Nancy Reagan

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Nancy Reagan (1983)
Ronald and Nancy Reagan (1952) cut their wedding cake.
USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) in command Capt. James A. Symonds, hands Nancy Reagan the flag that wrapped her husband's coffin.

Nancy Reagan (born July 6, 1921 in Manhattan , New York City , New York ; born Anne Frances Robbins , † March 6, 2016 in Bel Air , Los Angeles , California ) was an American actress and wife of Ronald Reagan (1911 –2004), the 40th President of the United States , whom she married in 1952. As such, she was the First Lady of the United States during her husband's tenure from 1981 to 1989 .

Life

Nancy Reagan was born in 1921 to Kenneth Seymour Robbins (1894–1972) and Edith Luckett (1896–1987); her mother starred in some films during the silent film era . Her godmother was the famous actress Alla Nazimova . When Nancy was six years old, her mother married neurosurgeon Loyal Davis. He adopted Nancy and she grew up in Chicago . She graduated from Smith College in Northampton , Massachusetts. Davis had majored in theater.

She quickly found work as a professional actress. She appeared on Broadway in the play Lute Song and eventually came to Hollywood , where she starred in twelve films until 1957. Her first role in William Dieterle's film Jenny (1948) was not named in the credits. This only changed with the next film The Doctor and the Girl (1949). From then on she was mainly cast as the leading lady in some B-films , including The Next Voice You Hear ... (1950) with James Whitmore or Donovans Hirn (1953) with Lew Ayres . In one of her last films, Hellcats of the Navy (1957), she starred at the side of her husband.

Davis and Reagan met in 1949 when he was president of the Screen Actors Guild ; she asked him for help with the stalking of the HUAC communist hunters, who had banned them from their profession due to a mix-up. It wasn't love at first sight, the president's wife later recalled, but it was probably something similar. In any case, the functionary was able to help, and both married on March 4, 1952 in Los Angeles; Groomsmen and at the same time the only ceremony guests were Reagan's prominent professional colleagues William Holden and Brenda Marshall . Their daughter Patricia Ann Davis was born in October 1952. 1958 followed the son Ronald Prescott Reagan . Both children later worked for American television. In the early 1960s, Nancy Reagan ended her acting career with a few television appearances.

When Ronald Reagan was governor of California from 1967 to 1975 , his wife worked for numerous charities. She visited veterans, the elderly, but also mentally and physically disabled people. In particular, over the years she campaigned for the fight against drug use among young people ( Just Say No ). In 1985 she held a conference at the White House on the subject to gain international attention for the subject.

Nancy Reagan always chose very conservative clothing that was exemplary for many women in the world. Equally conservative were their attitudes towards the family and their attitude towards homosexuality .

After serving as First Lady of the United States, Nancy Reagan and her husband retired to California. Her book, My Turn, about life in the White House was published in 1989. She rarely made public during this time. In 2002 she gave an extensive interview to ABC correspondent Diane Sawyer . In the same year, US President George W. Bush presented Reagan with the Medal of Freedom ("The Presidential Medal of Freedom"), the highest civilian honor in the United States. Her husband died on June 5, 2004 after a long period of Alzheimer's disease . Even as a widow, she had various public appearances in her final years.

Nancy Reagan died of heart failure on March 6, 2016, at the age of 94. Her body was buried next to her husband at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library 5 days later .

Filmography (selection)

  • 1948: Jenny (Portrait of Jenny)
  • 1949: The Doctor and the Girl
  • 1949: Lost Game (East Side, West Side)
  • 1950: Shadow on the Wall
  • 1950: The Next Voice You Hear ...
  • 1951: Night Into Morning
  • 1951: It's a Big Country: An American Anthology
  • 1952: Talk About a Stranger
  • 1952: Shadow in the Sky
  • 1953: Donovan's Brain (Donovan's Brain)
  • 1956: The Dark Wave (documentary short film)
  • 1957: Hellcats of the Navy
  • 1958: Crash Landing
  • 1962: Wagon Train (TV series, episode The Sam Darland Story )

literature

  • Jaaon Roberts: Nancy Reagan. In Katherine AS Sibley (Ed.): A Companion to First Ladies. Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester 2016, ISBN 978-1-118-73222-9 , pp. 585-603.

Honors

Web links

Commons : Nancy Reagan  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Nancy Reagan dead. tmz.com , March 6, 2016, accessed March 6, 2016.
    Former US First Lady: Nancy Reagan is dead. In: Spiegel Online , March 6, 2016, accessed March 6, 2016.
  2. The best looks by Nancy Reagan ( Memento of the original from March 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in www.friday-magazine.ch from March 2016 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.friday-magazine.ch
  3. Nancy Reagan is dead. In: srf.ch. March 7, 2016, accessed March 7, 2016 .
  4. Elisha Fieldstadt, Hasani Gittens: Former First Lady Nancy Reagan Dead at 94 . NBC News , March 6, 2016.
    Lou Cannon: Nancy Reagan, to Influential and Stylish First Lady, Dies at 94 . The New York Times , March 6, 2016.
    Will Dunham: Former first lady Nancy Reagan dies at 94 . Thomson Reuters , March 6, 2016.