Jane Wyman, Ronald Reagan's first wife, dies at 93 - - POLITICO.com Jane Wyman, Ronald Reagan's first wife, dies at 93 Jane Wyman, Ronald Reagan's first wife, dies at 93 “Jane Wyman, an Academy Award winner for her performance as the deaf rape victim in ‘Johnny Belinda,’ star of the long-running TV series ‘Falcon Crest’ and Ronald Reagan's first wife, died Monday morning at 93,” the Associated Press reported from Los Angeles today. According to the AP account : “Wyman died at her Palm Springs home, said Richard Adney of Forest Lawn Memorial Park and Mortuary in Cathedral City. No other details were immediately available ... . Her marriage in 1940 to fellow Warner Bros. contract player Reagan was celebrated in the fan magazines as one of Hollywood's ideal unions.

While he was in uniform during World War II, her career ascended, signaled by her 1946 Oscar nomination for ‘The Yearling.’ The couple divorced in 1948, the year she won the Oscar for ‘Johnny Belinda." Reagan reportedly cracked to a friend: ‘Maybe I should name Johnny Belinda as co-respondent.’ After Reagan became governor of California and then president of the United States, Wyman kept a decorous silence about her ex-husband, who had married actress Nancy Davis. In a 1968 newspaper interview, Wyman explained the reason: ‘It's not because I'm bitter or because I don't agree with him politically. I've always been a registered Republican. But it's bad taste to talk about ex-husbands and ex-wives, that's all. Also, I don't know a damn thing about politics.’ A few days after Reagan died on June 5, 2004, Wyman broke her silence, saying: ‘America has lost a great president and a great, kind and gentle man.’” (Photo courtesy AP.

Ronald Reagan and his first wife, Jane Wyman, attend a traditional Hollywood world premiere, December 23, 1945.) Ronald Reagan - U.S. Presidents - HISTORY.com Google Ronald Reagan’s Childhood and Education Ronald Wilson Reagan was born on February 6, 1911, in Tampico, Illinois , to Edward “Jack” Reagan (1883-1941), a shoe salesman, and Nelle Wilson Reagan (1883-1962). The family, which included older son Neil Reagan (1908-1996), resided in an apartment that lacked indoor plumbing and running water and was located along the small town’s main street. Reagan’s father nicknamed him Dutch as a baby, saying he resembled “a fat little Dutchman.” Did You Know? Among the items on display at Ronald Reagan's presidential library in California is a 6,000-pound graffiti-covered section of the Berlin Wall, given to him by the people of Berlin. During Reagan’s early childhood, his family lived in a series of Illinois towns as his father switched sales jobs, then settled in Dixon, Illinois, in 1920.

In 1928, Reagan graduated from Dixon High School, where he was an athlete and student body president and performed in school plays. During summer vacations, he worked as a lifeguard in Dixon. Reagan went on to attend Eureka College in Illinois, where he played football, ran track, captained the swim team, served as student council president and acted in school productions. After graduating in 1932, he found work as a radio sports announcer in Iowa . Ronald Reagan’s Hollywood Career and Marriages In 1937, while in Southern California to cover the Chicago Cubs’ spring training season, Ronald Reagan did a screen test for the Warner Brothers movie studio. The studio signed him to a contract, and that same year he made his film debut in “Love is on the Air,” playing a radio news reporter. Over the next three decades he appeared in more than 50 movies.

Among his best-known roles was that of Notre Dame football star George Gipp in the 1940 biographical film “Knute Rockne All American.” In the movie, Reagan’s famous line–which he is still rememberd for–was “Win one for the Gipper.” Another notable role was in 1942 in “Kings Row,” in which Reagan portrayed an accident victim who wakes up to discover his legs have been amputated and cries out, “Where’s the rest of me?” (Reagan used this line as the title of his 1965 autobiography.) In 1940, Reagan married actress Jane Wyman (1917-2007), with whom he had daughter Maureen (1941-2001) and an adopted son, Michael (1945-). The couple divorced in 1948 (Reagan is the only U.S. president to have been divorced). In 1952, he married actress Nancy Davis (1921-). The pair had two children, Patricia (1952-) and Ronald (1958-).

During World War II (1939-1945), Reagan was disqualified from combat duty due to poor eyesight and spent his time in the Army making training films. From 1947 to 1952, and from 1959 to 1960, he served as president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), during which time he testified in front of the House Un-American Activities Committe ( HUAC ). From 1954 to 1962, he hosted the weekly television drama series “The General Electric Theater.” In this role, he toured the United States as a public relations representative for General Electric, giving pro-business talks in which he spoke out against too much government control and wasteful spending, central themes of his future political career. Golden State Governorship and Bid for the Presidency In his younger years, Ronald Reagan was a member of the Democratic Party and campaigned for Democratic candidates; however, his views grew more conservative over time, and in the early 1960s he officially became a Republican.

In 1964, Reagan stepped into the national political spotlight when he gave a well-received televised speech for Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater (1909-1998), a prominent conservative. Two years later, in his first race for public office, Reagan defeated Democratic incumbent Edmund “Pat” Brown Sr. (1905-1996) by almost 1 million votes to win the governorship of California. Reagan was reelected to a second term in 1970. After making unsuccessful bids for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968 and 1976, Reagan received his party’s nod in 1980. In that year’s general election, he and running mate George H.W. Bush (1924-) faced off against President Jimmy Carter (1924-) and Vice President Walter Mondale (1928-). Reagan won the election by an electoral margin of 489-49 and captured almost 51 percent of the popular vote. At age 69, he was the oldest person elected to the U.S. presidency.

