Ronald Wilson Reagan : biography
Youth
Ronald Wilson Reagan was born on the 6th of February in 1911 in the apartment one floor above local bank in village Tampico (Illinois).
His father was John Edvard “Jack” Reagan, mother was Nelly Wilson Reagan. Reagan’s father was Irish Catholis by birth, mother had English and Scottish roots. Ronald also had elder brother Neil “Moon” Reagan (1908-1996), who became an advertisement worker.
Reagan’s family moved in different town of Illinois for some time. Finally they returned in Tampico in 1919 and lived above the department store. When Reagan became a president and moved to the White House, he made a joke that he lived above the store again. The department store was closed in 1920, Reagans moved to Dixon in Illinois. Ronald attended school in Dixon, where he displayed a keen interest to the art of acting, sport and developed his narrator skills. Frequent removals from one place to another made Ronald change schools, and every time he had to overcome alerted distrust of classmates, because he was a new student. Things started to go better in 1924, when he successfully played in Dixon’s football team. But he achieved the biggest acknowledgement, when he was working as a rescuer in Lowell-Park on the Rock-River. For seven seasons since 1926 he saved lives of 77 drowning man, and was proud of it for the whole life.
In 1928 he finished school in Dixon and entered the Eureka college (Eureka, Illinois) on the department of economy and sociology. Though, he wasn’t good at science in college, like in school. When years later students asked him, what’s the benefit in becoming a president, he answered: “I could order FBI to restrict my school marks”. At the same time he tried to take active part in social life, he became a member of the student brotherhood and in due course he even became a leader of student self-government organization. On this post he was in the forefront of the student riot against the president of the college, who was going to cut down the department.
Reagan was rather religious and believed in human’s divine origin, this faith iriginated from his mother Nelly and the Protestant church “Christ’s followers”. Maybe, it influenced his unusual for that time views on interracial relations. Once in Dixon Reagan invited Afro-American in his house, and his mother invited them to stay at night and in the morning made them breakfast.
Radio and cinema career
Since childhood Reagan had dreamt about scene career, but it wasn’t a short distant from Dixon to Hollywood, so he decided to try his luck on the radio. After finishing college in 1932, Reagan moved to Iowa, where he worked on small broadcasting stations. The Iowa University hired him to report football game on radio. He earned 10 dollars for every session. Later he said that it was the best time of his life. then he became an announcer on the WOC broadcasting station in Davenport in Iowa, where he earned 100 dollars a month. Owing to his voice he was invited to the WHO broadcasting station in the state’s capital to be a presenter of the baseball team. His duties were report the game in live broadcast on the stadium.
After the journey around California in 1937 Reagan went through screen test and signed a seven year contract with the Warner Brother’s studio. His first role was in a film “Love is on the air”. In 1938 he entered a labor union of cinema guild. Till the end of 1939 he appeared in 19 films, including “Dark victory”. Before shooting in a famous film “Santa Fe trail” in 1940 he had played a part of George Gipper in a biographic film “Knute Rockne. All American”. Since then he had a nickname “Gipper”.
The most marked role was played in 1942 in a film “Kings Row” (this film was nominated for “Oscar”), but his playing wasn’t approved (one of the observers even wrote that Reagan “thoughtlessly acquainted himself with the character’s temper”). Though many film critics noted, that it was the best film of Reagan, a reporter of New York Times Bosley Crowther, one of the most competent film critics criticized this film too.
