A showman to the very end

RONALD REAGAN, the B-movie star who became the 40th President of the United States, was the only professional actor to have reached the White House.

Named Ronald Wilson Reagan, he was born in a rented apartment above a bakery in Tampico, Illinois, on February 6, 1911. His father, an itinerant salesman and a heavy drinker, took one look at his bawling child and said: "For such a little bit of a fat Dutchman, he makes a hell of a lot of noise."

The nickname "Dutch" stuck. He lived in various Illinois communities, with his father barely able to eke out a living for his wife and two sons.

Reagan was said to be an average-to-good student, but his studies competed with his extra-curricular activities, such as sports and school plays.

He graduated from Eureka (Illinois) College in 1932 and for the next five years worked as a radio broadcaster, announcing baseball and football games throughout the Midwest.

Reagan then moved to Hollywood and switched to acting for nearly the next 30 years (1937 to 1965), playing the lead in B pictures and supporting roles in A movies.

His 51 pictures included Love is on the Air, Sergeant Murphy, Brother Rat, Dark Victory, Hell's Kitchen, Knute Rockne All American, Kings Row, That Hagen girl, The Girl from Jones Beach, The Winning Team, and Bedtime for Bonzo in which he played second string to a chimpanzee.

In the midst of his Hollywood career, from 1942 to 1945, Reagan served in the US Army Air Force First Motion Picture Unit, narrating training films.

When he was 28, in 1940, he married film star Jane Wyman, 26, at the Wee Kirk o'Heather wedding chapel near Hollywood. The two eventually separated, reconciled briefly, and in May, 1948, separated permanently. They had a daughter, Maureen, and adopted a son, Michael.

Reagan thus also became the first president to have been divorced. In 1952, at the age of 41, Reagan married Nancy Davis, 30, whom he also met in Hollywood and who was to become the First Lady. This marriage produced another daughter, Patricia Ann, and a son, Ronald.

Meanwhile, Reagan served as president of the Screen Actors Guild for two separate periods between 1947 and 1960. It was at this time that he underwent a political transformation from what he called "a near hopeless haemophiliac liberal" Democrat who "bled for causes" to a staunchly conservative Republican.

He ran for and won the governorship of California in 1967, an office he held until 1975. He raised taxes to record levels and doubled the state budget, despite his vow to restrict.

But after unsuccessful bids for the Republican presidential nomination in both 1968 and 1976, he secured the nomination in 1980. Jimmy Carter was feeble and vulnerable because of the Iranian hostage crisis and a terrible economy.

Reagan thus swept in by a landslide. Four years later, Reagan was to win again, with the largest number of electoral votes in history.

Throughout his two terms, from 1981 to 1989, Reagan's brand of Republican conviction politics ensured a firm and enduring friendship with Margaret Thatcher, and the US-United Kingdom special relationship was never closer than during those years.

At the age of 69, Reagan was the oldest man to have been elected President. His huge personal popularity coupled with the failings of the colourless Jimmy "the peanut farmer" Carter, enabled him to restore the Republicans to the White House.

His victory provoked scenes of joy, for Carter was seen as a narrow-minded old puritan, even though he was 13 years younger than his successor.

Once more champagne flowed in the White House which had been dull and dry throughout the Carter years.

He focused much of his presidency on the economy his particular brand came to be known as "Reaganomics" and on the cold war. He vastly increased military spending, driving the federal budget deficit in 1984 up to more than 180 billion.

During his years in power, Reagan saw the deaths of three Soviet leaders: Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Cherenenko. This presented him with a new and completely different challenge, the relatively young Kremlin successor Mikhail Gorbachev.

Soviet-US relations were in a parlous state, especially as Reagan had referred to Russia as an "empire of evil". And at one point, Reagan became known largely because of his movie career, decades earlier as the "cowboy president" eager for a showdown with the Kremlin.