1981 Inauguration and Assassination Attempt Ronald Reagan was sworn into office on January 20, 1981. In his inaugural address, Reagan famously said of America’s then-troubled economy, “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem.” After the more informal Carter years, Reagan and his wife Nancy ushered in a new era of glamour in the nation’s capital, which became known as Hollywood on the Potomac. The first lady wore designer fashions, hosted numerous state dinners and oversaw a major redecoration of the White House . Just over two months after his inauguration, on March 30, 1981, Reagan survived an assassination attempt by John Hinckley Jr. (1955-), a man with a history of psychiatric problems, outside a hotel in Washington , D.C. The gunman’s bullet pierced one of the president’s lungs and narrowly missed his heart. Reagan, known for his good-natured humor, later told his wife, “Honey, I forgot to duck.” Within several weeks of the shooting, Reagan was back at work.

Ronald Reagan’s Domestic Agenda On the domestic front, President Ronald Reagan implemented policies to reduce the federal government’s reach into the daily lives and pocketbooks of Americans, including tax cuts intended to spur growth (known as Reaganomics). He also advocated for increases in military spending, reductions in certain social programs and measures to deregulate business. By 1983, the nation’s economy had started to recover and enter a period of prosperity that would extend through the rest of Reagan’s presidency. Critics maintained that his policies led to budget deficits and a more significant national debt; some also held that his economic programs favored the rich. In 1981, Reagan made history by appointing Sandra Day O’Connor (1930-) as the first woman to the U.S. Supreme Court. Ronald Reagan and Foreign Affairs In foreign affairs, Ronald Reagan’s first term in office was marked by a massive buildup of U.S.

weapons and troops, as well as an escalation of the Cold War (1946-1991) with the Soviet Union, which the president dubbed “the evil empire.” Key to his administration’s foreign policy initiatives was the Reagan Doctrine, under which America provided aid to anticommunist movements in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In 1983, Reagan announced the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), a plan to develop space-based weapons to protect America from attacks by Soviet nuclear missiles. Also on the foreign affairs front, Reagan sent 800 U.S. Marines to Lebanon as part of an international peacekeeping force after Israel invaded that nation in June 1982. In October 1983, suicide bombers attacked the Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 Americans. That same month, Reagan ordered U.S. forces to lead an invasion of Grenada, an island in the Caribbean, after Marxist rebels overthrew the government. In addition to the problems in Lebanon and Grenada, the Reagan administration had to deal with an ongoing contentious relationship between the United States and Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi (1942-).

During his second term, Reagan forged a diplomatic relationship with the reform-minded Mikhail Gorbachev (1931-), who became leader of the Soviet Union in 1985. In 1987, the Americans and Soviets signed a historic agreement to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear missiles. That same year, Reagan spoke at Germany’s Berlin Wall , a symbol of communism, and famously challenged Gorbachev to tear it down. Twenty-nine months later, Gorbachev allowed the people of Berlin to dismantle the wall. After leaving the White House, Reagan returned to Germany in September 1990—just weeks before Germany was officially reunified–and took several symbolic swings with a hammer at a remaining chunk of the wall. 1984 Reelection and Iran-Contra Affair In November 1984, Ronald Reagan was reelected in a landslide, defeating Walter Mondale and his running mate Geraldine Ferraro (1935-), the first female vice-presidential candidate from a major U.S. political party.

Reagan, who announced it was “morning again in America,” carried 49 out of 50 states in the election and received 525 out of 538 electoral votes, the largest number ever won by an American presidential candidate. Ronald Reagan’s Later Years After leaving the White House in January 1989, Ronald Reagan and his wife returned to California, where they lived in Los Angeles. In 1991, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum opened in Simi Valley, California. In November 1994, Reagan revealed in a handwritten letter to the American people that he had been recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Nearly a decade later, on June 5, 2004, he died at his Los Angeles home at age 93, making him the nation’s longest-lived president (in 2006, Gerald Ford surpassed him for this title). Reagan was given a state funeral in Washington, D.C., and later buried on the grounds of his presidential library. Access hundreds of hours of historical video, commercial free, with HISTORY Vault . Start your free trial today.

Tags Ronald Reagan | whitehouse.gov Air Force One Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan, originally an American actor and politician, became the 40th President of the United States serving from 1981 to 1989. His term saw a restoration of prosperity at home, with the goal of achieving "peace through strength" abroad. At the end of his two terms in office, Ronald Reagan viewed with satisfaction the achievements of his innovative program known as the Reagan Revolution, which aimed to reinvigorate the American people and reduce their reliance upon Government. He felt he had fulfilled his campaign pledge of 1980 to restore "the great, confident roar of American progress and growth and optimism." On February 6, 1911, Ronald Wilson Reagan was born to Nelle and John Reagan in Tampico, Illinois. He attended high school in nearby Dixon and then worked his way through Eureka College. There, he studied economics and sociology, played on the football team, and acted in school plays. Upon graduation, he became a radio sports announcer. A screen test in 1937 won him a contract in Hollywood. During the next two decades he appeared in 53 films.

