Ronald Reagan -- Musing About The ACTOR

Cafe Society
21

I saw quite a few of Reagan’s films growing up. I found him extremely likable, kind an eager grownup kid. When put into a role where he had to be intense, his performance was forced. In “King’s Row,” for example, he was very effective while he was Bob Cummings’s ne’er-do-well friend, but not so great as the tortured amputee (except, of course, that he got his most memorable line at that point).

He was able to do both comedy and “drama,” like Cary Grant or Jimmy Stewart. As a dramatic actor, he was well below both. As a comic actor, he was as good as Grant (making allowances for the fact that Grant usually had better material), but not in the same league as Stewart.

He was usually a leading man, albeit usually in not-so-great movies. Just as later he was the leading man in a not-so-great administration. His affability, carried him through in both cases. People wanted to like him.

I can’t think of any actors today who are comparable. From his own time, I’d say Robert Cummings and Ray Milland are similar. For likability, probably Henry Fonda comes closest.

22

Both shows are nearly forgotten nowadays (when was the last time you saw either of them?), so they wouldn’t have helped. Also, they were anthologies; he was generally just the host).

He would have needed a real hit series to be known to the average person today.

23

He had a lead in The Santa Fe Trail(1940), which imdb identified as an “important” film. I don’t know why it’s considered that, but it is. Reagan was pretty awful in it.

24

No love for the Gipper?
He was the #2 lead in the film.
Knute Rockne All American (1940)

It is still considered a great Sports movie. I would have considered this and the horrible Bonzo movies his most well known.

Interesting Trivia: William Holden, John Wayne, Robert Young, and **Robert Cummings ** were considered for the role of George Gipp.

So even producers/casting directors thought they were somewhat interchangeable.

25

Off the top of my head, Richard Masur and Melissa Gilbert. Yeah, Richard Masur probably makes your point. On the other hand, the list of SAG presidents is pretty impressive. They just elected Alan Rosenberg last month (he defeated Morgan Fairchild and Robert Conrad – now that’s not a contest you hear about every day!)

Here’s the complete list – I know everyone except George Chandler, Leon James, and Ralph Morgan.

William Daniels (1999-2001)
Richard Masur (1995-1999)
Barry Gordon (1988-1995)
Patty Duke (1985-1988)
Edward Asner (1981-1985)
William Schallert (1979-1981)
Kathleen Nolan (1975-1979)
Dennis Weaver (1973-1975)
John Gavin (1971-1973)
Charlton Heston (1965-1971)
Dana Andrews (1963-1965)
George Chandler (1960-1963)
Howard Keel (1958-1959)
Leon James (1957-1958)
Walter Pidgeon (1952-1957)
Ronald Reagan (1959-1960, 1947-1952)
George Murphy (1944-1946)
James Cagney (1942-1944)
Edward Arnold (1940-1942)
Robert Montgomery (1946-1947, 1935-1938)
Eddie Cantor (1933-1935)
Ralph Morgan (1938-1940, 1933)

26

Thanks, Sam. I was sure he did TV stuff and couldn’t off-hand think of anything.

27

Except Stack did some remarkable work for Douglas Sirk (including scoring an Oscar nomination) that puts him beyond Reagan’s grasp.

Maybe put Reagan somewhere between Johnson and John Gavin (another bland, non-descript personality who was a SAG pres.).

28

I agree, Stack was a much better actor, so was Nielson, Cummings, etc. On an Olivier @ an A+ and most of the “actors” in “Manos: Hands of Fate” as F actors, I’d rate Stack and Cummings at a B- to B, Reagan as a C- to occasional solid C.

Let me hijack my own thread.

I definitely recall seeing/hearing a news report during the days leading up to the 1980 Presidential election revealing that Reagan had signed a contract to appear in his first film in years, should he lose the election. He didn’t lose and of course never appeared in the movie. My question: Does anybody know what film this was? Was it made with another actor playing the role Reagan would have played?

Thanks.

Sir Rhosis

29

I would rate both Stack & Cummings B- and Reagan as the same. Most of the time Stack was really wooden. Kind of a pre-Shatner but a better overall actor. Cummings always came across light. I would never take him serious. Yes, I have watch several episodes of his TV show also. Never heard the rumor you speak of and nothing in IMDB of easy googling.

30

But my point is that you don’t know any of those people primarily because they were president of the SAG. You know them because of their acting resume.

And the average moviegoer wouldn’t be able to name any of them (they’d know the actor, but not the SAG president).

31

I think, from reading this thread, the best way to describe him, had he NOT gotten into politics, is that he’d be the kind of actor that you see and always go, “Hey, it’s That Guy!”

32

That is a really good description. I vaguely remember him in one or more Abbot and Costello’s and Bowery Boy’s as the Hansome leading man the Comics worked around. I really only clearly remember him as the Gipper and that has a lot to do with the Airplane Parody of it.

