Ron Reagan - Early Life

Early Life

Reagan was born in Los Angeles, California, and grew up on the road in Los Angeles, and then Sacramento, while his father was governor of California from 1967 to 1975. He has a sister, Patti Davis, five and a half years his senior, and a brother, Michael Reagan, who was adopted as an infant by Ronald Reagan and his first wife, Jane Wyman. He also had two half-sisters who were born to Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman who are deceased: Maureen Reagan and Christine Reagan, who was born prematurely June 26, 1947 and died later the same day. Ron Reagan is the son of Nancy Davis Reagan.

Reagan undertook a different philosophical and political path from his famous father at an early age. At 12, he became an atheist and told his parents that he wouldn't be going to church any more.

Reagan was expelled from The Webb Schools of California, a private prep school. He commented:

"They thought I was a bad influence on the other kids. As I recall, the immediate reason was I went to a dance at a neighboring girl’s school in a classmate’s car. This was an infraction. They had been looking for an excuse. I didn’t get caught at anything."

Reagan dropped out of Yale University in 1976 after one semester to become a ballet dancer. He joined the Joffrey Ballet in pursuit of his lifelong dream.

Time wrote in 1980: "It is widely known that Ron's parents have not managed to see a single ballet performance of their son, who is clearly very good, having been selected to the Joffrey second company, and is their son nonetheless. Ron talks of his parents with much affection. But these absences are strange and go back a ways." Ronald and Nancy Reagan did once see him perform at the Met.

President Reagan and Nancy went to see Ron Jr. perform at the Lisner Auditorium on Monday, May 18, 1981. President Reagan commented in his White House diary on this day that Ron's performance was reminiscent of Fred Astaire.

In 1986, while his father was president, Reagan hosted Saturday Night Live and performed his own version of the "underwear dance" made famous by Tom Cruise in Risky Business. His appearance made him the first and, so far, only child of a U.S. president to host the program.