Future US President Ronald Reagan Starred in the Movie Hong Kong

On January 20, 1981, Ronald Reagan became the 40th president of the United States of America. However, before starting a career in politics, Ronald Reagan had achieved considerable success as an actor, which led to this funny scene in Back to the Future, after Marty McFly met Doc Brown in 1955.

Doc Brown: "Then tell me, future boy: who’s president of the United States in 1985? Marty: "Ronald Reagan."

Doc Brown: "Ronald Reagan? The actor?"

Interestingly, in 1952—three years before Marty and Doc met in Back to the Future—Ronald Reagan starred in a movie called Hong Kong. Set in the then-British colony during the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, Jeff Williams, played by Ronald Reagan, is hired to steal a jewel-encrusted statue of Buddha, the sole possession of a young Chinese boy fleeing the Civil War.

While cold-heartedly doing his job, Williams falls in love with a schoolteacher and decides to help her and the boy escape the city while they can.

Ironically, although the movie is fraught with anti-communist undertones, it was during Reagan’s presidency that the People’s Republic of China began its economic metamorphosis to become the superpower it is today.