From his first marriage to actress Jane Wyman, he had two children, Maureen and Michael. Maureen passed away in 2001. In 1952 he married Nancy Davis, who was also an actress, and they had two children, Patricia Ann and Ronald Prescott. As president of the Screen Actors Guild, Reagan became embroiled in disputes over the issue of Communism in the film industry; his political views shifted from liberal to conservative. He toured the country as a television host, becoming a spokesman for conservatism. In 1966 he was elected Governor of California by a margin of a million votes; he was re-elected in 1970. Ronald Reagan won the Republican Presidential nomination in 1980 and chose as his running mate former Texas Congressman and United Nations Ambassador George Bush. Voters troubled by inflation and by the year-long confinement of Americans in Iran swept the Republican ticket into office. Reagan won 489 electoral votes to 49 for President Jimmy Carter. On January 20, 1981, Reagan took office. Only 69 days later he was shot by a would-be assassin, but quickly recovered and returned to duty.

His grace and wit during the dangerous incident caused his popularity to soar. Dealing skillfully with Congress, Reagan obtained legislation to stimulate economic growth, curb inflation, increase employment, and strengthen national defense. He embarked upon a course of cutting taxes and Government expenditures, refusing to deviate from it when the strengthening of defense forces led to a large deficit. A renewal of national self-confidence by 1984 helped Reagan and Bush win a second term with an unprecedented number of electoral votes. Their victory turned away Democratic challengers Walter F. Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro. In 1986 Reagan obtained an overhaul of the income tax code, which eliminated many deductions and exempted millions of people with low incomes. At the end of his administration, the Nation was enjoying its longest recorded period of peacetime prosperity without recession or depression. In foreign policy, Reagan sought to achieve "peace through strength." During his two terms he increased defense spending 35 percent, but sought to improve relations with the Soviet Union. In dramatic meetings with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, he negotiated a treaty that would eliminate intermediate-range nuclear missiles.

Reagan declared war against international terrorism, sending American bombers against Libya after evidence came out that Libya was involved in an attack on American soldiers in a West Berlin nightclub. By ordering naval escorts in the Persian Gulf, he maintained the free flow of oil during the Iran-Iraq war. In keeping with the Reagan Doctrine, he gave support to anti-Communist insurgencies in Central America, Asia, and Africa. Overall, the Reagan years saw a restoration of prosperity, and the goal of peace through strength seemed to be within grasp. The Presidential biographies on WhiteHouse.gov are from “The Presidents of the United States of America,” by Frank Freidel and Hugh Sidey. Copyright 2006 by the White House Historical Association.

For more information about President Reagan, please visit Ronald Reagan - Biography - IMDb Ronald Reagan Biography Showing all 174 items Jump to: Overview (5) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (2) | Trivia (96) | Personal Quotes (66) | Salary (4) Overview (5) 6' 1" (1.85 m) Mini Bio (1) Ronald Reagan is, arguably, the most successful actor in history, having catapulted from a career as a Warner Bros. contract player and television star, into serving as president of the Screen Actors Guild, the governorship of California (1967-1975), and lastly, two terms as President of the United States (1981-1989). Ronald Wilson Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois, to Nelle Clyde (Wilson) and John Edward "Jack" Reagan, who was a salesman and storyteller. His father was of Irish descent, and his mother was of half Scottish and half English ancestry. A successful actor beginning in the 1930s, the young Reagan was a staunch admirer of President Franklin D.

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 racked 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 D. 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) (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. Ironically, Reagan became a poor-man's James Stewart in the early 1950s, appearing in westerns, but they were mostly B-pictures. He did 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 also allowed to 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 (1953), a western omnibus showcase that ran from 1954 to 1961. It made 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, 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 culminated with his endorsing Barry Goldwater for the Republican 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 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 Reagan a nice piece of land of many acres north of Santa Barbara that had been used for location shooting.

The Reagans sold most of the ranch, then converted the rest of it, about 200 acres, into a magnificent estate overlooking the valley and the Pacific Ocean. The Rancho del Cielo became President Reagan's much needed counterpoint to the buzz of Washington, D.C. There, in a setting both rugged and serene, the Reagans could spend time alone or receive political leaders such as the Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev , Margaret Thatcher, and others. Reagan was known to the world for his one-liners, the most famous of them was addressed to Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987. "Mister Gorbachev, tear down this wall" said Reagan standing in front of the Berlin Wall. That call made an impact on the course of human history. 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. Spouses William Holden and Brenda Marshall served as Best Man and Matron of Honor at his wedding to Nancy Reagan in 1952.

40th president of the United States (20 January 1981 - 20 January 1989). 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. Graduate of Eureka College (1932). Son of John Edward Reagan and Nelle Clyde Wilson Reagan. Was a sports announcer in Des Moines, Iowa, before becoming an actor in 1937. Member of Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity. Was presented with George Gipp's letterman's sweater by the University of Notre Dame football team on January 18, 1989, two days before leaving the White House, and his two-term Vice President, 'George Herbert Walker Bush', became President. Younger brother of Neil Reagan (1908-1996). 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.

