Mary Frances " Debbie" Reynolds (April 1, 1932 – December 28, 2016) was an American actress, singer and entrepreneur. Her acting career spanned almost 70 years. Reynolds performed on stage and television and in films into her 80s.
She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer with her portrayal of Helen Kane in the 1950 film Three Little Words. Her breakout role was her first leading role, as Kathy Selden in Singin' in the Rain (1952). Her other successes include The Affairs of Dobie Gillis (1953), Susan Slept Here (1954), Bundle of Joy (1956 Golden Globe nomination), The Catered Affair (1956 National Board of Review Best Supporting Actress Winner), and Tammy and the Bachelor (1957), in which her performance of the song "Tammy" topped the Billboard music charts. In 1959, she starred in The Mating Game with Tony Randall, and released Debbie, her first pop music album. She starred in Singin' in the Rain (1952) with Gene Kelly, How the West Was Won (1962), and The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964), where her performance as the famously boisterous Titanic passenger Margaret Brown earned Reynolds an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Her other films include: The Singing Nun (1966), Divorce American Style (1967), What's the Matter with Helen? (1971), Mother (1996; Golden Globe nomination) and In & Out (1997). She was known for voicing Charlotte A. Cavatica in Charlotte's Web (1973). Reynolds was also known as a cabaret performer; in 1979, she opened the Debbie Reynolds Dance Studio in North Hollywood.
Her television series The Debbie Reynolds Show earned her a Golden Globe nomination in 1969. She starred in the 1973 Broadway revival of the musical Irene, which earned her a Tony Award nomination for "Best Leading Actress in a Musical." She was also nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for her performance in A Gift of Love (1999). After appearing in the popular early-2000s sitcom Will & Grace, Reynolds was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series" for her role as Bobbi, the mother of Grace Adler. Reynolds would reach a new, younger audience with her role as Aggie Cromwell in Disney's Halloweentown series.
Reynolds also had several business ventures besides her dance studio, including a Las Vegas hotel and casino; she was also an avid collector of film memorabilia, beginning with items purchased at the landmark 1970 MGM auction. She served as president of The Thalians, an organization dedicated to mental health causes. After receiving the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2015 and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 2016, she made her final film performance in the biographical retrospective . Reynolds died following a hemorrhagic stroke on December 28, 2016, one day after the death of her daughter, actress Carrie Fisher.
Her mother took in laundry for income, while they lived in a shack on Magnolia Street in El Paso. "We may have been poor," she said in a 1963 interview, "but we always had something to eat, even if Dad had to go out in the desert and shoot jackrabbits."
Her family moved to Burbank, California, in 1939. When Reynolds was a 16-year-old student at Burbank High School in 1948, she won the Miss Burbank beauty contest. Soon after, she was offered a contract with Warner Brothers and was given the stage name "Debbie" by studio head Jack L. Warner.
One of her closest high school friends said that she rarely dated during her teenaged years in Burbank.
Reynolds agreed, saying, "when I started, I didn't even know how to dress. I wore dungarees and a shirt. I had no money, no taste, and no training." Her friend adds:
With MGM, Reynolds regularly appeared in musical film during the 1950s, and had several hit records during the period. Her song "Aba Daba Honeymoon" (featured in the film Two Weeks with Love (1950) and sung as a duet with co-star Carleton Carpenter) was the first soundtrack recording to become a top-of-the-chart gold record, reaching number three on the Billboard charts.video: "Carleton Carpenter and Debbie Reynolds, "Abba Dabba Honeymoon" from Two Weeks with Love
Her performance in the film greatly impressed the studio, which then gave her a co-starring role in what became her highest-profile film, Singin' in the Rain (1952), a satire on movie-making in Hollywood during the transition from silent to sound pictures. It co-starred Gene Kelly, whom she called a "great dancer and cinematic genius," adding, "He made me a star. I was 18 and he taught me how to dance and how to work hard and be dedicated.""Rain will only bring smiles," The Sydney Morning Herald, February 4, 1996 In 1956, she appeared in the musical Bundle of Joy with her then-husband, Eddie Fisher.
