Ronald Reagan
A radio announcer, film actor and union president who governed California for eight years and won two presidential terms by large electoral margins.
Biography
Reagan worked his way through a small Illinois college during the Depression, washing dishes and playing football, then became a sports announcer in Iowa and a Warner Brothers contract actor in 1937. He spent the war making training films in the First Motion Picture Unit, having been barred from combat duty by his eyesight, and served six terms as president of the Screen Actors Guild.
A Democrat into his fifties, he moved right over the 1950s while touring for General Electric, campaigned for Barry Goldwater in 1964, and was elected governor of California in 1966. He challenged Gerald Ford for the nomination in 1976 and won the presidency in 1980.
His two terms covered the Volcker disinflation and the severe 1981–82 recession, large cuts in marginal income-tax rates followed by several revenue-raising bills, a tripling of the federal debt, the 1986 tax reform, the air-traffic controllers’ strike, the Iran-Contra affair, the Strategic Defense Initiative, the INF Treaty with Mikhail Gorbachev, and the appointment of Sandra Day O’Connor as the first woman on the Supreme Court.
Education
- Dixon High School, Illinois, Graduated (1928)
- Eureka College, Illinois, B.A. in economics and sociology (1932)
Military service
United States Army Reserve from 1937; called up in 1942 and assigned to the First Motion Picture Unit, as poor eyesight ruled out combat duty; captain at his 1945 discharge.
Offices held before the presidency
- President, Screen Actors Guild, 1947–1952 and 1959–1960
- Governor of California, 1967–1975