Ronald reagan biography on american gangster

President of the United States from 1981 to 1989

"Reagan" redirects here. For other uses, see Ronald Reagan (disambiguation) and Reagan (disambiguation).

Ronald Wilson Reagan^[a] (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party and became an important figure in the American conservative movement. His presidency is known as the Reagan era.

Born in Illinois, Reagan graduated from Eureka College in 1932 and was hired the next year as a sports broadcaster in Iowa. In 1937, he moved to California where he became a well-known film actor. During his acting career, Reagan was president of the Screen Actors Guild twice, from 1947 to 1952 and from 1959 to 1960. In the 1950s, he hosted General Electric Theater and worked as a motivational speaker for General Electric. Reagan's "A Time for Choosing" speech during the 1964 presidential election launched his rise as a leading conservative figure. After being elected governor of California in 1966, he raised state taxes, turned the state budget deficit into a surplus and implemented harsh crackdowns on university protests. Following his loss to Gerald Ford in the 1976 Republican Party presidential primaries, Reagan won the Republican Party's nomination and then a landslide victory over President Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential election.

In his first term as president, Reagan began implementing "Reaganomics", which involved economic deregulation and cuts in both taxes and government spending during a period of stagflation. On the world stage, he escalated the arms race, increased military spending, transitioned Cold War policy away from the policies of détente with the Soviet Union, and ordered the 1983 invasion of Grenada. He also survived an assassination attempt, fought public-sector labor unions, expanded the war on drugs, and was slow to respond to the AIDS epidemic. In the 1984 presidential election, he defeated former vice president Walter Mondale in another landslide victory. Foreign affairs dominated Reagan's second term, including the 1986 bombing of Libya, the secret and illegal sale of arms to Iran to fund the Contras, and engaging in negotiations with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, which culminated in the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

Reagan left the presidency in 1989 with the American economy having seen a significant reduction of inflation, the unemployment rate having fallen, and the U.S. having entered its then-longest peacetime expansion. At the same time, the national debt had nearly tripled since 1981 as a result of his cuts in taxes and increased military spending, despite cuts to domestic discretionary spending. Reagan's foreign policies also contributed to the end of the Cold War.^[8] Though he planned an active post-presidency, it was hindered, after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 1994, and his physical and mental capacities gradually deteriorated, leading to his death in 2004. His tenure constituted a realignment toward conservative policies in the United States, and he is often considered an icon of American conservatism. Historical rankings of U.S. presidents have typically placed Reagan in the upper tier, and his post-presidential approval ratings by the general public are usually high.^[9]

Early life

Ronald Wilson Reagan was born on February 6, 1911, in an apartment in Tampico, Illinois, as the younger son of Nelle Clyde Wilson and Jack Reagan. Nelle was committed to the Disciples of Christ, which believed in the Social Gospel. She led prayer meetings and ran mid-week prayers at her church when the pastor was out of town. Reagan credited her spiritual influence and he became a Christian. According to American political figure Stephen Vaughn, Reagan's values came from his pastor, and the First Christian Church's religious, economic and social positions "coincided with the words, if not the beliefs of the latter-day Reagan". Jack focused on making money to take care of the family, but this was complicated by his alcoholism.^[16] Reagan had an older brother, Neil. The family lived in Chicago, Galesburg, and Monmouth before returning to Tampico. In 1920, they settled in Dixon, Illinois, living in a house near the H. C. Pitney Variety Store Building.

Reagan attended Dixon High School, where he developed interests in drama and football.^[20] His first job was as a lifeguard at the Rock River in Lowell Park.^[21] In 1928, Reagan began attending Eureka College, which Nelle approved because of its affiliation with the Disciples of Christ.^[23] He was a mediocre student^[24] who participated in sports, drama, and campus politics. He became student body president and joined a student strike that resulted in the college president's resignation. Reagan was initiated as a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity and served as president of the local chapter.^[26] Reagan played at the guard position for the 1930 and 1931 Eureka Red Devils football teams and recalled a time when two Black teammates were refused service at a segregated hotel; he invited them to his parents' home nearby in Dixon and his parents welcomed them. At the time, his parents' stance on racial questions was unusually progressive in Dixon. Reagan himself had grown up with very few Black Americans and was oblivious to racial discrimination.

Entertainment career

Further information: Ronald Reagan filmography

Radio and film

After obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in economics and sociology from Eureka College in 1932,^[30] Reagan took a job in Davenport, Iowa, as a sports broadcaster for four football games in the Big Ten Conference.^[31] He then worked for WHO radio in Des Moines as a broadcaster for the Chicago Cubs. His specialty was creating play-by-play accounts of games using only basic descriptions that the station received by wire as the games were in progress.^[32] Simultaneously, he often expressed his opposition to racism. In 1936, while traveling with the Cubs to their spring training in California, Reagan took a screen test that led to a seven-year contract with Warner Bros.

Reagan arrived at Hollywood in 1937, debuting in Love Is on the Air (1937).^[35] Using a simple and direct approach to acting and following his directors' instructions, Reagan made thirty films, mostly B films, before beginning military service in April 1942. He broke out of these types of films by portraying George Gipp in Knute Rockne, All American (1940), which would be rejuvenated when reporters called Reagan "the Gipper" while he campaigned for president. Reagan starred in Kings Row (1942) as a leg amputee; this performance was considered his best by many critics. Reagan became a star, with Gallup polls placing him "in the top 100 stars" from 1941 to 1942.