On Thursday, October 11th, 2001, he became the oldest ex-president in U. S. history, surpassing the previous record-holder, of John Adams . His own record was surpassed on Sunday, November 12, 2006, by Gerald Ford . While President of the USA, his Secret Service codename was "Rawhide". (May 16th 2002) Awarded the United States Congressional Gold Medal for ending the "Cold War" against Russia, along with his wife Nancy Reagan , for fighting substance abuse among American youths. 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. Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1989. On Tuesday, March 14, 1972, during his second term as governor of California, he expunged the criminal record of country-western singer Merle Haggard , granting him a full pardon. Influenced by the Martin Scorsese film Taxi Driver (1976), John Hinckley --the son of a prominent Republican family from Colorado--tried to assassinate Reagan in 1981 in order to impress actress Jodie Foster .

Foster had won her first Oscar nomination for the film, in which Robert De Niro 's character, "Travis Bickle", tried to assassinate a liberal Democratic presidential candidate to impress Betsy ( Cybill Shepherd ), the woman he is obsessed with. Hinckley was acquitted by a jury on reasons of insanity and (as of 2010) remains incarcerated in a psychiatric facility. 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. Originally was a very liberal member of the Democratic Party, but eventually converted to the Republican Party in 1962, when he was fifty-one. He gave a highly acclaimed speech in support of Barry Goldwater during the 1964 Presidential election. At the time of his death he was the longest-living President of the United States, at age 93 years and 120 days. This record was broken by former President Gerald Ford on Monday, November 12, 2006. Their age difference, in days alone, was only 45 days.

Reagan's lifetime lasted 34,088 days, and Ford's lasted 34,133 days. Amidst the panic at the hospital after Reagan's assassination attempt, a Secret Service agent was asked information for Reagan's admission forms. The intern asked for Reagan's last name. The agent, who was quite surprised at the question, responded "Reagan". The intern then asked for Reagan's first name. The agent, again surprised, responded "Ronald". The intern didn't look up, instead he unassumingly asked for Reagan's address. The agent paused for a few moments in great surprise before saying "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue". That got the intern's attention. Became the first president to have a state funeral in Washington, D.C. since Lyndon Johnson in 1973. Had a photographic memory. 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. He never actually broadcast Cubs games, he re-created them from telegraph reports while working for Des Moines radio station WHO in the 1930s. He demonstrated the technique of making it sound like he was actually at the games to Cubs broadcaster Harry Caray when he made a guest appearance during part of a Cubs telecast in the 1980s. He was offered, a role, in animation, of a guest appearance and an off screen voice, on The Simpsons (1989), but refused their offer. In the film, American Beauty (1999), the Fitts family ( Chris Cooper , Allison Janney and Wes Bentley ) can be seen watching one of Reagan's wartime films, This Is the Army (1943). He played Chicago Cubs hurler Grover Cleveland Alexander in the film, The Winning Team (1952). He also served temporarily, as a broadcaster for WGN Radio, which broadcasts Cubs baseball games.

A month after his death, items from his burial and week-long public viewing were selling fast on the online auction site eBay. The company has sold 780 pieces of Reagan funeral memorabilia since June 11, 2004, for a total of $66,000. The items range from programs (sold for up to $1,525 each) from the interment at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, CA, to gratitude cards given to mourners who visited his casket. 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 first President since Dwight D. Eisenhower to serve two full terms in office. The former President was buried at his presidential library in Simi Valley, California. Only United States President to have appeared in a shirt advertisement. 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. He was the first former American president to die in the 21st century. Rumored studio publicity claimed that he was scheduled to play Rick Blaine in Casablanca (1942); however, this was never the case. His first bid for the Presidency was actually in 1968, when he finished 3rd in the balloting at the GOP national convention behind Richard Nixon and Nelson Rockefeller . As the Constitution, in practical terms, forbids the president and vice president from being from the same state (a rule that binds the electoral college), Reagan was not considered for the vice presidency when Spiro Agnew resigned in 1973. Besides, though Reagan supported his fellow Californian Nixon for president, the two were never close.

In 1976, he challenged incumbent Gerald Ford (the man whom Nixon appointed Vice President to replace Agnew) for the Republican nomination, won several primaries, but narrowly lost the nomination at the convention. Though Ford confided in people he was considering a run for the presidency in 1980 to forestall Reagan's ascendancy, he never did and Reagan won the nomination and the presidency. 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 . Was considered to be the most conservative United States President since Herbert Hoover . Member of the Eureka College cheerleading squad. His last public appearance was at Richard Nixon 's funeral in April 1994. Member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (AMPAS). 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".

[June 1989] During the 1980 Presidential campaign, incumbent President Jimmy Carter publicly criticized Reagan for launching his campaign with a speech on states' rights in Philadelphia, Mississippi, the site of the 1964 murder of three civil rights workers immortalized in the film Mississippi Burning (1988). Carter, a former governor of the Deep South state of Georgia who had run as a racial moderate in 1970, noted that the phrase "states' rights" was a code word for segregation, as Southerners opposed to federally mandated integration of the races under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 claimed that such mandates "violated" state laws and local customs and were unconstitutional abrogations of the rights of their states to police themselves. Reagan, who had used his opposition to state equal housing laws to defeat Gov. Edmund G. Brown in the 1965 California governor's race, disavowed any racist intent and the issue was ignored by most voters and pundits. After his presidency he and Nancy Reagan 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). 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). His famous nickname "The Great Communicator", was not earned but was requested. Reagan asked for it during his farewell address in 1989. His state funeral service took place on the 25th anniversary of the death of his close friend and ally John Wayne . 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 . Reagan was the first "true blue" conservative to win the Republican nomination and be elected President since Calvin Coolidge in 1924. 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. Continued to play golf with several friends including Bob Hope and Kevin Costner until 1996. The oldest man to serve as US President, he took office only 17 days before his 70th birthday and left office 17 days before his 78th. He was, in fact, older than four of the previous five presidents: John F. Kennedy , Richard Nixon , Gerald Ford , and Jimmy Carter .

