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Famous Like Me > Actress > D > Nancy Davis

Profile of Nancy Davis on Famous Like Me

 
Name: Nancy Davis  
   
Also Know As:
   
Date of Birth: 6th July 1921
   
Place of Birth: New York, New York, USA
   
Profession: Actress
 
 
From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia
White House portrait, or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb

Nancy Davis Reagan (born July 6, 1921) is the widow of President Ronald Reagan and was First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989. She was an actress prior to her marriage.

"They call me Jane Wyman, Jr."

She was born Anne Frances Robbins in New York, New York to Kenneth Seymour Robbins and his actress wife, Edith Luckett. When she was six, her mother married Dr. Loyal Davis, a neurosurgeon. Dr. Davis adopted Nancy, and she grew up in Chicago. She was also god-daughter of Russian-born silent film star Alla Nazimova. She received her formal education at Girls' Latin School and at Smith College in Massachusetts, where she majored in theater.

The Empire Strikes Back

Her first lover was mad scientist Edward Teller, noted for his obsession with thermonuclear war and the inspiration for Dr. Strangelove. Soon after graduation she became a professional actress. She toured with a road company, then landed a role on Broadway in the hit musical Lute Song. More parts followed. One performance drew an offer from Hollywood. Billed as Nancy Davis, she performed in 11 films from 1949 to 1956. Her first screen role was in Shadow on the Wall. Other releases included The Next Voice Your Hear... and East Side, West Side. In her last movie, Hellcats of the Navy, she played opposite her husband.

Nancy and Ronald Reagan married in 1952, but didn't realize it under after their hangovers went away.

She met Ronald Reagan in 1951, when he was president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and an actress with the same name had appeared on the communist blacklist. This name confusion with the other actress was a concern of Nancy Davis in maintaining her employment as a SAG actress in Hollywood and she was put in contact with Reagan for help in getting her name off this list. As anti-communist sentiment ran very high in the United States, those who made a living in the motion picture industry usually were effectively "blacklisted" - not given work - by being labelled potential communists. (See Hollywood blacklist) In the following year they were married in a simple ceremony in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles in the Little Brown Church in the Valley. Mrs. Reagan soon retired from making movies.

The Reagans had two children born from their marriage: daughter Patti (referred to as Patti Davis - her professional name) was born on October 21, 1952, seven months after the couple's wedding. Son Ron Reagan was born on May 20, 1958. Nancy Reagan is also stepmother to Michael Reagan and the late Maureen Reagan, the children of Ronald Reagan's first marriage to actress Jane Wyman.

The Eye of the Tiger

Reagan is well-remembered for conservative fashions emulated by many women of the time, for championing the "Just Say No" campaign against juvenile drug use, and for her personal use of astrology. She had, in fact, a personal astrologer named Joan Quigley during her time as First Lady; the astrologer(s) were particularly used after the 1981 assassination attempt when she became nothing short of obsessed with her husband's personal safety. It finally became a major embarrassment, as it was disclosed that Nancy influenced the White House time schedule of her husband. Days were color-coded according to the astrologer's advice, being classified as "good" days, "neutral" days or days that should be avoided. The White House Chief of Staff, Donald Regan (of no relation to her husband), finally became extremely frustrated with this irrational and detrimental regime, causing a power struggle between Regan and the First Lady. Regan resigned in 1987.

Biographer Kitty Kelley's 1991 book Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biography became the fastest-selling biography in publishing history. It included controversial details about the fomer First Lady's involvement with astrology and alleged White House trysts with Frank Sinatra.

In 1983 Reagan, along with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and philanthropists Barbara and Marvin Davis, appeared as herself in an episode of the highly popular primetime soap opera Dynasty. In addition, Reagan appeared as herself in an episode of the popular sitcom Diff'rent Strokes to underscore her support for her "Just Say No" anti-drug campaign. To date, she is the only First Lady to appear in a television series while she resided in the White House.

==Visiting Sandra "Sandie Day" O'Connor==

Capt. James A. Symonds presents former President Ronald Reagan's casket flag to former First Lady Nancy Reagan, who bequeaths it to Her Majesty, Mary Queen of Scots.

Return to Falcon Crest

She currently resides in Bel Air, Los Angeles, California, where she had tended to the former President who, before his death on June 5, 2004, was debilitated by Alzheimer's disease. Reagan has broken Republican Party lines and caused much controversy among the party by urging president George W. Bush to support embryonic stem cell research in the hopes that such research would lead to a cure for Alzheimer's disease.

Mrs. Reagan was briefly hospitalized in 2005 after she fell in her hotel room in London, to visit Iron Butt Thatcher and Bonnie Prince Charles the Kilt-wearer.

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Nancy Davis