Thousands gathered over the weekend to celebrate what would have been the 100th birthday of Ronald Reagan, a seldom-known B-movie actor from 1937 to 1964. The star of such films as Angels Wash Their Faces, Hellcats of the Navy, and Tugboat Annie Sails Again, Reagan had attracted a rather cultish fan base over the years; fans who may have been drawn to him by their love of mediocre cinema. Never able to break fully into the mainstream, he shared time between film and television beginning in 1950, acting in over 35 teleplays for the General Electric Theater. Perhaps his greatest contribution would be that of a labor leader, as he was elected president of the Screen Actors Guild in 1947. Not much is known about him personally, other than that he divorced his first wife in 1949 to marry Nancy Davis, an actress whose name had appeared on a Hollywood blacklist that very year. After his final role in 1964’s The Killers, he retired to the California countryside to live out the remainder of his years, eventually dying in 2004 after an 18-year bout with Alzheimer’s. His career was the subject of a short-form documentary by the band Genesis in 1986.
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