Emceed the first PATSY Awards show (1951) where Francis the Talking Mule was the very first winner. PATSY is an acronym for: Picture Animal Top Star of the Year. As Captain in the U.S. Army, Reagan signed Major Clark Gable 's discharge papers in June 1944. He was of Irish descent on his father's side, and of Scottish and English descent on his mother's side. His paternal grandfather, John Michael Reagan, was born in Peckham, co. Kent, England, to Irish parents, and his paternal grandmother, Jennie Cusick, was born in Dixon, Illinois, also to Irish parents. His maternal grandfather, Thomas Wilson, also an Illinois native, was of Scottish descent (partly by way of Canada), and his maternal grandmother, Mary Ann Elsey, was English, from Epsom, co. Surrey. His paternal great-grandfather, Michael Regan, emigrated to the US from Ballyporeen, Ireland, in the 1860s.

Ballyporeen, a tiny rural farming town in County Tipperary, is located in the south-central part of the country and its inhabitants are frequently referred to as "Midlanders". The Regans were one of three primary families, or "clans", that populated St. Mary's Parish in the village of Ballyporeen. The Ronald Reagan Visitors Centre was built down the street from St. Mary's Church following his visit to his ancestral home in the mid-1980s. The spelling of the family name Regan was changed to Reagan after they arrived in the US. Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 446-452. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007. Honored world champion surfer David Nuuhiwa with a gold medal for Merit. 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. Only US President to head a labor union (as president of the Screen Actors Guild 1947-1952/1959-1960). To date (2013), first (and only) divorced US President (from Jane Wyman in 1948). Both of his children with Nancy Reagan , Ron Reagan and Patti Davis , became liberal Democrats. The first US President since John F. Kennedy to die before his predecessor. Erroneously attributed the "Ten Cannots" to Abraham Lincoln during the 1992 Republican National Convention ("You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong, etc.") Lincoln has been widely and inaccurately credited with the list, but it was actually written by Rev. William J.H. Boetcker in 1916, over 60 years after Lincoln's assassination. Maryland Lieutenant Governor (and future RNC chairman) Michael Steele made the same mistake during his speech to the 2004 Republican Convention.

Pictured on a nondenominated 'forever' USA commemorative postage stamp issued 10 February 2011, four days after the 100th anniversary of his birth. The original issue price was 44¢. Reagan and Jane Wyman had a daughter Christine who was born June 26, 1947, and lived 9 hours. As a child, Reagan's daughter Patti Davis hated political talk so much that whenever politics came up at the dinner table she would deliberately fall out of her seat. This always changed the topic. Inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2011. He hosted Warren Beatty at the White House for a screening of the latter's film Reds (1981). Despite their vast political differences, Reagan and Beatty were old friends as Hollywood actors. Was a Boy Scout. Richard Nixon may have been the only US President to have actually met Elvis Presley , but Reagan's daughter Maureen Reagan appeared with Presley in Kissin' Cousins (1964). While married to actress Jane Wyman , the couple resided at 9137 Cordell Drive in Los Angeles (CA).

The estate, built in 1942, fetched $8.5 million when sold in September 2012. Favorite film was High Noon (1952). He is mentioned in the lyrics of the Sting song "Russians" from his first solo album "The Dream of the Blue Turtles". Released in 1985 while Reagan was President, the song is about the escalating tensions of the Cold War and was a criticism of the way politicians on both sides were refusing to back down. It includes the line "Mr. Reagan says we will protect you, I don't subscribe to this point of view". The song became a top 20 hit in the UK and the USA, as well as a chart hit in many other countries. Inducted into the Eureka College Athletics Hall of Fame in 1982. Doug McClelland's 1983 book, "Hollywood on Ronald Reagan" contains comments from Reagan's show business colleagues. Virginia Christine, famous as Mrs. Olson, TV's spokeswoman for Folger's Coffee, worked with the future President as recently as "The Killers." She tersely commented on her co-star, "I just can't place him.".

Favorite drink was fine wine from west coast vineyards. Announced the Strategic Defense Initiative as "Star Wars" after Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977). The Stephen King novel Doctor Sleep has one of the characters describe Reagan as "still having an actor's hair after becoming President, and an actor's charming but untrustworthy smile". His surname comes from an Irish surname, an Anglicized form of Ó Ríagáin meaning "descendant of Riagán", meaning "impulsive". His name is a Scottish form of the Old Norse name Ragnvaldr, meaning "advisory ruler" or "ruling council". According to Soviet spy Jack Barsky, the Russians were afraid of three things: AIDS, Jewish people and Ronald Reagan; with Reagan taking the top spot. His support for the UK during the Falklands War violated the Monroe Doctrine. Personal Quotes (66) [at the Berlin Wall, 1987] Mr. Gorbachev [Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev ], tear down this wall! The best view of government is seen on a rear view mirror as one is driving away from it.

