Before he was leader of the free world, Ronald Reagan was the leader of Hollywood in his role as president of the Screen Actors Guild (he served a five-year stint beginning in 1947 and took up the post again in 1959). Born Feb. 6, 1911, in Tampico, Ill., Reagan was a radio sportscaster before landing a contract with Warner Bros. in 1937 and making his film debut later that year in Love Is on the Air.An amiable screen presence if not a towering acting talent, Reagan made more than a dozen B movies over the next two years before landing a role in the Bette Davis weeper Dark Victory (1939). A year later, he played Notre Dame football hero George "the Gipper" Gipp in the 1940 biopic Knute Rockne All American.
Other films of note for the former president include Bedtime for Bonzo (1951), Hellcats of the Navy (1957) and The Killers (1964). Reagan died June 5, 2004.
Hellcats of the NavySubmarine Capt. Casey Abbott (Ronald Reagan) is given the perilous mission of stopping the flow of supplies between China and Japan. He rises to the occasion, but his job is complicated when a diver who's got his eye on Abbott's paramour (played by former first lady Nancy Reagan, then known as Nancy... Read More
The Hasty HeartAt the end of the war, Scottish Cpl. Lachlan MacLachlan (Richard Todd) is detained in a military hospital on account of a lower-back wound. Unaware that his injury is fatal, the prickly patient is befriended by an American GI (Ronald Reagan) and a compassionate nurse who are adamant about hiding the... Read More
Bedtime for BonzoPsychology professor Peter Boyd (Ronald Reagan) plays dad to a chimp to prove himself to his future father-in-law in this madcap comedy. Peter's in love with the dean's daughter, but her pop refuses to accept Peter because his father was a convict. In order to prove that wrongful actions are... Read More
This Is the ArmyAmerica's most beloved popular composer, Irving Berlin, wrote this wartime musical tribute to honor (and fund) the patriotic efforts of American soldiers. Berlin himself appears in full doughboy regalia to sing "Oh How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning," as does singer Kate Smith, who delivers a... Read More
Law and OrderAfter lawman Frame Johnson (Ronald Reagan) chases the criminal element out of Tombstone, Arizona, he decides to move to Cottonwood -- with his girlfriend, Jeannie (Dorothy Malone), his brothers, Lute and Jimmy, and their friend, undertaker Denver Cahoon -- to live peacefully as a rancher. Too late,... Read More
