Ronald Reagan

Trivia of Ronald Reagan (6 February 1911 - 5 June 2004)

*Reagan enrolled in 1928 at Eureka College in Eureka, Illinois. He majored in economics but was an indifferent student, graduating with a "C" average in 1932. At Eureka, he played football and was a member of the college swim team, performed with the drama club, joined the debate club, worked as a reporter on the school newspaper, edited the college yearbook, and served as president of the student council.

*After graduation, Reagan landed a job as a radio sportscaster at WOC in Davenport, Iowa, for $10 per game and transportation expenses. His lively imagination and resonant radio voice compensated for his inexperience in radio. He found that if he memorized the first line of a commercial, everything he read would sound "natural," a technique he used in radio for the rest of his life.

*Standing six-foot, one-inch tall, with wavy brown hair, blue eyes, and an inviting broadcaster's voice, Reagan possessed many attributes that portended a successful movie career. Moreover, he had enjoyed acting since his teenage years. In 1937, he went to California to cover the spring training of the Chicago Cubs—and to meet a Hollywood agent. By chance, Warner Brothers was seeking a new actor to replace a promising young star who had died in a car accident, and Reagan vaguely resembled him. He took a screen test for Warner Brothers, and the studio immediately offered him a then-munificent $200-a-week contract.

*As a Hollywood movie actor from 1937 to 1957, Reagan appeared in more than 50 films. His breakthrough film was Knute Rockne—All American (1940), the story of Notre Dame's legendary football coach.William Holden, John Wayne, Robert Young, and Robert Cummings were considered for the role of George Gipp, but only Dennis Morgan and Ronald Reagan tested for it, with Morgan having the edge until the last minute.Ronald Reagan once said of his role that though there were those who could have played it better, nobody wanted the role more than he did.

*Reagan and many film critics believed that his best acting performance came in the screen version of the Henry Bellaman novel Kings Row (1952) co-starring with Ann Sheridan and Robert Cummings.Reagan played Drake McHugh, a playboy, who awakens to find that his legs have been amputated by a sadistic surgeon.

*Hollywood changed Ronald Reagan's world, on- and off-screen. He met the talented Jane Wyman during the filming of Brother Rat (1938), Reagan's ninth film and one of the best of his B-division efforts. Their romance blossomed.Reagan and Wyman married on January 26, 1940, and were promoted by Hollywood as the "ideal couple." They had a daughter Maureen in 1941 and adopted a son Michael in 1945.While Wyman scaled the top rungs of film stardom and Reagan battled to recapture his pre-war popularity, their marriage fell apart. They were divorced in 1948. Four years later, after a period that Reagan described as the unhappiest of his life, he began seeing actress Nancy Davis. She had been moderately successful in ten films and had received good reviews for The Next Voice You Hear (1950) and Night into Morning (1951). But she gave up her acting career for Reagan: they were married on March 4, 1952. They had two children: Patricia, known as Patti Davis, born in 1952 and Ronald Prescott, born in 1958.

*His closest friend in Hollywood was Robert Taylor. The example was Robert Taylor and his wife Ursula were godparents to the Reagans' son, The Reagans became godparents of Robert and Ursula's daughter.The Reagans and Taylors made mutual arrangements to look after the others’ children if they should be orphaned.Robert Taylor also helped Ronald Reagan in the 1966 California gubernatorial election.Taylor died in 1969 and his funeral was held at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery.Reagan (who was then the governor of California) eulogized Taylor.