[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. [1964] I love three things in life: drama, politics and sports and I'm not sure they always come in that order. [1980] I remember some of my own views when I was quite young. For heaven's sake, I was even a Democrat! [to his wife after the assassination attempt] Honey, I forgot to duck. [to his doctors prior to going into surgery after being shot] I hope all of you are Republicans. [semi-consciously, to the nurse who hauled him on the gurney] Does Nancy [wife Nancy Reagan ] know about us? [1980] I know what it's like to pull the Republican lever for the first time, because I used to be a Democrat myself, and I can tell you it only hurts for a minute and then it feels just great. [1985] I've been criticized for going over the heads of the Congress. So, what's the fuss? A lot of things go over their heads. America is too great to dream small dreams.

[from the Alzheimer's letter] I now begin the journey that will lead me to the sunset of my life. I know that for America, there will always be a bright dawn ahead. Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards; if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book. You can tell a lot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jellybeans. Government is not the solution to our problems. Government IS the problem! [in a 1984 presidential debate, referring to Walter Mondale (born 1928), who was age 56, 17 years younger than Reagan] I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience. All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk. Fascism was really the basis for the New Deal. [on Vietnam] I have a feeling that we are doing better in the war than the people have been told.

[Carmel, CA, June 1990] You may think this a little mystical, and I've said it many times before, but I believe there was a Divine Plan to place this great continent here between the two oceans to be found by peoples from every corner of the earth. I believe we were preordained to carry the torch of freedom for the world. I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency - even if I'm in a Cabinet meeting. [During a microphone check on August 11 1984, unaware that he was being broadcast] My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes. Trees cause more pollution than automobiles. They say hard work never hurt anybody, but I figure why take the chance. Well, I learned a lot . . . I went down to Latin America to find out from them and [learn] their views. You'd be surprised. They're all individual countries. We are trying to get unemployment to go up and I think we're going to succeed. When I go in for a physical, they no longer ask how old I am. They just carbon-date me.

[from a 1950s interview] Nobody ever "went Hollywood". They were already that way when they got here. Hollywood just brought it out in them. Approximately 80% of our air pollution stems from hydrocarbons released by vegetation, so let's not go overboard in setting and enforcing tough emission standards. Abortion is advocated only by persons who have themselves been born. Tonight is a very special night, although at my age, every night is a special night. [His opinion of the Klingon warriors he saw during a visit to the set of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)] I like them. They remind me of Congress. [During his re-election campaign in 1984] America's future rests in a thousand dreams inside our hearts; it rests in the message of hope in songs of a man so many young Americans admire: New Jersey's own Bruce Springsteen . And helping you make your dreams come true is what this job of mine is all about. [confirming his 1984 re-election victory to the crowd chanting "Four more years"] I think that's just been arranged. A few months ago I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages.

My heart and my best intentions still tell me that's true, but the facts and the evidence tell me it is not. I can't do a damn thing until I'm elected! If I could paraphrase a well-known statement by Will Rogers that he never met a man he didn't like, I'm afraid we have some people around here who never met a tax they didn't like. [at the 1980 presidential debate, when Jimmy Carter accused him of opposing Medicare] There you go again. [from his Presidential Farewell Address] I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it, and see it still.

[in 1992, regarding Bill Clinton , in a paraphrase of Lloyd Bentsen from the 1988 presidential election] This fellow they've nominated claims he's the new Thomas Jefferson . Well, let me tell you something: I knew Thomas Jefferson. He was a friend of mine. And governor, you're no Thomas Jefferson. Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong. If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under. The taxpayer: that's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination. No arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. [Notre Dame University. 17 May, 1981] The years ahead will be great ones for our country, for the cause of freedom and the spread of civilization. The West will not contain Communism, it will transcend Communism. We will not bother to denounce it, we'll dismiss it as a sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages are even now being written.

[in a 1981 videotaped Oscar tribute] Film is forever. I've been trapped in some films forever myself. [comparing politics to prostitution, known as the world's oldest profession] Politics is supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to understand that it bears a very close resemblance to the first. It isn't that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so much that isn't so. The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved good-bye and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God." Freedom and Security go together. [speech at the Republican National Convention, Aug. 17, 1992.] Whatever else history may say about me when I'm gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears; to your confidence rather than your doubts. My dream is that you will travel the road ahead with liberty's lamp guiding your steps and opportunity's arm steadying your way.

I know in my heart that man is good, and that what's right will always - eventually - triumph. And that there's purpose and worth to each and every life. Status quo, you know is Latin for "the mess we're in". [To Warren Beatty ] I don't know how anybody can serve in public office without being an actor. All great change in America starts at the dinner table. Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: if it moves, tax it; if it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. Republicans believe every day is the fourth of July, but the Democrats believe every day is April the 15th. We have some hippies in California. For those of you who don't know what a hippie is, he's a fellow who has hair like Tarzan, who walks like Jane and who smells like Cheetah. We can't help everyone but everyone can help someone. Economists are people who wonder if what works in reality can also work in theory. Government is a like a baby: an alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.

