What Do Jack Nicholson and Ronald Reagan Have in Common?

July 11, 2005 — -- Ronald Reagan was the 40th president of the United States, the governor of California, a Hollywood actor and a radio sportscaster. Yet in his later years, he repeatedly pointed to his summers as a lifeguard as one of the happiest times of his life.

Even as Alzheimer's swept away his memories of Gorbachev and Iran-Contra, Reagan often told the story of lifeguarding along the shore of the Rock River in Illinois, where legend says he saved 77 lives, putting a notch in a log after each rescue.

There is something about being a lifeguard -- something fun, something about the adrenaline of saving a life, something quintessentially American -- that attracts thousands of people, including many now-famous folks, to the job every year.

The American Red Cross says it certifies about 200,000 lifeguards each year, and the United State Lifesaving Association, an organization of open-water lifeguards, claims 5,000 members.

ABCNews.com heads down to the Jersey Shore to see what it is about the beach that attracts thousands to lifeguard stands year after year. In a series called "By the Boardwalk," we'll look at whether any of the "Baywatch" lifestyle is reality.

We will follow the lifeguards of Bradley Beach, a town at the Shore, where actor Jack Nicholson once worked after graduating high school.

"He was always a beachgoer; he loved the beach," Lorraine Smith of Neptune, N.J., said of her nephew, Nicholson. "He was a strong swimmer and he just got out of high school. He was only 17 that summer he was a lifeguard."

Nicholson grew up in Neptune and graduated from Manasquan High School in 1954.

Greg Farry, a Bradley Beach lifeguard for 50 years and head guard for 20, was in his second year of lifeguarding when he worked with Nicholson in '54.

"Ironically, he was the shy one of the bunch," Farry said.

Farry recalled he and Nicholson dated twin sisters who waitressed at a restaurant on the boardwalk and they would sometimes go out in Asbury Park, the town immortalized by the songs of Bruce Springsteen and his breakout album, "Greetings from Asbury Park."

Nicholson was not the only actor in Bradley Beach in 1954. Cesar Romero, who played the Joker on the "Batman" TV series, had a house in town, and Nicholson ran into the man whose role he would later play on the big screen, according to town historian Shirley Ayres.

Nicholson's summer on the stand was not all about hobnobbing and girls, though. He also managed to save a few lives.

"He performed a very good boat rescue," Farry said. "We had a large rip current that took out a number of people and he picked up two people that were hanging on to a rescue buoy and brought them back to shore."

Farry insists that Nicholson saved two victims, but the tale may have taken on new dimensions with time.

"He did a rescue where he had to go with a lifeboat around the jetty during a storm and save five people," his aunt said. "That's one of the stories Jack likes to tell."

While Nicholson only spent one season on the beach, the experience seems to have left a lasting impression on him.

A few years back, the Bradley Beach boardwalk was buzzing with rumors that Nicholson planned to make a lifeguard movie about the lifeguard strike of 1954.

"The strike was about wages," Farry said. "Wages were very low then. I started at less than $40 a week and they didn't care much about enforcing child labor laws in those days. I actually worked 6½ days a week."

Smith corroborated the rumors.

"A couple years ago someone had an idea for a film and they were considering writing it around Jack," Smith said. "The gist of it was something like the young lifeguards go on strike and the old guards came to the fore and were substituting."

According to Farry, Nicholson originally planned to extend his lifeguarding career.

"He wrote me a letter saying he was looking forward to coming back to lifeguard, but he had gotten a job on the West Coast," Farry said.

"I really wish I had saved that letter!"

Note: Jen Brown was a Bradley Beach lifeguard in a former life.