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Reagan Wilson

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Reagan Wilson
Wilson in Blood Mania (1970)
Playboy centerfold appearance
October 1967
Preceded byAngela Dorian
Succeeded byKaya Christian
Personal details
Born(1947-03-06)March 6, 1947
Torrance, California, U.S.
DiedMarch 20, 2026(2026-03-20) (aged 79)

Reagan Diana Wilson (March 6, 1947 – March 20, 2026) was an American model, actress, and businesswoman. She was Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month for its October 1967 issue, a centerfold of which was taken to the Moon as part of Apollo 12 in 1969. She also had numerous acting roles including in Blood Mania (1970) and Running with the Devil (1973). Her participation at a 1968 Men's Day event at the University of Washington was protested by Radical Women.

Life and career

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Wilson was born in Torrance, California, and had a younger brother and sister. All three are of Norwegian descent and moved with their mother to Missoula, Montana after their parents divorced.[1] Reagan attended Roosevelt Elementary School in Santa Monica[2] and studied journalism at the University of Montana.[1] She began working as a model after relocating to Los Angeles in the 1960s.[1]

Wilson was Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month for its October 1967 issue. Her centerfold, which was photographed by Ron Vogel[1] and featured her topless on a hay bale,[3][4] was later photocopied, laminated, given the caption "Preferred Tether Partner",[3] and concealed inside Pete Conrad's Apollo 12 cuff checklist by David Scott, which Conrad discovered on the Moon. Scott also concealed Angela Dorian's centerfold in Conrad's cuff checklist and the centerfolds of Cynthia Myers and Leslie Bianchini in Alan Bean's.[1] That Playboy centerfolds went to the Moon did not become public knowledge until the magazine wrote about it for the mission's 25th anniversary in December 1994, although Bean took a photograph of Conrad there featuring his cuff checklist open to Wilson's page.[4]

Following her Playboy shoot, she modeled in Paris, London, and New York,[1] and later moved to the last of these.[2] In 1968, her appearance at the University of Washington's annual "Men's Day" event was protested by Radical Women, with 450 members including Barbara Winslow storming the stage and chanting lines from the Book of Common Prayer. Winslow attempted to lecture Wilson on the ramifications of Playboy's portrayal of women and was promptly ejected from the stage and criticised by The Daily of the University of Washington and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.[5] Winslow wrote in her 2023 book Revolutionary Feminists that the protest should have been directed at the men who wielded power rather than Wilson.[6]

Wilson made her film debut as a body double for Julie Newmar in the 1969 film Mackenna's Gold. She then appeared in the 1970 horror film Blood Mania, which also featured fellow Playmate Vicki Peters, and in the 1973 sexploitation film Running with the Devil. She also appeared as an actress on the television shows Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, The Jack Benny Program, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Munsters, The Johnny Carson Show, and The Big Valley. She posed once more for Playboy for the December 1979 pictorial "Playmates Forever!" before marrying the writer Barry Hornig in 1982 and opening a textile rug company with him in Santa Monica, California. She regularly interacted with her fans on social media before her death on March 20, 2026, at the age of 79.[1]

Filmography

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Source:[1]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "Reagan Wilson, Playboy model whose centrefold was sent to the Moon as a prank on Apollo 12". The Daily Telegraph. April 6, 2026. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved April 6, 2026.
  2. ^ a b "Reagan Wilson: October 1967". Centerfold Memories. Archived from the original on February 22, 2016.
  3. ^ a b Hilck, Karin (July 8, 2019). Lady Astronauts, Lady Engineers, and Naked Ladies: Women and the American Space Community during the Cold War, 1960s-1980s. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. p. 305. ISBN 978-3-11-062982-8.
  4. ^ a b Fishman, Charles (2019). One Giant Leap. Simon & Schuster. p. 283. ISBN 978-1-5011-0629-3.
  5. ^ Buchanan, Paul D. (July 25, 2011). Radical Feminists: A Guide to an American Subculture. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 978-1-59884-357-6.
  6. ^ Winslow, Barbara (July 7, 2023). Revolutionary Feminists: The Women's Liberation Movement in Seattle. Duke University Press. ISBN 978-1-4780-2449-1.
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