RONALD REAGAN:
C.McGivern and Fred Landesman
… this full colour, impressively weighty biography, concentrates
on the movie career of Ronald Reagan; a first career, founded in an explosive era that generated such powerful Presidential politics two decades later. Sadly, Reagan’s diverse collection of films tends to be scoffed at by the scholarly, and they are today largely ignored, obscured behind his later political achievements. But, for those wanting to understand what made this charismatically popular President of the United States of America tick, his Hollywood years must be looked at in depth. For it was there he learned the actor’s skills that allowed the politician to communicate so effectively. The unusually close relationships he was later able to forge with world leaders and the American public makes little sense without the framework of their development.
He was a major Hollywood player. He starred in some classic film contributions. He enjoyed the company of some of the day’s favorite leading female stars; he married two of them. He worked with top producers and directors. From his very early days as a film star, he was deeply involved in Hollywood’s politics, and his broad-smiling affability and silky voice hid the steel that would lead him right to the top.
Indispensable account of Ronald Reagan’s formative years and exhaustive, no frills filmography, including over 200 capsule biographies and anecdotes of Reagan’s co-casts and crews. You will meet them all, Errol Flynn to Jane Wyman, screen writers to musicians, directors, producers and every one else who may have brushed against the man who would be President of the United States... ...Loaded with stills, movie production notes, synopses, financial records and reviews…
A wonderful flavor of the Golden Hollywood years.
"The future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted. It belongs to the brave."
Ronald Reagan, 1986
"Here lies a gracious man…"
C.McGivern has written a number of biographies including John Wayne; A Giant Shadow ISBN 0-9540031-6-0 Fred Landesman also wrote The John Wayne Filmography published by McFarland Publishing.