Nancy Reagan
Known for: Acting
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.
Filmography
Series
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
Self
1962
Series
Great Performances
Self
1971
Series
Narcos
Self (archive footage)
2015
Series
Wagon Train
Mrs. Baxter
1957
Series
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
Amy Lawson
1956
Series
Apostrophes
Self
1975
Series
Climax!
Carol Peterson
1954
Film
American Made
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
2017
Series
Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields
Self (archive footage)
2023
Series
The Tall Man
Sarah Wiley
1960
Series
87th Precinct
Diane King
1961
Series
Entertainment Tonight
Self
1981
Series
The Family
Self (archive footage)
2019
Series
First Ladies
Self (archive footage)
2020
Film
Kill the Messenger
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
2014
Series
America Who Are You? A History of the American Mindset
Self (archive footage)
2026
Film
Portrait of Jennie
Teenager in Art Gallery
1948
Film
Breakdown: 1975
Self (archive footage)
2025
Film
Zappa
Self (archive footage)
2020
Film
13th
Self (archive footage)
2016
Film
Commitment to Life
Self (archive)
2023
Series
The Reagans
Self (archive footage)
2020
Series
Diff'rent Strokes
1978
Film
Grass
Self (archive footage)
1999
Film
Tupac: Resurrection
Self (archival)
2003
Film
The New Air Force One: Flying Fortress
Self (archive footage)
2021
Film
HyperNormalisation
Self (archive footage)
2016
Series
The '80s: The Decade That Made Us
Self (archive footage)
2013
Series
General Electric Theater
Evelyn Kent
1953
Series
General Electric Theater
1953
Series
General Electric Theater
Betty Anderson
1953
Series
General Electric Theater
Vicky Carlisle
1953
Film
Hollywood: No Sex, Please!
2018
Film
Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics
Self (archive footage)
2010
Film
The Way I See It
Self (archive footage)
2020
Film
Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
1990
Film
Crack: Cocaine, Corruption & Conspiracy
Self (archive footage)
2021
Series
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
Nan Gage
1951
Series
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
Helen
1951
Film
Shadow on the Wall
Dr. Caroline Canford
1950
Film
The House I Live In
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
2012
Film
The Making of Trump
Self (archive footage)
2015
Film
James Stewart: A Wonderful Life
Self
1987
Film
East Side, West Side
Helen Lee
1949
Film
Get Me Roger Stone
Self (archive footage)
2017
Film
It's a Big Country
Miss Coleman
1951
Film
Donovan's Brain
Janice Cory
1953
Film
Hellcats of the Navy
Nurse Lt. Helen Blair
1957
Film
Reversing Roe
Self (archive footage)
2018
Series
Secret Service Secrets
Nancy Reagan
2012
Film
Henry Fonda for President
Self (archive footage)
2025
Film
Crash Landing
Helen Williams
1958
Film
The Doctor and the Girl
Mariette Corday
1949
Film
The Presidents' Gatekeepers
Self (archive footage)
2013
The Queen at 80
Self
2006
Film
Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn
Self (archive footage)
2019
Film
Reagan
Self (archive footage)
2011
Film
The Flintstone Kids' "Just Say No" Special
Herself
1988
Film
I Don't Even Like Apple Pie...
Self (Archive Footage)
1989
Film
How to Win the US Presidency
Self (archive footage)
2016
Film
Myrna Loy: So Nice to Come Home To
(archive footage)
1990
Film
The Killing of America
Self (archive footage)
1981
Film
Le Cirque: A Table in Heaven
Self
2007
Film
Vito
Self (archive)
2011
Film
Shadow in the Sky
Betty Hopke (as Nancy Davis)
1952
Film
Night Into Morning
Mrs. Katherine Mead
1951
Film
Reagan
Self
1998
Film
Guts and Glory
Self (archive)
2002
Film
The Next Voice You Hear...
Mary Smith
1950
Film
Talk About a Stranger
Marge Fontaine
1952
Film
All the Presidents' Wives
Self
2008
Film
Anxiety. Thoughts of an Old Man
Self (archive footage)
1984
Film
Joan Rivers at the BBC
Self (archive footage)
2024
Film
How to Win the TV Debate
Self (archive footage)
2010
Film
The Reagan Show
Self (archive footage)
2017
Film
Inside the White House
Self (archive footage)
1996
Film
All Star Party for 'Dutch' Reagan
Self
1985
Film
The Road to Mass Incarceration
Self (archive footage)
2018
Film
Remembering Reagan at His Ranch
(archive footage)
2004
Film
Silk Road: Drugs, Death and the Dark Web
Self (archive footage)
2017
Film
Nancy Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime
Self (archive footage)
2010
Film
La Coupe Stanley à Montréal en 1993
Self (archive footage)
2008
Film
Family Fundamentals
Self - First Lady (archive footage)
2002
Film
Our Nixon
Self (archive footage)
2013
Stand-up Reagan
Self (archive footage)
2004
Film
Ronald Reagan: An American Journey
Self
2011
Film
The Dark Wave
1956
Film
A Child is Born: A Christmas Story Presented by Ronald Reagan
Wife
1956
The Chemical People
1983