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After World War II, Reagan evolved into a conservative. By his own account, the change was triggered by his wartime contacts with self-serving Government bureaucrats and the postwar activities of Communists and fellow travelers in Hollywood. Elected in 1947 to the first of six terms as president of the Screen Actors Guild, he blocked attempts by suspected Communists to take over other film-industry unions. Later he testified willingly during the widely publicized House Committee on Un-American Activities investigation of Hollywood. His testimony was rather evenhanded: he argued that the Communist Party should not be outlawed unless it was proved to be "an agent of a foreign power or in any way not a legitimate political party"; but he supported the studios' blacklist of supposed Communists and sympathizers.
This absorption in politics was one reason for the breakup of his eight-year marriage to Jane Wyman. As the story goes, she was so turned off by his pedantic political analyses at the breakfast table that she walked out in 1948 with their two children, Maureen, now 34, and Michael, 30. Four years later he married a former starlet who shared his political convictions: Nancy Davis, daughter of a wealthy Chicago neurosurgeon. They have two children, Patricia, 22, an aspiring singer, and Ronald Prescott, 17, a student at a private boys' school.
His movie career almost at an end, Reagan turned to TV in 1954 and became host for the weekly General Electric Theater. He also toured the country as G.E.'s representative, spreading management's good will to employees at each of the company's 135 plants. He soon became a favorite speaker at Republican dinners and rallies and in 1964 was named co-chairman of California Citizens for Barry Goldwater.
During that campaign, Reagan made an emotional TV speech denouncing Big Government, foreign aid, welfare, urban renewal and taxes. He electrified conservative Republicans; after Goldwater's defeat, many looked on Reagan as their spiritual leader. Three California millionaires—Auto Dealer Holmes Tuttle, Industrialist Henry Salvatori and the late Oilman A.C. Rubel —persuaded Reagan to run for Governor in 1966. (Tuttle remains a close friend and adviser; Salvatori went over to Ford last summer.)