His start in 1937 in Hollywood led to over twenty years in that industry to which he appeared in 53 films. As elected president of the Screen Actors Guild he made it known that he was against Communism in the movie industry. In 1966 Reagan was elected Governor of California and re-elected in 1970. Some of his strongest views were on conservation. Upon his election as president in 1981 it was only 69 days later he was shot, but rapidly improved and returned to office. His being able to joke about the matter caused him to be more popular with the voters. A few of his programs included legislation to encourage economic expansion, diminish inflation, and improve and expand national defense. Reagan also was in favor of change in the income tax code, and voted to remove many deductions and exempted a lot of people with low incomes. As a result of some of his measures the nation showed a substantial period of prosperity.

He ordered through naval support the unobstructed flow of oil during in the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq war. During his 1984 re-election Presidential Campaign he scored the highest number ever obtained by a presidential candidate in history. Most of his platform during his second term in office focused on tax improvements. A down note on his second term was the Iran-contra affair which came to light that the United States government had been covertly selling arms to Iran, with part of the money reportedly had gone to aiding guerrillas in Nicaragua. A few of the "firsts" with president Reagan were that he was the oldest elected president to date and also the first actor to become president and also the first president to appoint a woman to the supreme court.