Nancy Reagan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Nancy Davis Reagan (born Anne Frances Robbins; July 6, 1921 – March 6, 2016) was an American film actress and the wife of Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States. She served as the First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989. Davis' film career began with small supporting roles in two films that were released in 1949, The Doctor and the Girl with Glenn Ford and East Side, West Side starring Barbara Stanwyck. She played a child psychiatrist in the film noir Shadow on the Wall (1950) with Ann Sothern and Zachary Scott; her performance was called "beautiful and convincing" by New York Times critic A. H. Weiler. She co-starred in 1950's The Next Voice You Hear..., playing a pregnant housewife who hears the voice of God from her radio. Influential reviewer Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote that "Nancy Davis [is] delightful as [a] gentle, plain, and understanding wife." In 1951, Davis appeared in Night into Morning, her favorite screen role, a study of bereavement starring Ray Milland. Crowther said that Davis "does nicely as the fiancée who is widowed herself and knows the loneliness of grief," while another noted critic, The Washington Post's Richard L. Coe, said Davis "is splendid as the understanding widow." MGM released Davis from her contract in 1952; she sought a broader range of parts, but also married Reagan, keeping her professional name as Davis, and had her first child that year. She soon starred in the science fiction film Donovan's Brain (1953); Crowther said that Davis, playing the role of a possessed scientist's "sadly baffled wife," "walked through it all in stark confusion" in an "utterly silly" film. In her next-to-last movie, Hellcats of the Navy (1957), she played nurse Lieutenant Helen Blair, and appeared in a film for the only time with her husband, playing what one critic called "a housewife who came along for the ride." Another reviewer, however, stated that Davis plays her part satisfactorily, and "does well with what she has to work with." Author Garry Wills has said that Davis was generally underrated as an actress because her constrained part in Hellcats was her most widely seen performance. In addition, Davis downplayed her Hollywood goals: promotional material from MGM in 1949 said that her "greatest ambition" was to have a "successful happy marriage"; decades later, in 1975, she would say, "I was never really a career woman but [became one] only because I hadn't found the man I wanted to marry. I couldn't sit around and do nothing, so I became an actress." Ronald Reagan biographer Lou Cannon nevertheless characterized her as a "reliable" and "solid" performer who held her own in performances with better-known actors. After her final film, Crash Landing (1958), Davis appeared for a brief time as a guest star in television dramas, such as the Zane Grey Theatre episode "The Long Shadow" (1961), where she played opposite Ronald Reagan, as well as Wagon Train and The Tall Man, until she retired as an actress in 1962.
Known For
Credits
- 2024 · Joan Rivers at the BBC as Self (archive footage)
- 2023 · Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields as Self (archive footage)
- 2021 · The New Air Force One: Flying Fortress as Self (archive footage)
- 2021 · Crack: Cocaine, Corruption & Conspiracy as Self (archive footage)
- 2020 · Zappa as Self (archive footage)
- 2020 · The Reagans as Self (archive footage)
- 2020 · First Ladies as Self (archive footage)
- 2020 · The Way I See It as Self (archive footage)
- 2019 · Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn as Self (archive footage)
- 2019 · The Family as Self (archive footage)
- 2018 · Reversing Roe as Self (archive footage)
- 2018 · The Road to Mass Incarceration as Self
- 2017 · Silk Road: Drugs, Death and the Dark Web as Herself (archive footage)
- 2017 · Get Me Roger Stone as Self (archive footage)
- 2017 · The Reagan Show as Self (archive footage)
- 2016 · HyperNormalisation as Self (archive footage)
- 2016 · 13th as Self (archive footage)
- 2016 · How to Win the US Presidency as Self (archive footage)
- 2015 · The Making of Trump as Self (archive footage)
- 2015 · Narcos as Self (archive footage)
- 2014 · Kill the Messenger as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
- 2013 · The Presidents' Gatekeepers as Self (archive footage)
- 2013 · The '80s: The Decade That Made Us as Self (archive footage)
- 2013 · Our Nixon as Self
- 2012 · The House I Live In as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
- 2011 · Reagan as Self (archive footage)
- 2011 · Ronald Reagan: An American Journey as Self
- 2010 · Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics as Self (archive footage)
- 2010 · Casino Jack and the United States of Money as Self (archive footage)
- 2010 · How to Win the TV Debate as Self (archive footage)
- 2010 · Nancy Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime as Herself/archival footage
- 2008 · All the Presidents' Wives as Self
- 2008 · La Coupe Stanley à Montréal en 1993 as Self (archive footage)
- 2007 · Le Cirque: A Table in Heaven as Self
- 2006 · The Queen at 80 as Self
- 2004 · Stand-up Reagan as Self (archive footage)
- 2004 · Remembering Reagan at His Ranch as (archive footage)
- 2004 · The State Funeral of Ronald Reagan as Self
- 2002 · Family Fundamentals as Self - First Lady (archive footage)
- 1998 · Reagan as Self
- 1996 · Inside the White House as Self (archive footage)
- 1994 · The State Funeral of Richard Nixon as Self
- 1990 · Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
- 1990 · Myrna Loy: So Nice to Come Home To as (archive footage)
- 1988 · James Stewart: A Wonderful Life as Self
- 1988 · The Flintstone Kids' "Just Say No" Special as Herself
- 1985 · The Second Inauguration of Ronald Reagan as Self
- 1984 · Tyranny of the Status Quo: Beneficiaries as Self (Archival Footage)
- 1984 · Anxiety. Thoughts of an Old Man as Self (archive footage)
- 1984 · Tyranny of the Status Quo: Bureaucrats as Self (Archival Footage)
- 1984 · Tyranny of the Status Quo: Politicians as Self (Archival Footage)
- 1983 · The Chemical People as
- 1981 · Entertainment Tonight as Self
- 1981 · The Killing of America as Self (archive footage)
- 1981 · The Inauguration of Ronald Reagan as Self
- 1978 · Diff'rent Strokes as
- 1975 · Apostrophes as Self
- 1971 · Great Performances as Self
- 1962 · The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson as Self
- 1961 · 87th Precinct as Diane King
- 1960 · The Tall Man as Sarah Wiley
- 1958 · Crash Landing as Helen Williams
- 1957 · Wagon Train as Mrs. Baxter
- 1957 · Hellcats of the Navy as Nurse Lt. Helen Blair
- 1956 · A Child is Born: A Christmas Story Presented by Ronald Reagan as Wife
- 1956 · Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre as Amy Lawson
- 1956 · The Dark Wave as
- 1954 · Climax! as Carol Peterson
- 1953 · Donovan's Brain as Janice Cory
- 1953 · General Electric Theater as Evelyn Kent
- 1953 · General Electric Theater as
- 1953 · General Electric Theater as Betty Anderson
- 1953 · General Electric Theater as Vicky Carlisle
- 1952 · Shadow in the Sky as Betty Hopke (as Nancy Davis)
- 1952 · Talk About a Stranger as Marge Fontaine
- 1951 · It's a Big Country as Miss Coleman
- 1951 · Schlitz Playhouse of Stars as Nan Gage
- 1951 · Schlitz Playhouse of Stars as Helen
- 1951 · Night Into Morning as Mrs. Katherine Mead
- 1950 · The Next Voice You Hear... as Mary Smith
- 1950 · Shadow on the Wall as Dr. Caroline Canford
- 1949 · East Side, West Side as Helen Lee
- 1949 · The Doctor and the Girl as Mariette Corday
- 1948 · Portrait of Jennie as Teenager in Art Gallery