Home> Facts and Trivia > Stars > Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan Facts
| Sign | Aquarius |
| Born |
Feb 6, 1911 Tampico, IL |
| Died |
Jun 5, 2004 Bel Air, Los Angeles, CA |
| Age | Died at 93 |
| Total Facts | 82 |
William Holden was the best man at his wedding to Nancy Davis in 1952.
40th president of the United States (20 January 1981 - 20 January 1989).
A month after his death, items from the 40th president's funeral, burial and week-long public viewing were selling fast on the online auction site eBay. The company has sold 780 pieces of Reagan funeral memorabilia since June 11, 2004 for a total of $66,000. The items range from programs (sold for up to $1,525 each) from the interment at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley to gratitude cards given to mourners who visited his casket.
After his presidency he and Nancy Davis moved to 666 St. Cloud Road in Bel Air, California which Ronald lived in until his death. Nancy had the address changed from 666 to 668 due to the fact 666 is known as the devil's number. The house is down the street from 805 St. Cloud Road, the house used in the TV show "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" (1990).
Although he was 30 when the United States entered World War II, he volunteered for military service. He was turned down for combat duty due to his poor eyesight.
Although Reagan advertised cigarettes during his time in Hollywood, he is believed never to have taken up the habit in real life. Some early photographs show him holding a pipe, but it never seems to have been lit. In later life he was very anti-smoking, especially since his best friend Robert Taylor died of lung cancer at the age of 57, and his older brother Neil Reagan lost a vocal chord in cancer surgery.
Although Reagan did not formally become a Republican until 1962, he never endorsed a Democrat after Helen Gahagan 1950 and voted for Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952. He also actively campaigned for Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential election.
Amidst the panic at the hospital after Reagan's assassination attempt, a Secret Service agent was asked information for Reagan's admission forms. The intern asked for Reagan's last name. The agent, who was quite surprised at the question, responded "Reagan". The intern then asked for Reagan's first name. The agent, again surprised, responded "Ronald". The intern didn't look up, instead he unassumingly asked for Reagan's address. The agent paused for a few moments in great surprise before saying "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue". That got the intern's attention.
As a child, Reagan's daughter, Patti Davis, hated political talk so much that whenever politics came up at the dinner table she would deliberately fall out of her seat. This always changed the topic.
As Captain in the U.S. Army, Reagan signed Major Clark Gable's discharge papers in June 1944.
At the time of his death, he was the longest-living President of the United States, at age 93 years and 120 days, equaling 34,088 days. This record was broken by former President Gerald Ford on Monday, November 12th, 2006. Their age difference, in days alone, was only 45 days. Ronald Reagan's lifetime lasted 34,088 days, and Gerald Ford's lifetime lasted 34,133 days. Only 45 days differ in the two oldest Presidents' lifetimes.
Awarded the United States Congressional Gold Medal for ending the "Cold War" against Russia, along with his wife Nancy Davis, for fighting substance abuse among American youths. [May 16th 2002]
Became the first president to have a state funeral in Washington, D.C. since Lyndon Johnson in 1973.
Because of his battle with Alzheimer's disease, he was unaware that his daughter Maureen had died. Wife Nancy understandably chose not to tell him.
Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 446-452. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007.
Both of his children with Nancy Davis, Ron Reagan and Patti Davis, became liberal Democrats.
Continued to play golf with several friends including Bob Hope and Kevin Costner until 1996.
Daughter, with first wife - actress Jane Wyman - Maureen Reagan died on Wednesday, August 8th, 2001, of malignant melanoma (skin cancer) at her Sacramento, California area home.
During the 1980 Presidential campaign, incumbent President Jimmy Carter publicly criticized Reagan for launching his campaign with a speech on states' rights in Philadelphia, Mississippi, the site of the 1964 murder of three civil rights workers immortalized in the film Mississippi Burning (1988). Carter, a former governor of the Deep South state of Georgia who had run as a racial moderate in 1970, claimed that the phrase 'states' rights' was a 'code word' for segregation, as Southerners opposed to federally mandated segregation claimed that federal intervention into the local laws and mores of their states by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were unconstitutional abrogations of the rights of their states to police themselves. Reagan, who had used his opposition to state equal housing laws to defeat Governor Edmund G. Brown in 1965, disavowed any racist intent and the issue was ignored by most voters and pundits. When Carter persisted in trying to portray the affable Reagan as a racist, the strategy boomeranged against the incumbent President and made him seem petty and petulant.
Emceed the first PATSY Awards show (1951) where Francis the Talking Mule was the very first winner. PATSY is an acronym for: Picture Animal Top Star of the Year.
