During his life, President Ronald Reagan developed a reputation as a man with a sharp wit who loved a good joke. Here are some examples of his humour:

"A lot of people wondered, 'How dare an actor have the audacity to run for this job,'" Mr Reagan told the Chicago Sun-Times in 1990. "There were times when I wondered how you could do this job without having been an actor."

James Baker, Mr Reagan's one-time chief of staff, recalled on Fox News Sunday that Mr Reagan once had to sit through a photo opportunity at which Archbishop Desmond Tutu "thoroughly trashed" the president's South African policy.

The next day, the media scented blood and eagerly asked him about his talks with the anti-apartheid campaigner. "What about your meeting with Tutu?" they said. And Mr Reagan replied: "Tutu? So-So."

Mr Reagan had a keen and wry awareness of how others saw him. Once he told a visitor to the Oval Office in the White House: "Some day, people will say Ronald Reagan slept here."

And on another occasion: "I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency, even if I'm in a cabinet meeting."

Being shot would test most people's sense of humor, but Mr Reagan was able to keep his. "Honey, I forgot to duck," he told his wife Nancy. "When I saw all those doctors around me, I said, 'I hope they're all Republicans.'"

Mr Reagan did not have a very flattering view of government and its works.

"A government agency is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth." he once remarked. And the difference between a small businessman and a big businessman was probably that a small businessman would be a big businessman if only the government would leave him alone.

Mr Reagan did not spare the Democrats either. "The difference between them (Democrats) and us (Republicans) is that we want to check government spending and they want to spend government checks."

Occasionally, things went a little awry, as during this sound check in 1984, at the height of the Cold War. "My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever. The bombing begins in five minutes."

Communism did not impress the famously conservative president. "How do you tell a Communist?" he asked in 1987. "Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin."

He also told a story about how an old Russian woman had asked Mikhail Gorbachev whether communism had been invented by a scientist or a politician.

Mr Gorbachev said he thought it was a politician. "That explains it," said the woman. "A scientist would have tried it on mice first."

Nor did the press escape some gentle teasing. "Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement," Mr Reagan said.

And, like any good comedian, he knew the virtue of good timing. "As Henry VIII said to each one of his six wives: I won't keep you long."