Actors - Ronald Reagan

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	Actors - Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was the 40th President of the United States (1981–1989) and the 33rd Governor of California (1967–1975). Before entering politics, Reagan was also a sports broadcaster, newspaper columnist, motion picture actor, head of the Screen Actors Guild, television actor, and a motivational speaker. His speeches were so expertly delivered and persuasive that the media dubbed him the "Great Communicator".

Reagan defeated incumbent President Jimmy Carter to win the election in 1980, carrying along the first Republican-dominated U.S. Senate in 26 years. His economic policy of supply-side economics, popularly known as "Reaganomics" is noted for a 25% cut in the income tax, reduction in inflation, reduction in interest rates, increased military spending, increased deficits and national debt, a temporary solution to the Social Security issue, elimination of loopholes in the tax code, continued deregulation of business, a sharp recession in 1981-1982 followed by a very robust economic expansion starting in '82. In other domestic issues he failed in his efforts to significantly change social policies such as welfare and abortion, but he did move the federal judiciary to the right through appointments to the Supreme Court and other federal courts. From beginning to end he emphasized his skepticism concerning the ability of the federal government to remedy problems.

Both his supporters and many opponents credit him for restoring psychological optimism to an America that seemed in deep malaise in 1980. In foreign policy his administration is noted for the vast buildup of the military and change from containment of the Soviet Union to confrontation. Reagan was committed to the ideologies of democratic capitalism and anti-communism. He is considered by hundreds of historians, political scientists and analysts in Russia and the West to be a leading figure in orchestrating the collapse of Soviet Communism in 1991. There is no controversy regarding his dominant position in the emergence of the American conservative movement. He was reelected in a landslide in the 1984 presidential election, and left office even more popular than when he began. The inability of the numerous scandals during his tenure, including the Iran-Contra Affair, the bombing in Beirut, and convictions of officials in his administration, to negatively impact his approval ratings earned him the nickname, "Teflon President." The decade of the 1980s is sometimes referred to as the "Reagan Eighties."

Reagan was the victim of an assassination attempt on March 30, 1981. He was the only U.S. President to be struck by an assassin's bullet while in office as President and survive. He received a state funeral after his death in Bel-Air, California in 2004 at the age of 93, after suffering from Alzheimer's disease for a decade.

Early life and career

Reagan was born on February 6, 1911, in an apartment above a small bakery in Tampico, Illinois. He was the second of two sons to John "Jack" Reagan, a Catholic of Irish American ancestry, and Nelle Wilson, who was of Scots-Irish and English descent. His paternal great-grandfather, Michael Reagan, came to the United States from Ballyporeen, County Tipperary, Ireland in the 1860s. Prior to his immigration, the family name was spelled Regan. His maternal great-grandfather, John Wilson, immigrated to the United States from Paisley, Scotland in the 1840s.

In 1920, after years of moving from town to town, the family settled in Dixon, Illinois. In 1921, at the age of 10, Reagan was baptized in his mother's Disciples of Christ church in Dixon (although his brother, Neil, became a Catholic, like his father). In 1924 Ronald Reagan began attending Dixon's Northside High School. Reagan always considered Dixon to be his hometown.

In 1927, at age 16, Reagan took a summer job as a lifeguard in Lowell Park, two miles away from Dixon on the nearby Rock River. He continued to work as a lifeguard for the next seven years, reportedly saving 77 people from drowning. Reagan would later joke that none of them ever thanked him. In future years, he would point to that achievement, proudly showing visitors a picture of Rock River in the Oval Office.

In 1928, Reagan entered Eureka College in Eureka, Illinois, majoring in economics and sociology, and graduating in 1932. As a freshman he participated in a student strike against the downsizing of the faculty that was lead by Leslie Pierce, the president of Reagan's pledged fraternity. In the end the college president resigned, but his downsizing went forward. In 1929 Reagan joined the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity which he later recalled as one of the greatest experiences he had during his college years. He rarely studied and earned mediocre grades, but was "Big Man on Campus" as leader of numerous clubs and sports groups, and as student body president he made many lasting friendships.

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Actors - Ronald Reagan

Early life and career

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