Erroneously attributed the "Ten Cannots" to Abraham Lincoln during the 1992 Republican National Convention ("You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong, etc.") Though Lincoln has been widely and inaccurately credited with the list, it was actually written by Reverend William J.H. Boetcker in 1916, over fifty years after Lincoln's assassination. Maryland Lieutenant Governor (and future RNC chairman)Michael Steele made the same mistake during his speech to the 2004 Republican Convention.
Father of Maureen Reagan and Michael Reagan with Jane Wyman.
Father of Ron Reagan and Patti Davis with Nancy Davis.
For two weeks in 1954, Reagan opened as a stand-up comic at the Ramona Room of the Hotel Last Frontier in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Governor of California. Term of service: 2 January 1967 - 6 January 1975.
Graduate of Eureka College (1932).
Had a photographic memory.
He never actually broadcast Cubs games, he re-created them from telegraph reports while working for Des Moines radio station WHO in the 1930s. He demonstrated the technique of making it sound like he was actually at the games to Cubs broadcaster Harry Caray when he made a guest appearance during part of a Cubs telecast in the 1980s.
He played Chicago Cubs hurler Grover Cleveland Alexander in the film, The Winning Team (1952). He also served temporarily, as a broadcaster for WGN Radio, which broadcasts Cubs baseball games.
He was offered, a role, in animation, of a guest appearance and an off screen voice, on "The Simpsons" (1989), but refused their offer.
He was the first former American president to die in the 21st Century.
He was the first president to beat the "zero factor." Before him, every president elected in a year ending in zero (beginning with 1840) had died in office.
He was the only United States President (as of 2005) to have been a member of a union (the Screen Actors Guild).
His closest friend in Hollywood was Robert Taylor.
His famous nickname "The Great Communicator", was not earned but was requested. Reagan asked for it during his farewell address in 1989.
His first bid for the Presidency was actually in 1968, when he finished 3rd in the balloting at the GOP national convention behind Richard Nixon and Nelson Rockefeller. As the Constitution, in practical terms, forbids the president and vice president from being from the same state (a rule that binds the electoral college), Reagan was not considered for the vice presidency when Spiro Agnew resigned in 1973. Besides, though Reagan supported his fellow Californian Nixon for president, the two were never close. In 1976, he challenged incumbent Gerald Ford (the man whom Nixon appointed Vice President to replace Agnew) for the Republican nomination, won several primaries, but narrowly lost the nomination at the convention. Though Ford confided in people he was considering a run for the presidency in 1980 to forestall Reagan's ascendancy, he never did and Reagan won the nomination and the presidency.
His last public appearance was at Richard Nixon's funeral in April 1994.
His state funeral service took place on the 25th anniversary of the death of his close friend and ally John Wayne.
Honored world champion surfer David Nuuhiwa with a gold medal for Merit.
In 1978, after having served as governor of California but before running for President, Reagan came out against The Briggs Initiative, a ballot initiative introduced by a right-wing Republican state senator named John Briggs, which would have made it illegal for homosexuals to be employed as teachers in the California school system. Reagan strongly and vocally opposed the measure, saying that it infringed upon basic human rights and bordered on being unconstitutional. He is largely credited for turning public opinion against the measure and it was defeated in the election.
In the film, American Beauty (1999), the Fitts family (Chris Cooper, Allison Janney and Wes Bentley) can be seen watching one of Reagan's wartime films, This Is the Army (1943).
Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1989.
Influenced by the Martin Scorsese film Taxi Driver (1976), John Hinckley - the son of a prominent Republican family from Colorado - tried to assassinate Reagan in 1981 in order to impress actress Jodie Foster. Foster had won her first Oscar nomination for the film, in which Robert De Niro's eponymous character, 'Travis Bickle', tried to assassinate a liberal Democratic presidential candidate to impress Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), the woman he is obsessed with. Hinckley was acquitted by a jury on reasons of insanity and (as of 2010) remains incarcerated in a psychiatric facility.
knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, received an honorary British knighthood, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath. This entitled him to the use of the post-nominal letters GCB, but did not entitle him to be known as "Sir Ronald Reagan". [15 June 1989]
Longtime friend of Fess Parker.
Member of Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity.
Member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (AMPAS).
Member of the Eureka College cheerleading squad.
Of Irish decent, his grandfather Micheal Regan immigrated to the United States from Ballyporeen, Ireland in the 1860's. Ballyporeen, a tiny rural farming town in County Tipperary is located in the south-central part of the country and it's inhabitants are frequently referred to as "Midlanders". The Regan's were one of three primary families or "clans" that populated St. Mary's Parish in the village of Ballyporeen. The Ronald Reagan Visitors Centre was built down the street from St. Mary's Church following his visit to his ancestral home in the mid-1980's. Ironically, the spelling of the family name Regan was changed to Reagan after immigrating to the United States.
On Thursday, October 11th, 2001, he became the oldest ex-president in U. S. history, surpassing the previous record-holder, of John Adams.