespeare famously wrote, "And all the men and women merely players./They have their exits and their entrances,/And one man in his time plays many parts,/His acts being seven ages." Ronald Reagan played many roles in his life's seven acts: radio announcer, movie star, union boss, television actor-cum-host, governor, right-wing critic of big government and President of the United States. While historians still debate his ultimate legacy as Chief Executive and First Magistrate, the fact is this amiable man played the biggest and most important role ever limned by a actor, and pulled it off with grace and aplomb as befits a great headliner.


Prisoner of War (1954): $30,000
Swing Your Lady (1938): $200/week
Love Is on the Air (1937): $200/week

Father of Ron Reagan and Patti Davis with Nancy Davis. 40th president of the United States (20 January 1981 - 20 January 1989). President of the Screen Actors Guild from 1947 to 1952 and 1959-1960. Son of John Edward Reagan and Nelle Clyde Wilson Reagan. Member of Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity. Was portrayed on "Saturday Night Live" (1975) by seven different actors: Chevy Chase, Randy Quaid, Charles Rocket, Harry Shearer, Robin Williams, Joe Piscopo, and Phil Hartman. Daughter, with first wife - actress Jane Wyman - Maureen Reagan dies of malignant melanoma (skin cancer) at her Sacramento-area home. [8 August 2001] When he was a young man, he had a part-time job as a lifeguard. He once had to retrieve an old man's dentures at the bottom of the pool and did so without hesitating. While President of the USA, his Secret Service codename was "Rawhide". 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. Was the first guest of honor on the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts, in 1973. 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. On Tuesday, March 14, 1972, during his second term as governor of the Golden State, expunged the criminal record of Merle Haggard, granting him a full pardon. 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. At the time of his death, he was the longest-living President of the United States, at age 93 years, 120 days. This record was surpassed by President Gerald Ford on 12 November 2006. Became the first president to have a state funeral in Washington, D.C. since Lyndon Johnson in 1973. In 1978, after having served as governor of California but before running for President, Reagan came out against The Briggs Initiative, a ballot initiative introduced by a right-wing Republican state senator named John Briggs, which would have made it illegal for homosexuals to be employed as teachers in the California school system. Reagan strongly and vocally opposed the measure, saying that it infringed upon basic human rights and bordered on being unconstitutional. He is largely credited for turning public opinion against the measure and it was defeated in the election. Turned down a guest appearance on "Simpsons, The" (1989)_. Played Chicago Cubs hurler Grover Cleveland Alexander in the film The Winning Team (1952). He also served a brief stint as a broadcaster for WGN Radio, which broadcasts Cubs baseball games. Pictured on a 60¢ memorial postage stamp issued by the Republic of the Marshall Islands 4 July, 2004, the first memorial to be issued in his honor. The former President was buried at his presidential library in Simi Valley, California. Pictured on a USA 37¢ commemorative postage stamp issued 9 February 2005. When the first-class letter rate was raised to 39¢ in January 2006, the US Postal Service received an unprecedented number of requests to reissue the stamp at the higher value. The 39¢ postage stamp was issued on 14 June 2006, using the same design as the earlier stamp. Rumoured studio publicity claimed he was scheduled to play Rick Blaine in Casablanca (1942); however, this was never the case. Received more electoral votes than any other president in history, winning by 525 (out of 538) in his 1984 re-election campaign when he racked up 49 of 50 states in beating Jimmy Carter's vice president Walter Mondale. He was the only United States President (as of 2005) to have been a member of a union (the Screen Actors Guild). His last public appearance was at Richard Nixon's funeral in April 1994. knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, received an honorary British knighthood, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath. This entitled him to the use of the post-nominal letters GCB, but did not entitle him to be known as "Sir Ronald Reagan". [15 June 1989] After his presidency he and Nancy Davis moved to 666 St. Cloud Road in Bel Air, California which Ronald lived in until his death. Nancy had the address changed from 666 to 668 due to the fact 666 is known as the devil's number. The house is down the street from 805 St. Cloud Road, the house used in the TV show "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" (1990). His famous nickname "The Great Communicator", was not earned but was requested. Reagan asked for it during his farewell address in 1989. Spent World War II making Army training films for Hal Roach Studios. His closest friend in Hollywood was Robert Taylor. Underwent hip replacement surgery in January 2001. Although Reagan did not formally become a Republican until 1962, he never endorsed a Democrat after Helen Gahagan 1950 and voted for Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952. He also actively campaigned for Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential election. The oldest man to serve as US President, being 69 when he was elected in 1980 and 77 when he left office in 1989. As Captain in the U.S. Army, Reagan signed Major Clark Gable's discharge papers in June 1944. Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 446-452. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007. 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 (2009), first (and only) divorced US President (from Jane Wyman in 1948).