Ronald Reagan Filmography - Entertainment Career

Entertainment Career

Reagan, born in Illinois, moved to California and took a screen test in 1937 that led to a seven-year contract with Warner Bros. 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". While sometimes overshadowed by other actors, Reagan's screen performances did receive many good reviews.

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. 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.

Before 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". In 1941 exhibitors voted him the fifth most popular star from the younger generation in Hollywood. Reagan's favorite acting role was as a double amputee in 1942's Kings Row, 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, though the film was condemned by The New York Times critic Bosley Crowther. Although Reagan considered Kings Row the film that "made me a star", he was unable to capitalize on his success because he was ordered to active duty two months after its release, and never regained the "stardom" which he had previously enjoyed.

After the outbreak of war, Reagan, an officer in the Army Reserve, was ordered to active duty in April 1942. 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. In January 1943, he was sent to the Provisional Task Force Show Unit of This Is The Army at Burbank, California. He returned to the First Motion Picture Unit after completing this duty and was promoted to Captain. By the end of the war, his units had produced some 400 training films for the AAF 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 (SAG). He was subsequently chosen by the membership to serve seven additional one-year terms, from 1947 to 1952 and in 1959. 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.

He met fellow star Nancy Davis in 1950 and they married two years later; the marriage, one of the closest in U.S. political history, resulted in two children: Patti and Ron. Reagan continued his acting career, making films such as The Voice of the Turtle, Bedtime for Bonzo, The Winning Team and Cattle Queen of Montana. Though an early critic of television, Reagan landed fewer film roles in the late 1950s and decided to join the medium. He was hired as the host of General Electric Theater, a series of weekly dramas that became very popular. His contract required him to tour General Electric (GE) plants 16 weeks out of the year, often demanding of him 14 speeches per day. Eventually, the ratings for Reagan's show fell off and GE dropped Reagan in 1962. Reagan, a liberal Democrat, soon began to embrace the conservative views of General Electric's officials, in particular those of Lemuel Boulware. The GE executive championed the core tenets of modern American conservatism: free markets, anticommunism, lower taxes, and limited government. After General Electric Theatre, Reagan became a politician and in 1980 was elected to President of the United States.

Throughout his film career, his mother often answered much of his fan mail. Ronald Reagan was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame when the walk was dedicated on February 9, 1960.