Reynolds was one of 14 top-billed names in How the West Was Won (1962) but she was the only one who appeared throughout, the story largely following the life and times of her character Lilith Prescott. In the film, she sang three songs: "What Was Your Name in the States?", as her pioneering family begin their westward journey; "Raise a Ruckus Tonight", starting a party around a wagon train camp fire; and, three times, "Home in the Meadow" – to the tune of "Greensleeves" with lyrics by Sammy Cahn.
Her starring role in The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964) led to a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.video: Debbie Reynolds singing "I Ain't Down Yet," in The Unsinkable Molly Brown Reynolds noted that she initially had issues with its director, Charles Walters. "He didn't want me," she said. "He wanted Shirley MacLaine," who at the time was unable to take the role. "He said, 'You are totally wrong for the part.'" But six weeks into production, he reversed his opinion. "He came to me and said, 'I have to admit that I was wrong. You are playing the role really well. I'm pleased.'" Reynolds also played in Goodbye Charlie, a 1964 comedy film about a callous womanizer who gets his just reward. It was adapted from George Axelrod's play Goodbye, Charlie and also starred Tony Curtis and Pat Boone.
She next portrayed Jeanine Deckers in The Singing Nun (1966). In what Reynolds once called the "stupidest mistake of my entire career,"Reynolds, Debbie (with Columbia, David Patrick) (1988). Debbie: My Life. William Morrow and Company, p. 309; she made headlines in 1970 after instigating a fight with the NBC television network over cigarette advertising on her weekly television show. Although she was television's highest-paid female performer at the time, she quit the show for breaking its contract:
When NBC explained to Reynolds that banning cigarette commercials from her show would be impossible, she kept her resolve. The show drew mixed reviews, but according to NBC, it captured about 42% of the nation's viewing audience. She said later she was especially concerned about the commercials because of the number of children watching the show. She did quit doing the show after about a year, which she said had cost her about $2 million of lost income: "Maybe I was a fool to quit the show, but at least I was an honest fool. I'm not a phony or pretender. With me, it wasn't a question of money, but integrity. I'm the one who has to live with myself." The dispute would have been rendered moot and in Reynolds' favor anyway had she not resigned; by 1971, the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act (which had been passed into law before she left the show) would ban all radio and television advertising for tobacco products.
Reynolds voiced Charlotte in the Hanna-Barbera animated musical Charlotte's Web (1973), where she originated the song "Mother Earth and Father Time."Gene Siskel (April 25, 1973). "Charlotte's Web" Chicago Tribune Pg. 57. Reynolds continued to make other appearances in film and television. She played Helen Chappel Hackett's mother, Deedee Chappel, on the Wings episode "If It's Not One Thing, It's Your Mother," which first aired November 22, 1994.
From 1999 to 2006, she played Grace Adler's theatrical mother, Bobbi Adler, on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace, which earned Reynolds her only Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series in 2000. She played a recurring role in the Disney Channel Original Movie Halloweentown film series as Aggie Cromwell. Reynolds made a guest appearance as a presenter at the 69th Academy Awards in 1997.*
In 2000, Reynolds took up a recurring voice role on the children's television program Rugrats, playing the grandmother of two of the characters. In 2001, she co-starred with Elizabeth Taylor, Shirley MacLaine, and Joan Collins in the comedy These Old Broads, a television movie written for her by her daughter, Carrie Fisher. "Scandal's History for 'These Old Broads'", Los Angeles Times, February 12, 2001 She had a cameo role as herself in the 2004 film Connie and Carla. In 2013, she appeared in Behind the Candelabra, as the mother of Liberace.
Reynolds appears with her daughter in , a 2016 documentary about the very close relationship between the two. It premiered at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. The television premiere was January 7, 2017, on HBO. According to USA Today, the film is "an intimate portrait of Hollywood royalty ... it loosely chronicles their lives through interviews, photos, footage, and vintage home movies... It culminates in a moving scene, just as Reynolds is preparing to receive the 2015 Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award, which Fisher presented to her mom."