World War II interrupted the movie stardom that Reagan would never be able to achieve again as Warner Bros. became uncertain about his ability to generate ticket sales. Reagan, who had a limited acting range, was dissatisfied with the roles he received. Lew Wasserman renegotiated his contract with his studio, allowing him to also make films with Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, and RKO Pictures as a freelancer. Reagan appeared in multiple western films, something that had been denied to him while working at Warner Bros. In 1952, he ended his relationship with Warner Bros., but went on to appear in a total of 53 films, his last being The Killers (1964).

Military service

In April 1937, Reagan enlisted in the United States Army Reserve. He was assigned as a private in Des Moines' 322nd Cavalry Regiment and reassigned to second lieutenant in the Officers Reserve Corps. He later became a part of the 323rd Cavalry Regiment in California. As relations between the United States and Japan worsened, Reagan was ordered for active duty while he was filming Kings Row. Wasserman and Warner Bros. lawyers successfully sent draft deferments to complete the film in October 1941. However, to avoid accusations of Reagan being a draft dodger, the studio let him go in April 1942.^[47]

Reagan reported for duty with severe near-sightedness. His first assignment was at Fort Mason as a liaison officer, a role that allowed him to transfer to the United States Army Air Forces (AAF). Reagan became an AAF public relations officer and was assigned to the 18th AAF Base Unit in Culver City where he felt that it was "impossible to remove an incompetent or lazy worker" due to what he felt was "the incompetence, the delays, and inefficiencies" of the federal bureaucracy. Despite this, Reagan participated in the Provisional Task Force Show Unit in Burbank and continued to make theatrical films.^[51] He was also ordered to temporary duty in New York City to participate in the sixth War Loan Drive before being reassigned to Fort MacArthur until his discharge on December 9, 1945, as a captain. Throughout his military service, Reagan produced over 400 training films.

When Robert Montgomery resigned as president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) on March 10, 1947, Reagan was elected to that position in a special election. Reagan's first tenure saw various labor–management disputes, the Hollywood blacklist, and the Taft–Hartley Act's implementation. Reagan aligned the union with the studios against the Conference of Studio Unions in the aftermath of the Hollywood Black Friday strike. In The Invisible Bridge,Rick Perlstein wrote that Reagan's actions lent legitimacy to the studio's efforts to crush the more radical union by giving liberals in SAG who did not want to strike "a story that turned them into moral innocents instead of scabs."^[56] On April 10, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) interviewed Reagan and he provided the names of actors whom he believed to be communist sympathizers. During a House Un-American Activities Committee hearing, Reagan testified that some guild members were associated with the Communist Party and that he was well-informed about a "jurisdictional strike". When asked if he was aware of communist efforts within the Screen Writers Guild, he called information about the efforts "hearsay".^[60] Reagan resigned as SAG president November 10, 1952, but remained on the board.

The SAG fought with film producers for the right to receive residual payments, and on November 16, 1959, the board elected Reagan SAG president for the second time.^[63] Reagan managed to secure payments for actors whose theatrical films had been released between 1948 and 1959 and subsequently televised. The producers were initially required to pay the actors fees, but they ultimately settled instead for providing pensions and paying residuals for films made after 1959. Reagan resigned from the SAG presidency on June 7, 1960, and also left the board.

Marriages and children

In January 1940, Reagan married Jane Wyman, his co-star in the 1938 film Brother Rat.^[65] Together, they had two biological daughters: Maureen in 1941, and Christine in 1947 (born prematurely and died the following day). They adopted one son, Michael, in 1945. Wyman filed for divorce in June 1948. She was uninterested in politics, and occasionally recriminated, reconciled and separated with him. Although Reagan was unprepared, the divorce was finalized in July 1949. Reagan would remain close to his children. Later that year, Reagan met Nancy Davis after she contacted him in his capacity as the SAG president about her name appearing on a communist blacklist in Hollywood; she had been mistaken for another Nancy Davis.^[70] They married in March 1952,^[71] and had two children, Patti in October 1952, and Ron in May 1958.^[72] Reagan has three grandchildren.^[73]

Television

Reagan became the host of MCA Inc. television production General Electric Theater at Wasserman's recommendation. It featured multiple guest stars,^[74] and Ronald and Nancy Reagan, continuing to use her stage name Nancy Davis, acted together in three episodes. When asked how Reagan was able to recruit such stars to appear on the show during television's infancy, he replied, "Good stories, top direction, production quality".^[76] However, the viewership declined in the 1960s and the show was canceled in 1962.^[77] In 1965, Reagan became the host^[78] of another MCA production, Death Valley Days.

Early political activities

Reagan began his political career as a Democrat, viewing Franklin D. Roosevelt as "a true hero". He joined the American Veterans Committee and Hollywood Independent Citizens Committee of the Arts, Sciences and Professions (HICCASP), worked with the AFL–CIO to fight right-to-work laws, and continued to speak out against racism when he was in Hollywood. In 1945, Reagan planned to lead an HICCASP anti-nuclear rally, but Warner Bros. prevented him from going. In 1946, he appeared in a radio program called Operation Terror to speak out against rising Ku Klux Klan activity, calling it a "capably organized systematic campaign of fascist violence and intimidation and horror".