ABSTRACT
Ronald Reagan was a movie and television actor prior to his election to the presidency in 1980, and consequently he was already familiar with ways to look his best. Reagan meant that a public figure needs to be disciplined and pay full attention to the photographers around him while they are snapping pictures and not get caught in silly, embarrassing, or off-message moments, such as squinting, eye-rolling, grimacing, or spilling food during meals. Even Reagan, the master communicator, could not always live up to his own advice-more than once, he was caught dozing in public, even during an audience with the pope. Reagan said he learned some other valuable tricks of the trade as a film star. Evans hopped into a chase car that followed the president's ambulance to nearby George Washington University Hospital, where Reagan struggled for life. Evans was a master at what an admiring reporter called being "both ubiquitous and invisible".