33

Neither of which most people remember.

I know you’re a Reagan fan but it’s hardly an insult to compare him to Jeff Daniels, who at age 50 alreaday has 52 movie credits himself. Reagan was a hard working actor who had a pretty good career. He wasn’t a superstar, but he had a pretty good, second-tier career as an actor.

I think you can rank movie actors in eight categories:

A+. The superstars, the legends, the names who because of talent of notoriety are the movers and shakers at any given time and will be remembered forever. Includes Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Tom Hanks, Bette Davis. Probably not 50 people in this category.

A. Big stars, but not quite at the ultrastar level. You could get into arguments over some names as to whether they belong here or at A+. Remembered forever but maybe overshadowed by at least one or two contemporaries. Would include Denzel Washington, Alec Guinness, Ingrid Bergman.

B. Big stars, but either have shorter careers than the A types, or aren’t taken quite as seriously, or just were never quite the ultra-mega-glamourous draw. Would include Jim Carrey and Peter Sellers, Sharon Stone and Rita Hayworth, Sigourney Weaver and Katharine Ross. Of course, Kevin Bacon! Kurt Russell is here. Maybe Dan Aykroyd.

C. Stars, workmanlike actors who had some lead roles but mostly were character actors who had recognizable, successful careers as supporting actors, or stars for a very short period of time. Ronald Reagan and Jeff Daniels and Bill Paxton, Joan Cusack will end up in this category. John C. O’Reilly. John Candy’s a good example. Peter Fonda. Frances Fisher.

D. Like C but shorter careers, or not totally recognizable, or more B-movies and TV movies than most C’s, or pro entertainers who are well known in part because they did other stuff besides movies. Maybe a starring role or two. David Keith, Jerry Orbach, Rosanna Arquette.

E. Flashes in the pan. Ralph Macchio, for instance. Arsenio Hall.

F. People you’d recognize but who were never in a starring role at all and had short movie resumes, like Annie Potts. “Hey, the secretary in Ghostbusters was that chick on the TV show with Delta Burke!”

G. Actors who are essentially unknown.

34

This sounds like a good op for a new thread. List the Scale and who are the A+ actors. I would start with the AFI list and add and subtract some. I think the total may be closer to 75-100. No modern actors on the list.

35

Ronald Reagan was never in an Abbott and Costello or a Bowery Boys movie.

Reagan’s best movies:

  1. Dark Victory (1939). Small role as Bette Davis’s drinking buddy in this classic weeper. Director Edmund Goulding wanted Reagan to play it gay but he refused.
  2. [Knute Rockne All American](Knute Rockne All American) (1940). As doomed Notre Dame football player George “The Gipper” Gipp.
  3. Kings Row (1942). The Peyton Place of its day, a novelistic tale of small-town passions. Reagan plays a young blade who gets his comeuppance from a sadistic surgeon whose mentally fragile daughter he deflowered. Reagan considered this his best role. Nominated for several Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
  4. Desperate Journey (1942). Reagan is part of an American bomber crew that crashes behind German lines. Good wartime action movie.
  5. The Voice of the Turtle (1947). Charming romantic comedy from John Van Druten’s play, as soldier on leave Reagan tries to make a woman forget her last heartbreak.
  6. The Hasty Heart (1949). Reagan is the commanding officer of a mobile army hospital who must handle an embittered soldier with a terminal illness. Solid acting all around.
  7. The Killers (1964). Reagan regretted taking this as his last role, a downright nasty bad-guy. Made for television but deemed too violent. Directed by Clint Eastwood favorite Don Siegel.
36

Besides being the series host, he acted on 33 episodes of General Electric Theater.

37

Hell’s Kitchen (1939) starred The Dead End Kids. I think these overlapped the Bowery Boys if not I hope you will except it as an easy mistake. I notice Leo Gorcy was in the movie.
The Angels Wash Their Faces (1939) another movie that use to be shown Sunday mornings in the Bowery boy slot. Has Gorcy & Huntz.

I could not find an Abbott and Costello movie with Reagan in it, so I was mistaken on that one.

38

If Reagan hadn’t gone into politics, if he’d stayed in show biz… I see him following the path of guys like Lloyd Bridges, Leslie Nielsen or Robert Stack.

That is, in the Seventies, he’d have done a “Special Guest Star” appearance as the killer on an episode of “Columbo.”

He might have played the pilot in some “Airport” sequel.

He might have popped up on “The Love Boat” or “Fantasy Island” now and then.

Maybe he’d even have ended up in a Zucker Brothers movie!

39

True, but he was host for 9 years. There were 200 episodes, so he was only in puts him as an actor in only 17% of the episodes. As I said, he was generally just the host.

And the show is forgotten nowadays. At best, it would be an obscure trivia question, like the actor Marvin Miller.

40

Hey, he was great in The Killers… totally believable. Seriously.