[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. [to the viewers at the 1980 presidential debate] Are you better off now than you were four years ago? Is it easier for you to go and buy things in the stores than it was four years ago? Is there more or less unemployment in the country than there was four years ago? Is America as respected throughout the world as it was? Do you feel that our security is as safe, that we're as strong as we were four years ago? And if you answer all of those questions "yes", why then, I think your choice is very obvious as to whom you will vote for. If you don't agree, if you don't think that this course that we've been on for the last four years is what you would like to see us follow for the next four, then I could suggest another choice that you have.

[In 1985 after having his nose surgery he arrived at the White House briefing with a patch on his nose he opened the news conference saying (with a smile)] Not wanting you to lose any sleep at night, let me explain the patch on my nose [In 1985, after having additional cancer cells removed from his nose] Yesterday afternoon, when we came back from Chicago, I went over there in the White House to the doctor's office and he did the additional work, and biopsy revealed there were some cancer cells and now I have a verdict of, my nose is clean. The most terrifying words in the English Language are: I'm from the Government and I'm here to help. Salary (4) Ronald Reagan biography | birthday, trivia | American Actor | Who2 Ronald Reagan Biography U.S. President President of the United States from 1981-1989, Ronald Reagan was known as a staunch conservative, a cheery optimist, and an implacable foe of Soviet communism. Ronald Reagan began his career as a sports announcer on radio, then moved to Hollywood and became a movie star.

Reagan made over fifty movies as a reliable supporting actor or benign leading man, but his real calling seemed to be in politics. He served as the governor of California (1967-75) and then in 1980 defeated Democrat Jimmy Carter to become the 40th U.S. president. He advocated lower taxes and higher defense spending, and aggressively challenged the Soviet Union with his rhetoric. Reagan’s two terms in office were clouded by an exploding budget deficit, high unemployment and deep recession, and, in the last years, a back-door scheme to fund anti-communist forces in Central America — the so-called Iran Contra affair that led to the trial and conviction (later overturned) of Lt. Col. Oliver North . Reagan, however, emerged from the troubles unscathed, and went on to become a lasting hero of the Republican Party. He stepped down after two full terms and was succeeded by his vice-president, George Bush the elder. Reagan announced in 1994 that he was suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease. He spent the next ten years in seclusion and increasingly poor health until his death in 2004.

Extra credit Ronald Reagan married the actress Nancy Davis (1921-2016) on 4 March 1952; he previously had been married to actress Jane Wyman from 1941-48… Ronald Reagn had four children: Maureen and Michael (with Wyman) and Patricia and Ron Jr. (with Nancy Reagan)… In March of 1981, Ronald Reagan was shot and wounded by John Hinckley, Jr. , an unbalanced fan of actress Jodie Foster . Reagan survived and served two full terms… For Ronald Reagan’s 1994 letter to Americans about his Alzheimer’s disease, see this page from the Reagan Library… Ronald Reagan wrote two autobiographies: Where’s the Rest of Me? (1965, updated in 1981) and An American Life (1990)… In 2003 another actor became governor of California: Arnold Schwarzenegger … Ronald Reagan often spent time at Rancho del Cielo, his ranch north of Santa Barbara; the ranch was about 18 miles from the Neverland Ranch of pop star Michael Jackson . The Reagan Children . Reagan .

WGBH American Experience | PBS Other Biographies Ronald Reagan and his first wife, Jane Wyman, had two children, daughter Maureen and an adopted son, Michael. Patti and Ron followed with second wife Nancy Davis Reagan. Born in 1941, at the height of Reagan's popularity as an actor, Maureen was part of the picture-perfect family that, in the 1930s and '40s, Warner Brothers promoted as Hollywood's wholesome face. Michael was adopted later, in 1946. At a time when joint custody was virtually unknown, the children remained with their mother after Reagan and Wyman divorced in 1949. Like her father, Maureen Reagan gravitated toward politics. In 1981, after campaigning for her father, she joined the crowded race for U.S. Senate in California. A series of comments from the Reagans and their circle made headlines.

Ed Rollins, President Reagan's campaign manager, described Maureen, in her first bid for office, as unqualified; Reagan's brother, Neil, active in California politics though not an elected official, said in a radio ad, "We Reagans urge you to support Pete Wilson," Maureen's opponent. Though Neil insisted that he spoke only for himself and his wife, the statement was misleading, especially because President Reagan failed to endorse his daughter. In her 1989 memoir My Turn, Nancy Reagan pointed out that Reagan never endorsed any candidate. At least publicly, the damage was temporary. In 1984, Maureen campaigned for her father again, successfully courting women voters who had previously voted against Reagan. Of the four children, three inked book deals to disclose firsthand accounts. Maureen's 1989 book First Father, First Daughter, a sensitive recounting of her relationship with her father, followed Michael's 1988 memoir, "On the Outside Looking In." While Michael admitted that he had intended to write about life with his famous father, he ended up with a book largely about his life as a victim of sexual abuse.

