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Michael Reagan
Michael Reagan by Gage Skidmore.jpg
Reagan in 2017
Born
John Charles Flaugher

(1945-03-18) March 18, 1945 (age 79)
Occupation Radio talk show host, writer
Employer Newsmax
Political party Republican
Spouse(s)
  • Pamela Gail Putnam
    (m. 1971; div. 1972)
  • Colleen Sterns
    (m. 1975)
Children 2
Parents
Relatives

Michael Edward Reagan (born John Charles Flaugher; March 18, 1945) is an American conservative political commentator, Republican strategist, and former radio talk show host. He is the adopted son of former U.S. president Ronald Reagan and his first wife, actress Jane Wyman. He works as a columnist for Newsmax.

Early life

Michael Edward Reagan was born John Charles Flaugher at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles to Essie Irene Flaugher (October 18, 1916 – December 26, 1985), an unmarried woman from Kentucky who became pregnant through a relationship with John Bourgholtzer, a U.S. Army corporal. He was adopted by Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman shortly after his birth.

He was expelled from Loyola High School after a short period of time at the school and in 1964, he graduated from the Judson School, a boarding school outside of Scottsdale, Arizona. He attended Arizona State University for less than one semester and Los Angeles Valley College but never graduated.

In 1965, the FBI warned Ronald Reagan that in the course of an organized crime investigation it had discovered his son Michael was associating with the son of crime boss Joseph Bonanno, which would have become a campaign issue had it been publicly known. Reagan thanked the FBI and said he would tell his son to discreetly discontinue the association.

Careers

Salesman

Sometime before September 1970, Reagan was working as a salesman for the clothing company Hart, Schaffner, & Marx. He then became a director of special events catering at Michaelson Food Service Company in Los Angeles. In 1981, Reagan was hired as a salesman for Industrial Circuits, a circuit board company owned by Robert Herring Sr.

Actor

Reagan has had small roles in movies and television shows since 1985, including Falcon Crest, which starred his mother, Jane Wyman.

Television

In 1987, Reagan served as the host for the first season of the television game show Lingo.

Radio

His work in talk radio started in the Southern California local market as a guest host for radio commentator Michael Jackson's talk radio show slot on KABC in Los Angeles. After this beginning, he landed a talk show spot on KSDO radio in San Diego.

Reagan also hosted The Michael Reagan Show nationwide for most of the 2000s. The show was variously syndicated on Premiere Networks and Radio America. Since then he has focused on public speaking about his father.

Author

In 1988, he wrote, with Joe Hyams, an autobiography, Michael Reagan: On the Outside Looking In. .....

In 2005, he wrote Twice Adopted about his feelings of rejection being adopted, parents divorcing and becoming a born-again Christian.

Legal problems

In 1981, Reagan was accused of felony violations of California securities laws in court documents. The Los Angeles County District Attorney alleged that Reagan had baited investors into unlawful stock arrangements, and selling stocks despite the fact that he was not legally permitted to do so. The D.A.'s office investigated allegations that Reagan improperly spent money invested by others in a company, Agricultural Energy Resources, he operated out of his house in a venture to develop the potential of gasohol, a combination of alcohol and gasoline. Investigators said they were also checking whether he had spent up to $17,500 of investors' money for his living expenses. The district attorney's office cleared Reagan of both charges later that year.

On September 20, 2012, Reagan, Tim Kelly and Jay Hoffman were sued by a fellow partner, for allegedly withholding the partner's interest in an e-mail business built around the Reagan.com domain name. In 2015, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury found Reagan liable for conversion and breach of fiduciary duty. Reagan and his business partners were ordered to pay $662,500 each in damages.

Personal life

In June 1971, Reagan married Pamela Gail Putnam (born 1952), daughter of Duane Putnam, former Atlanta Falcons football line coach. The couple divorced in 1972.

He married Colleen Sterns, an interior decorator, in 1975 at The Church on the Way. They have two children, Cameron and Ashley. Reagan and his wife live in the Toluca Lake area of Los Angeles.

In January 2011, he called his adoptive brother Ron Reagan, the biological son of Ronald Reagan and his second wife, Nancy Davis Reagan, "an embarrassment" for speculating in a memoir that their father suffered from Alzheimer's disease while president.

See also

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