Ronald Wilson Reagan was born on February 6, 1911, in Tampico, Illinois, to Nelle and John Reagan, attended high school in Dixon, and worked his way through Eureka College, where he studied economics and sociology, played football, and acted in school plays. After graduating, he became a radio sports announcer, then won a Hollywood contract through a 1937 screen test and appeared in 53 films over the next two decades. As president of the Screen Actors Guild, he became involved in disputes over Communism in the film industry, and his political views shifted from liberal to conservative. After touring the country as a television host and spokesman for conservatism, he was elected Governor of California in 1966 by a margin of a million votes and was reelected in 1970. In 1980, he won the Republican presidential nomination and chose former Texas Congressman and United Nations Ambassador George Bush as his running mate. With voters troubled by inflation and the year-long confinement of Americans in Iran, the Republican ticket defeated President Jimmy Carter by 489 electoral votes to 49. Working skillfully with Congress, Reagan secured legislation aimed at stimulating economic growth, curbing inflation, increasing employment, and strengthening national defense, while pursuing tax cuts and reductions in government spending despite large deficits tied to defense buildups. Renewed national self-confidence by 1984 helped Reagan and Bush win a second term with an unprecedented number of electoral votes over Walter F. Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro. In 1986, he won an overhaul of the income tax code that eliminated many deductions and exempted millions of low-income people, and by the end of his administration the nation was experiencing its longest recorded peacetime prosperity without recession or depression. In 1994, Reagan announced that he had Alzheimer's Disease, then spent the next ten years in seclusion and declining health until his death in 2004.