In the book, Michael revealed that a camp counselor molested him when he was eight. His maladjustment in later years, he said, stemmed from unresolved feelings about the incident, not merely from a strained relationship with his father. Well received by critics, Michael's memoir caused a stir. When reports surfaced of Reagan's lack of public or private response to his son's revelations, his remoteness as a father was noted. According to all the children, this behavior was typical, and members of Reagan's administration noted that they recognized this remoteness as well. The first child of his marriage to Nancy Reagan, Patti Davis, as she calls herself professionally, turned her long-running feud with her parents into a literary career. Throughout the '70s, Patti flouted her parents' conservatism, living with a member of the rock band the Eagles and participating in the nuclear freeze movement. After years as a struggling actress, Patti tried her hand at writing. In 1986, she published A House of Secrets, an undeniably autobiographical novel about a liberal young writer whose conservative father is the governor of California and then the president of the United States, and whose mother is an exacting woman obsessed with appearances and propriety.

A long estrangement between Patti and her parents followed. In recent years, Patti has voiced regret at her rebellious behavior and accusatory writing. She and her parents reconciled briefly in 1993, shortly before Reagan's diagnosis with Alzheimer's, while she was writing Angels Don't Die: My Father's Gift of Faith. Ron Reagan's relationship with his parents has been characterized as the smoothest. Born in 1958, Ron lived his entire life as a politician's son. (By this time, Reagan was edging toward politics, capitalizing on his position as a recognized conservative spokesman in his role as host of G.E. Theater.) Ron, following the lead of his three siblings, none of whom completed college, dropped out during his first semester at Yale in 1976 to pursue what he said was a lifelong dream (heretofore unknown to his parents) to become a ballet dancer. Ron Reagan drifted among careers, leaving the ballet to become a print journalist and then a TV newsmagazine correspondent. Perhaps his background in journalism has allowed him to speak with more objectivity than his siblings about his parents' remoteness from everyone but each other.

The distance between Ronald Reagan and his four children provided ample fodder for opponents who accused him of not practicing the family values he preached. The Reagans resembled a modern American family much more than the idealized one Reagan conveyed in his speeches and TV spots about a shining America. Like many families, divorce and geography divided the Reagans; unlike most, their conflicts played out before a national audience. Oscar Winner Jane Wyman, Reagan's First Wife, Dies : NPR Oscar Winner Jane Wyman, Reagan's First Wife, Dies Embed Embed Oscar Winner Jane Wyman, Reagan's First Wife, Dies Oscar Winner Jane Wyman, Reagan's First Wife, Dies Embed Embed Enlarge this image Oscar-winning actress Jane Wyman, pictured at a 1950 gala, has died; she was in her early 90s. Wyman and fellow actor Ronald Reagan, pictured below ice-skating together in 1945, were married from 1940 to 1948. Jack Albin/Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Jack Albin/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Oscar-winning actress Jane Wyman, pictured at a 1950 gala, has died; she was in her early 90s.

Wyman and fellow actor Ronald Reagan, pictured below ice-skating together in 1945, were married from 1940 to 1948. Jack Albin/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Archive Photos/Getty Images Oscar-Worthy Clips Wyman's Oscar win was for her performance in 1948's Johnny Belinda, as a deaf girl raped by a local bully. These two clips suggest the subtlety that led Oscar voters to award her the trophy. (Requires RealPlayer ) Actress Jane Wyman — a Hollywood staple for several decades and married to Ronald Reagan in the 1940s — has died. Accounts of her age varied, though she was in her early 90s. She was tall, slender and blond when she and Reagan met. He was tall, dark and handsome. They were both under contract at Warner Brothers, starring in the 1938 comedy Brother Rat. Soon they were Hollywood's Golden Couple, said Edward Z. Epstein, who co-wrote a Wyman biography. "They were on all the fan-magazine covers," Epstein said. "He was in his Army uniform and she was in her Hollywood get-up, a fur stole and a smile.

That's how they went to the premieres. They were the perfect couple." Wyman was born in St. Louis and early on proved to be a talented singer and dancer. After her father, a civil servant, died when she was a teenager, Wyman moved to Hollywood. She appeared in the chorus in a handful of movie musicals, then a slew of B movies. But in 1947 she was nominated for a best-actress Oscar for The Yearling . Her real breakthrough came the next year, when she played a deaf girl from a small Nova Scotia town in the 1948 movie Johnny Belinda. A local doctor takes interest in her and teaches her sign language — but then Belinda is brutally raped. Article continues after sponsorship Jane Wyman was in her 30s when she played the teenaged Belinda. Film historian and critic David Thomson said it's still a stand-out performance for what Wyman did with her eyes. "This girl's soul was naked through the eyes," Thomson said. "And she does a very concentrated performance.

She trusts that the action is playing to her all the time, and all she has to do is keep her eyes open and let the idea of these horrible things happening to her come through and the audience is going to adore her. And of course that's what happened." Wyman received an Oscar for her performance in Johnny Belinda. Around that time, she divorced Ronald Reagan. "He was crazy about her, and he was devastated when she divorced him," Epstein said. "That happened as it always does with Hollywood stories, as her career went through the roof and his was languishing." Years later when her ex-husband ran for president, Wyman never spoke to the press about their marriage. She preferred to keep those details private. She did, on the occasion of his death, say that "America has lost a great president and a great, kind and gentle man." Wyman had a second career in TV in the 1980s, as the conniving matriarch in the prime-time soap opera Falcon Crest, which ran for nine seasons on CBS.

She was that rare Hollywood actress who could do a little bit of everything — and did, playing parts from the wise-cracking sidekick to the musical-comedy ingenue to the tragic, romantic lead.

Question: Who was the firstwife of US President Ronald Reagan?
Answer: JANE WYMAN