Ronald Wilson Reagan : biography

His last work as a professional actor was in the role of the anchorman in the series Death Valley Days since 1964 till 1965.

Marriage and children

In 1938 Regan played in the film Brother Rat with the actress Jane Wyman (1914-2007). Their engagement took part in the Chicago theatre, they married on the 26th of January in 1940 in the church Wee Kirk o’the Heather in Glendale (California). They had two children: Maurin (1941-2001) and Christine (was born and died in 1947), they also adopted the third child – Michael (was born on the 18th of March in 1945). In 1948 Wyman began divorce process, explaining the reason of divorce with the husband’s being busy in the cinema actors’ guild and his political ambitions. In 1949 the couple got divorced, Ronald Reagan afterwards became the only divorced president in the history of USA.

In 1949 the actress Nancy Davis appealed to Reagan as to the president of the guild (he was born in 1921), she asked to remove his last name from Hollywood black list (she was put there by mistake, her name was mixed up with another Nancy Davis). Nancy said afterwards, that if it hadn’t been love from the first sight, it had been pleasant intimacy. They became engaged in a restaurant in Los-Angeles and married on the 4th of March in 1952 in the Little Brown church in San-Fernando valley. They had two children: Patricia (was born on the 22th of October in 1952) and Ron (was born on the 20th of May in 1958).

Observers always described their relations as really close and intimate. When Reagan became the president, and she became the first lady, they always demonstrated their love to each other. The president’s secretary noted, that their relations never became ordinary, they always showed attention to each other. Ronald called his wife Mummy, and she called him Ronny. When the president got to hospital after the attempt to kill him in 1861, Nancy was sleeping in his shirt, because husband’s scent calmed her.

Early political career

Reagan was a registered member of the Demoscratic party, he admired the president Franklin Roosevelt’s personality and supported his economic programme. But at the beginning of 1950-s his political vies became more conservative. As a result, he was in democratic rows, but supported pre-election president campaigns of a republican Dwight Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956, and a campaign of a republican Richard Nixon in 1960. when he was working in “General Electric”, he travelled over company’s factories and made speeches in front of audience. Very often his speeches had political tone from conservative position, they reflected the idea of supporting business. Regan wrote his speeches by himself, every day he worked on them. Later, when he was a president, he had his own speechwriters, but Reagan always edited their speeches, and when he had time, he wrote his own speeches. His speeches began to differ from the company’s official course, and in 1962 Reagan was fired from “General Electric”.

Reagan was against some civil rights, though later he changed his position and voted for rights and honest housing construction. He also actively refused racist causes.

After imposition of the law about medical insurance in 1961 Regan wrote an appeal to American medical association and warned that this law could mean the end of freedom in America. Reagan announced, that if listeners didn’t write their letters to warn about it, “we can be awake in socialism one day. If you don’t do it and I don’t do it, once you will be recalling past bright days and telling your children and children of your children, that America was free”.

In 1964, two years after party’s change, Reagan joined president campaign of a conservative candidate Barry Goldwater. When he was speaking in Goldwater’s support, he underlined his conviction in reduction of governmental regulation. In his famous speech of 27 of October in 1964 on the party convection Reagan revealed his own ideological views: “Fathers-founders knew, that government can’t control economics without controlling people. They knew, that if government wants to gain something, it should use force and compulsion to reach the aim. It’s time to choose.” This speech became famous as “Time to choose”, with the help of it Goldwater’s campaign gathered one million dollars. This speech is considered a start of Reagan’s political career.