Reynolds also scored two other top-25 Billboard hits with "A Very Special Love" (number 20 in January 1958) and "Am I That Easy to Forget" (number 25 in March 1960)—a pop-music version of a country music hit made famous by Carl Belew (in 1959), Skeeter Davis (in 1960), and several years later by singer Engelbert Humperdinck.
She released The Best of Debbie Reynolds album in 1991.
For 10 years, she headlined for about three months a year in Las Vegas's Riviera Hotel. She enjoyed live shows, though that type of performing "was extremely strenuous," she said in 1966:
As part of her nightclub act, Reynolds was noted for doing impressions of celebrities such as Eva and Zsa Zsa Gabor, Mae West, Barbra Streisand, Phyllis Diller, and Bette Davis. Her impersonation of Davis was inspired following their co-starring roles in the 1956 film, The Catered Affair."Debbie Reynolds Takes on Eva, Mae, Pearl, and 'The Kid'", Chicago Tribune, March 19, 1972. Reynolds had started doing stage impersonations as a teenager; her impersonation of Betty Hutton was performed as a singing number during the Miss Burbank contest in 1948.
Her 1992 holiday collaboration with Donald O'Connor, Christmas with Donald and Debbie, arranged and conducted by Angelo DiPippo, would be her final album release.
Reynolds was also a French horn player. Gene Kelly, reflecting on Reynolds's sudden fame, recalled, "There were times when Debbie was more interested in playing the French horn somewhere in the San Fernando Valley or attending a Girl Scout meeting....She didn't realize she was a movie star all of a sudden.""Mary Francis (Debbie) Reynolds (1932–2016)", The Horn Call, February 2017, Volume XLVII, No. 2, p. 26.
Reynolds and her daughter Carrie both made their Broadway debuts in the play. Per reports, the production broke records for the highest weekly gross of any musical. For that production, she received a Tony nomination. Reynolds also starred in the Broadway revue Debbie in 1976. She toured with Harve Presnell in Annie Get Your Gun, then wrapped up the Broadway run of Woman of the Year in 1983, while Fisher was appearing in Agnes of God. In the late 1980s, Reynolds repeated her role as Molly Brown in the stage version of The Unsinkable Molly Brown, first opposite Presnell (repeating his original Broadway and movie role) and later with Ron Raines.
In 2010, she appeared in her own West End show Debbie Reynolds: Alive and Fabulous.
The museum was to relocate to be the centerpiece of the Belle Island Village tourist attraction in the resort city of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, but the developer went bankrupt. The museum filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2009. The most valuable asset of the museum was Reynolds' collection. Todd Fisher, Reynolds' son, announced that his mother was "heartbroken" to have to auction off the collection. It was valued at $10.79 million in the bankruptcy filing. Los Angeles auction firm Profiles in History was given the responsibility of conducting a series of auctions. Among the "more than 3500 costumes, 20,000 photographs, and thousands of movie posters, costume sketches, and props" included in the sales were Charlie Chaplin's bowler hat and Marilyn Monroe's white "subway dress," whose skirt is lifted up by the breeze from a passing subway train in the film The Seven Year Itch (1955). The dress sold for $4.6 million in 2011; the final auction was held in May 2014.
In 2011, Reynolds was on The Oprah Winfrey Show just weeks before Elizabeth Taylor's death. She explained that Taylor and she happened to be traveling at the same time on the ocean liner ( RMS Queen Elizabeth) some time in the 1960s when they reconciled. Reynolds sent a note to Taylor's room, and Taylor sent a note in reply asking to have dinner with Reynolds and end their feud. As Reynolds described it, "we had a wonderful evening with a lot of laughs." In 1972, she noted the bright side of the divorce and her remarriage:
Reynolds' second marriage, to millionaire businessman Harry Karl, lasted from 1960 to 1973. For a period during the 1960s, she stopped working at the studio on Friday afternoons to attend Girl Scout meetings, since she was the leader of the Girl Scout Troop of which her 13-year-old daughter Carrie and her stepdaughter Tina Karl, also 13, were members. Reynolds later found herself in financial difficulty because of Karl's gambling and bad investments.