Sometimes he alarmed his allies by the ferocity of his anti-communist rhetoric, though he softened his position during the 1984 re-election campaign, and succeeded in dividing Americans over his hard-line approach towards Marxist Cuba and Nicaragua.

It was a bumpy relationship with the much younger Gorbachev, that had its highs and lows. And Reagan's presidency was punctuated by crises in foreign policy but with successes in his dealings with Congress on domestic issues.

But when he left the White House, just days short of his 78th birthday, he could have boasted if he had chosen to that the cold war with the Soviet Union had nearly thawed, and several Eastern Bloc nations had either broken free or were on the verge of breaking free from Kremlin domination.

This was achieved through tough talking, tough negotiating and one or two hair-raising events as well.

But his friendship with Thatcher was tested in 1983 by the US invasion of Grenada, a member of the Commonwealth with a Marxist Government. She was furious that this took place with Britain and in particular the Queen kept in the dark.

However, Reagan withstood her fury, actually observing: "She will get over it." He was right. The end product was the elimination of an unpopular socialist regime, and the invasion did not affect their personal relationship.

His worst moment was on March 30, 1981, when, at the age of 70, he was shot in an assassination attempt by a young drifter, John Hinckley.

The bullet entered his left side, bounced off his seventh rib, punctured and collapsed a lung, and lodged an inch from his heart.

Reagan charmed Americans with his good humour during what was a frightening ordeal. When the injured president was sped to hospital, he joked to his wife Nancy: "Honey, I forgot to duck." Astonishingly, he was back in the White House 12 days after the shooting.

And although he was attacked by his critics as being "dim and dumb", Reagan was actually a quick-witted individual and a leader, unafraid to take swift and tough decisions, a man who scorned detail but wielded the broad brush with masterly effect.

But the old showbusiness side of him never deserted Reagan, with his homespun, often sentimental quotes and genuinely genial nature. His goal, he said, was to make the United States "walk tall" abroad. Another time he said: "You ain't seen nothing yet." And the Americans loved him for it.

Quotes

"I pray that as America reflects on the passing of my dad, they will remember a man of integrity, conviction and good humour that changed America and the world for the better." Michael Reagan

"He leaves behind a nation he restored and a world he helped save. He laid to rest an era of division and self-doubt and because of his leadership the world laid to rest an era of fear and tyranny." George W Bush

"Ronald Reagan had a higher claim than any other leader to have won the Cold War for liberty and he did it without a shot being fired. To have achieved so much against so many odds and with such humour and humanity made Ronald Reagan a truly great American hero." Margaret Thatcher

Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi, whose 15-month-old daughter died in a US air strike: "I express my profound regrets over Reagan's death before he appeared before justice to be held to account for his ugly crime in 1986 against Libyan children."

"His efforts to bring down communism changed the lives of millions of people."

Pope John Paul II

"Every person I interviewed, almost without exception, eventually would say 'You know, I could never really figure him out'." Reagan's official biographer Edmund Morris

"Contrary to the image that he was just steered around by people, Reagan knew what he wanted to do and that was that." George Shultz, Secretary of State, 1982-88

Many have long since forgotten or dismissed from their minds the fact that at the time they were amused or even felt embarrassed by these words ('Mr Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall.'). Ronald Reagan meant what he said and he was right." Former German chancellor Helmut Kohl

"Betty and I are deeply saddened by the passing of our long-time friend, President Reagan. Ronald Reagan was an excellent leader of our nation during challenging times at home and abroad. We extend our deepest condolences and prayers to Nancy and his family." Gerald Ford

"We had been political opponents and became close friends. Barbara and I mourn the loss of a great president and for us a great friend.

"He could take a stand ... and do it without creating bitterness or creating enmity on the part of other people." George Bush Senior

"Hillary and I will always remember President Ronald Reagan for the way he personified the indomitable optimism of the American people, and for keeping America at the forefront of the fight for freedom for people everywhere. It is fitting that a piece of the Berlin Wall adorns the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington." Bill Clinton.