The filmography of Ronald Reagan (1911 – 2004) includes many motion pictures and television screen work, beginning in 1937 and ending in 1965. Reagan, born in Illinois, moved to California and took a screen test in 1937 that led to a seven-year contract with Warner Brothers studios.[1] He spent the first few years of his Hollywood career in the "B film" unit, where, Reagan joked, the producers "didn't want them good, they wanted them Thursday".[2] While sometimes overshadowed by other actors, Reagan's screen performances did receive many good reviews.[2] His first screen credit was the starring role in the 1937 movie Love Is on the Air, and by the end of 1939 he had already appeared in 19 films.[3]
In 1938 he starred alongside Jane Wyman in Brother Rat. They married in 1940, having a child, Maureen, and adopting a son, Michael. The marriage ended in divorce in 1948.[4]
Before the film Santa Fe Trail in 1940, he played the role of George "The Gipper" Gipp in the film Knute Rockne, All American; from it, he acquired the lifelong nickname "the Gipper".[5] In 1941 exhibitors voted him the fifth most popular star from the younger generation in Hollywood.[6]
Reagan's favorite acting role was as a double amputee in 1942's Kings Row,[7] in which he recites the line, "Where's the rest of me?", later used as the title of his 1965 autobiography. Many film critics considered Kings Row to be his best movie,[8] though the film was condemned by New York Times critic Bosley Crowther.[9][10] Although, Reagan called Kings Row the film that "made me a star",[11] he was unable to capitalize on his success because he was ordered to active duty two months after its release, and never regained "star" status in motion pictures.[11]
After the outbreak of war, Reagan, an officer in the Army Reserve, was ordered to active duty in April, 1942. [12] Upon the approval of the Army Air Force (AAF), he was transferred to the AAF and was assigned to the First Motion Picture Unit (officially, the "18th AAF Base Unit") in Culver City, California.[13] In January, 1943 he was sent to the Provisional Task Force Show Unit of This Is The Army at Burbank, California.[13] He returned to the First Motion Picture Unit after completing this duty and was promoted to Captain.[14] By the end of the war, his units had produced some 400 training films for the AAF[14] including Beyond the Line of Duty, The Rear Gunner, and This is the Army.
Following military service Reagan resumed his film work. In 1947 Reagan was elected to the position of president of the Screen Actors Guild.[15] He was subsequently chosen by the membership to serve seven additional one-year terms, from 1947 to 1952 and in 1959.[15] Reagan led SAG through eventful years that were marked by labor-management disputes, the Taft-Hartley Act, House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) hearings and the Hollywood blacklist era.[15]
He met fellow star Nancy Davis in 1950 and they married two years later; the marriage would be one of the closest in U.S. political history,[16] and the couple had two children: Patti and Ron.[16] Reagan continued his acting career, making films such as The Voice of the Turtle, John Loves Mary, Bedtime for Bonzo, Cattle Queen of Montana, Tennessee's Partner, and Hellcats of the Navy (where he costarred alongside his wife).
Though an early critic of television, Reagan landed fewer film roles in the late 1950s and decided to join the medium.[2] He was hired as the host of General Electric Theater, a series of weekly dramas that became very popular.[2] His contract required him to tour GE plants sixteen weeks out of the year, often demanding of him fourteen speeches per day.[2] He earned approximately $125,000 per year (about $1.07 million in 2010 dollars) in this role. His final work as a professional actor was as host and performer from 1964 to 1965 on the television series Death Valley Days.[17] Reagan and Nancy Davis appeared together several times, including an episode of GE Theater in 1958 called A Turkey for the President.[18] Eventually, the ratings for Reagan's show fell off and GE dropped Reagan in 1962.[19]
Reagan, a liberal Democrat, began to shift to the right as his relationship with Republican Nancy Davis grew.[20][21] Reagan soon began to embrace the conservative views of General Electric's officials,[22][23] in particular those of Lemuel Boulware. Boulware championed the core tenets of modern American conservatism: free markets, anticommunism, lower taxes, and limited government.[24] After General Electric, Reagan became a politician and in 1980 was elected to President of the United States in 1980.
Throughout his film career, his mother often answered much of his fan mail.[25] Ronald Reagan was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame when the walk was dedicated on February 9, 1960.[26]
- ^ "Biography > A Hero from the Heartland". Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. Archived from the original on 2007-10-31. Retrieved 2008-01-23.
- ^ a b c d e Cite error: The named reference
agpiwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Ronald Reagan > Hollywood Years". Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. Archived from the original on March 12, 2007. Retrieved March 28, 2007.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ Severo, Richard. (September 11, 2007). "Jane Wyman, 90, Star of Film and TV, Is Dead". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-01-23.
- ^ Cannon (2001), p. 15
- ^ "CUPID'S INFLUENCE ON THE FILM BOX-OFFICE". The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1956). Melbourne, Vic.: National Library of Australia. 4 October 1941. p. 7 Supplement: The Argus Week-end Magazine. Retrieved 24 April 2012.
- ^ Reagan, Ronald (1965). Where's the Rest of Me?. New York: Duell, Sloan, and Pearce. ISBN 0-283-98771-5.
- ^ Wood, Brett. "Kings Row". TCM website. Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved March 24, 2009.
- ^ Crowther, Bosley (February 3, 1942). "The Screen; 'Kings Row,' With Ann Sheridan and Claude Rains, a Heavy, Rambling Film, Has Its First Showing Here at the Astor". The New York Times. Retrieved March 29, 2007.
- ^ Cannon (2003), pp. 56–57
- ^ a b Friedrich, Otto (1997). City of nets: a portrait of Hollywood in the 1940s. University of California Press (reprint). pp. 86–89. ISBN 978-0-520-20949-7.
- ^ "USS Ronald Reagan: Ronald Reagan". United States Navy. Archived from the original on October 30, 2007. Retrieved March 7, 2007.
- ^ a b "President Ronald Reagan". National Museum of the United States Air Force. Retrieved December 30, 2007.
- ^ a b "Military service of Ronald Reagan". Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Retrieved June 22, 2007.
- ^ a b c "Screen Actors Guild Presidents: Ronald Reagan". Screen Actors Guild. Archived from the original on December 28, 2007. Retrieved November 10, 2008.
- ^ a b "End of a Love Story". BBC. June 5, 2004. Retrieved 2008-01-23.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
imdbwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ A Turkey for the President (TV episode 1958 #7.10), IMDB.
- ^ Cannon (2003), p. 113.
- ^ "Nancy Reagan". Nndb.com. Retrieved August 12, 2011.
- ^ "An American Life: The Autobiography by Ronald Reagan". LibraryThing. Retrieved August 12, 2011.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
lnla;ppmkwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "The Education of Ronald Reagan". Cup.columbia.edu. Retrieved August 12, 2011.
- ^ Thomas W. Evans, The Education of Ronald Reagan: The General Electric Years and the Untold Story of His Conversion to Conservatism (2008).
- ^ Skinner, et. al. (2003), p. 836
- ^ "Ronald Reagan's Pre-Presidential Time Line, 1911-1980". Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Retrieved May 02, 2012.
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