Word: ron
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...After sweating without stardom in the ranks of the Joffrey Ballet and trying to carve a career as a free-lance journalist, Ron Reagan, 27, has unabashedly decided to seize the advantages his surname affords. "People told me I'd be a fool not to," he says. "If people insist it's an unfair advantage, at some point you have to say, 'Who cares?' " His risky and risque performance as guest host of S.N.L. displayed the stage polish that runs in his family, aiming him toward a new career as a television personality...
Since he dropped out of Yale as a freshman in 1977, Ron has pursued a meandering private path that has not always delighted his parents. Commenting in 1981 on his son's decision to become a dancer, Reagan awkwardly told reporters, "It's O.K. We've made sure he's all man." More recently, Ron has been turning out pieces for Playboy magazine on such subjects as the 1984 Democratic National Convention and the summit between his father and Mikhail Gorbachev. Wearing blue jeans and red Reeboks, Ron had the unprecedented advantage of living at the President's chateau while...
...Reagans actually seemed rather proud of their son's acting debut. "Like father, like son," the President said after his press conference last week. Ron told his parents that he was going to appear on the show, but he did not ask for their permission nor tell them what he would be doing. Upon seeing a tape Sunday morning (the Reagans did not stay up for the near-midnight broadcast), Mrs. Reagan had to be filled in on the story line of Risky Business to understand why her son danced in his underpants. Ron, with his unaffected way of carrying...
...Ron specified only one ground rule. "I told them I didn't want them trashing my folks in a mean way," he says. The one skit he rejected: portraying a gay hairstylist. There was, however, much skirting of the bounds of propriety, including a catty reference to Reagan's first wife, Jane Wyman, and a portrayal of Nancy as a chain-smoking lush by an actor in Adolfo-like drag. One White House aide thought the whole thing tasteless. Said he: "Some birthday present to his father...
...Ron has been able to carve out an identity of his own--hip, low-key, poised yet slightly irreverent--that came through in the relaxed way he juggled both his family connections and his talent on S.N.L. "I want to see a show of hands," he began his monologue. "How many people here think I was asked to host Saturday Night Live because I'm a contributing editor of Playboy magazine? (Some applause.) How many people here think I was asked to host the show because my father is President of the United States? (Much louder applause and laughter.) That...