This minor leading lady of the 1950s worked under the name Nancy Davis in such routine fare as "Shadow on the Wall" (1950), "Shadow in the Sky" (1951) and "Talk About a Stranger" (1952). Her modest career faltered somewhat after she and MGM parted company in 1952, but Davis continued acting intermittently until the latter part of the decade. She frequently played loyal housewives, as in the cult classic "The Next Voice You Hear" (1951), in which a typical American family begins to hear the voice of God on their radio. Davis played a similarly supportive role offscreen in the 1960s as her husband, actor Ronald Reagan, moved into the arena of state and national politics. (The two had married in 1952 and acted together in "Hellcats of the Navy" 1957.) Nancy Davis Reagan eventually became First Lady opposite her husband, who served as President of the United States from 1981 to 1989. She wrote her memoirs "Nancy" in 1990 and was the subject of a controversial unauthorized biography by Kitty Kelly.
In 1994, former President Reagan disclosed he was suffering from Alzheimer's Disease. In the wake of this announcement, Mrs. Reagan turned down an offer by director Albert Brooks to star opposite him in the feature film "Mother" (1996). Instead, the former First Lady's last public role would be as the caretaker and protector of her husband in his twilight years before his death in 2004, even as his disease gradually robbed her of the man whose private and public life she rallied so hard to bolster and nurture. Nancy Reagan's public role following her husband's passing has yet to be denifed, but it is certain to include preserving the legacy of both the man and his presidency.