Patti Davis

Patricia Ann Reagan was born to Ronald and Nancy Reagan on October 21, 1952, in Los Angeles, California. She is the older sister of Ron Reagan, and the younger sister of Michael Reagan and the late Maureen Reagan. She went to grade school at The John Thomas Dye School in Bel Air, and graduated from the Orme School of Arizona in 1970.[1] She attended Northwestern University from 1970–71, where she studied creative writing and drama. She then went to the University of Southern California for two years.[2] She changed her last name to her mother's maiden name, Davis, in an effort to have an independent career.[3] She was active in the anti-nuclear movement before her father was elected president, and continued her activism through his term, stirring controversy and creating strife in the family. Davis is a critic of the Republican Party, which she has never been affiliated with.[4]

In the early 1980s, Davis acted in a few television shows before getting her first publishing deal. In 1986, she published her first novel, Home Front. She used elements of her own life to create a fictional story, and because of that the book became controversial and she was widely criticized. Following her second novel Deadfall, she wrote an autobiography called The Way I See It, in which she revealed many family dramas and secrets. She has since spoken publicly about how she regrets the form, but not the content, of the critique she presented in the book.[5]

In the July 1994 issue of Playboy, Davis posed for the magazine with a full frontal pictorial. This issue of the magazine also displayed Davis on its front cover. This issue is considered to be one of the magazine's most controversial covers ever. Davis has posed for other magazines such as More in 2011. Playboy also issued a VHS tape as a complement to the 1994 issue.[6]

When her father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, she began writing The Long Goodbye. It was published in 2004. During that time, she began writing for magazines and newspapers, including The New York Times, Newsweek and Time. Her original screenplay, Spring Thaw, became the 2007 Hallmark Channel movie Sacrifices of the Heart starring Melissa Gilbert and Ken Howard.[7]

In the 1970s, Davis lived with Eagles guitarist Bernie Leadon.[2] Together they cowrote the song "I Wish You Peace" which appeared on Eagles album One of These Nights.[8] In the 1980s, she dated Timothy Hutton and later had a two-year relationship with Peter Strauss. In 1984, she married Paul Grilley, a yoga instructor and one of the founders of Yin Yoga. They divorced in 1990 and had no children.[2]

In 2011, she launched "Beyond Alzheimer's" at UCLA, which she still runs.[9][10]

In a September 20, 2018, op-ed for the Washington Post, Davis stated she was the victim of sexual assault nearly 40 years earlier at the hand of a studio executive. The op-ed was released the same week Christine Blasey Ford recounted an alleged sexual assault by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Davis released the piece in support of Blasey Ford when she had been criticized for not remembering details of the assault.[11][12][13]

After the synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh in October 2018, Davis accused President Donald Trump of failing to provide solace to the nation in times of tragedy: "Let's stop asking him!" [14]

On August 1, 2019, Davis wrote an editorial in the Washington Post condemning comments made by her father about black Africans at the U.N. in a 1971 phone conversation with President Richard Nixon which Nixon taped. The tapes were publicly released the day prior. In the editorial, Davis wrote "There is no defense, no rationalization, no suitable explanation for what my father said on that taped phone conversation."[15]

• Home Front. Crown, 1986. ISBN 0-517-55952-8. (quasi-novel)
• Deadfall. Crown, 1989. ISBN 0-517-57405-5. (novel)
• A House of Secrets. Carol, 1991. ISBN 1-55972-082-4. (quasi-novel)
• The Way I See It: An Autobiography. Putnam, 1992. ISBN 0-399-13748-3.
• Bondage. Simon & Schuster, 1994. ISBN 0-671-86953-1. (novel)
• Angels Don't Die: My Father's Gift of Faith. Harper Collins, 1995. ISBN 0-06-017324-6.
• The Long Goodbye. Knopf, 2004. ISBN 0-679-45092-0.
• Two Cats and the Woman They Own. Chronicle Books, 2006. ISBN 0-8118-5166-4.
• The Lives Our Mothers Leave Us. Hay House, 2009. ISBN 1401921620.
• Till Human Voices Wake Us. CreateSpace, KDP, 2013. ISBN 1483990044. (novel)
• The Blue Hour. CreateSpace, KDP, 2013. ISBN 1492144479. (novel)
• The Wit and Wisdom of Gracie. Huqua Press, 2014. ISBN 0-983812055
• The Earth Breaks in Colors. Huqua Press, 2014. ISBN 0-990696642 (novel)

• Reagan, Nancy. My Turn: The Memoirs of Nancy Reagan (1989), with William Novak. H. W. Brands Reagan: The Life (2015) p. 743 says "she wrote one of the most candid and at times self-critical memoirs in recent American political history."

• Official website
• Patti Davis on IMDb
• Appearances on C-SPAN