Ronald and Nancy Reagan were disappointed. That's what White House press secretary Larry Speakes told reporters on Jan. 18, 1985, after the Republican president and first lady decided to hold his second inauguration indoors because of an unusually cold weather forecast.

Stuart K. Spencer, the California political strategist who guided Ronald Reagan's ascent from Hollywood to the governor's mansion, and ultimately to the presidency, has died at age 97.

Stuart K. Spencer, a Republican political consultant who engineered Ronald Reagan’s winning campaigns for the California governor’s office and the U.S. presidency, transforming a B-movie actor into one of the most successful politicians of his time,

In March 1965, a washed-up B-movie actor dialed a couple of young Republican operatives and invited them to lunch at his home in Pacific Palisades. Ronald Reagan was thinking of trying his hand at politics: a long-shot bid for California governor against a sitting Democrat.

One of the nation’s first campaign consultants for hire, he advised leading Republicans, including President Gerald Ford, but Reagan was his prized candidate.