When a Hollywood star became US President: Hero who lost his career to war, took on Ku Klux Klan, survived assassination | Hollywood

Donald Trump has become the US President for a second time. The Republican candidate best Democrat Kamala Harris by a wide margin in the race for the White House, securing his comeback win. Many have pointed out that Trump owes his political career to his media appearances in the two decades before that, which elevated his public stature. However, Trump is not the first ‘actor’ to sit in the Oval Office. That honour belongs to Ronald Reagan. (Also read: When Former President Ronald Reagan Joked About Assassination Attempt: ‘Missed Me’)

The Hollywood star who became President

Ronald Reagan was an actor who became a star during the Golden Age of Hollywood – the 1930s and ’40s. Starting out as a radio performer, Reagan became a screen actor and a well-known one too. Initially, Regan was a star of B-grade films. It was the 1940 hit Knute Rockne, All American that helped him break through. The 1942 release Kings Row made him one of the top stars in the industry. However, his movie career was halted during World War II as he was drafted into the US Army.

Reagan’s war against the Ku Klux Klan

Once his film career declined, Reagan looked at politics as a career option at the end of the war. He began life in the public eye in 1946 when he took on the white supremacist group Ku Klux Klan, calling them out for their racist agenda. Initialy a Democrat, Reagan joined the Republican Party in 1962. Four years later, he became the Governor of California in a grand political debut. Reagan served for two terms before making it clear that his ultimate aim was the Presidency.

Presidency and assassination attempt

Reagan unsuccessfully tried to secure the Republican Party nomination for the Presidential election in 1975 before finally coming through in 1981. He eventually won the election, beating Jimmy Carter. Reagan was the President for two terms. His biggest legacy was a new economic policy that the press dubbed ‘Reaganomics’. The President pushed a set of neoliberal reforms, which included monetarism and supply-side economics.

In 1981, Reagan survived an assassination attempt when he was shot by John Hinckley Jr. The President was rushed to the hospital where he was “right on the margin of death” upon arrival, according to doctors, However, Reagan pulled through, despite a broken rib, a punctured lung, and internal bleeding. Reagan retired from politics after 1989. He later developed Alzheimer’s and lived a quiet life away from the public eye. Reagan died of pneumonia in 2004 at the age of 93.