It's a trick question: Which actor has delivered the greatest number of immortal lines?
Bogart, perhaps? Gable? Grant? Jack Nicholson?
No, the tricky answer is Ronald Reagan. And he delivered probably 90 percent of those unforgettable Hollywood lines long after he left Tinsel Town. He said them as president of the United States.
The networks and news channels have been awash with Reagan one-liners this week. The former president's passing has rekindled memories of the man who could be both self-effacing and searing without being self-conscious. Some of the man's "greatest hits" have been played over and over on the airwaves.
"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
"Well, there he goes again."
"Are you better off now than you were four years ago?"
But the truth is Ronald Reagan had something memorable to say almost every time he opened his mouth. It was a gift more akin to Will Rogers than Will Shakespeare, an ability to take a moment and distill it into a golden droplet; a talent for adding a caption to a memorable picture. When he was shot, for instance, Reagan said half-a-dozen things that set his personality in high relief, from "Honey, I forgot to duck" to a re-working of W.C. Fields: "All in all, I'd rather be in Philadelphia."
When the air traffic controllers walked off the job he quipped, "I didn't fire them. They quit."
When he was asked by Fortune Magazine for some one-line advice about leadership, he gave them, "Surround yourself with the best people you can find."
In time, the "Wit and Wisdom of Ronald Reagan" will be published. The problem is it may have to be published as a two-volume set. Already the man's punch lines are showing up in quote books next to Bogart's, "This could be the beginning of beautiful friendship," and Gable's "Frankly, my dear . . ."
As an actor, Reagan knew the importance of delivery and, if not spontaneity, the illusion of spontaneity.
As a leader, he knew the importance of having something worthwhile to say.
When he spoke, it sounded off-the-cuff, even if he'd used the same line just hours before at another whistle-stop. There was a smile in his voice. He spoke in a dry and wry style that seemed to say, "All in all, I'd rather be at my ranch." His sunniness was both practiced and authentic. He was the sultan of sound bites.
And as with Will Rogers, you could make yourself believe that Ronald Reagan, truly, never met a man he didn't like.