Michael Reagan

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.

Actor Reagan had small roles in movies and television shows beginning in 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 After that, he focused on public speaking about his father.

Author In 1988, he wrote, with Joe Hyams, an autobiography, Michael Reagan: On the Outside Looking In. He also wrote that he was sexually abused at the age of seven by a camp counselor.

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

Call for the execution of Mark Dice In June 2008, Mark Dice launched a campaign urging people to send letters and DVDs to US troops stationed in Iraq which support the theory that the September 11 attacks were an "inside job". "Operation Inform the Soldiers", as Dice has called it, prompted Reagan to comment that Dice should be executed for treason. Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, a liberal/progressive media criticism organization, asked Radio America at the time to explain whether it permits "its hosts to call for murder on the air".

Support for profiling Reagan spoke out in support of profiling in October 2014. In a piece called Profile or Die, he wrote that it would be left to citizens to defend themselves if there were an attack against them by terrorists such as the Islamic State.

Donald Trump In 2016, Reagan said he would not vote for Trump and endorsed Ted Cruz in the primary. Later he said via X (formerly Twitter) that he voted for Trump in 2020 and 2024 elections. In 2025, he defended the Trump tariffs.

Call for civil war On September 1, 2025, Minnesota governor Tim Walz indirectly referred to a rumor that president Donald Trump had died. Three days later, Reagan's response appeared in a Cagle column, which began, "Maybe we do need a Civil War 2.0 – with guns. Our politics has become so partisan and so nasty, using guns to settle our national political differences may soon end up being the only solution."

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 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 and death

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.

Reagan married Colleen Sterns, an interior decorator, in 1975 at The Church on the Way. They had two children, Cameron and Ashley. Reagan and his wife lived 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 Reagan, "an embarrassment" for speculating in a memoir that their father suffered from Alzheimer's disease while president.

Michael and his sister Maureen, unlike their more liberal siblings Patti and Ron, agreed more with their father's conservative political views.

Reagan had a history of having, at times, a strained relationship with both his adoptive parents (Jane Wyman and Ronald Reagan) as well as with his stepmother, Nancy Reagan. Reagan, however, gave a eulogy at his father's funeral in 2004. He did not attend the funeral of Nancy Reagan, in 2016, although at that time he was on a business trip in Asia, and he tweeted his condolences, expressing his sadness at her death.

Reagan died of cancer in Los Angeles, on January 4, 2026, at the age of 80. His funeral was held at St. Mel Parish in Woodland Hills, California, with his reception and interment being private.