Reynolds' third marriage was to real estate developer Richard Hamlett from 1984 to 1996.
In 2011, Reynolds stepped down after 56 years of involvement in The Thalians, a charitable organization devoted to children and adults with mental-health issues.
Reynolds was hospitalized in October 2012 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles due to an adverse reaction to medication. She canceled appearances and concert engagements for the next three months.
She published the autobiographies Debbie: My Life in 1988 and Unsinkable: A Memoir in 2013.
On December 23, 2016, Reynolds' daughter, actress and writer Carrie Fisher, suffered a medical emergency on a flight from London to Los Angeles, and died one day before her mother, December 27, at the age of 60 at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
Todd Fisher later said that Reynolds had been seriously affected by her daughter's death, and that her grief partially contributed to her stroke, noting that his mother had stated, "I want to be with Carrie," shortly before she died. During an interview for the December 30, 2016, airing of the ABC-TV program 20/20, Todd Fisher elaborated on this, saying that his mother had joined his sister in death because Reynolds "didn't want to leave Carrie and did not want her to be alone." He added, "she didn't die of a broken heart" as some news reports had implied, but rather "just left to be with Carrie."
Reynolds was entombed with a portion of her daughter's ashes at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills during a memorial service held on January 6, while the remainder of Carrie Fisher's ashes are held in a giant, novelty Fluoxetine pill.
On November 4, 2006, Reynolds received the Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award from Chapman University (Orange, California). On May 17, 2007, she was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Nevada, Reno, where she had contributed for many years to the film studies program.
Career
Film and television
Music career and cabaret
With a performing schedule of two shows a night, seven nights a week, it's probably the toughest kind of show business, but in my opinion, the most rewarding. I like the feeling of being able to change stage bits and business when I want. You can't do that in motion pictures or TV."Debbie Reynolds Still Unsinkable", Los Angeles Times, December 17, 1966.
Stage work
Film history preservation
Business ventures
Advocacy
Marriages and later life
Death and legacy
Awards and honors
+Awards and nominations
! Year
! Association
! Category
! Nominated work
! Result
! References 1951 Golden Globe Awards New Star of the Year – Actress Three Little Words See also the profile of Debbie Reynolds at Goldenglobes.com. 1956 National Board of Review Best Supporting Actress The Catered Affair 1957 Golden Globe Awards Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Bundle of Joy 1965 Academy Awards Best Actress The Unsinkable Molly Brown 1965 Golden Globe Awards Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy 1970 Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy 1973 Best Actress in a Musical Irene 1997 American Comedy Awards Lifetime Achievement Award in Comedy Herself 1997 Golden Globe Awards Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Mother 1997 Satellite Awards Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture 1998 Blockbuster LLC Blockbuster LLC In & Out 2000 Daytime Emmy Awards Outstanding Performer in a Children's Special A Gift of Love: The Daniel Huffman Story 2000 Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series Will & Grace 2014 Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award Herself 2015 Academy Awards Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award
Filmography
1948 June Bride Boo's Girlfriend at Wedding Uncredited 1950 Maureen O'Grady Three Little Words Helen Kane Two Weeks with Love Melba Robinson 1951 Mr. Imperium Gwen 1952 Singin' in the Rain Kathy Selden Skirts Ahoy! Herself Uncredited 1953 I Love Melvin Judy Schneider / Judy LeRoy Pansy Hammer Give a Girl a Break Suzy Doolittle 1954 Susan Slept Here Susan Beauregard Landis Athena Minerva Mulvain 1955 Hit the Deck Carol Pace Julie Gillis 1956 Meet Me in Las Vegas Herself (uncredited) Jane Hurley Bundle of Joy Polly Parish 1957 Tammy and the Bachelor Tammy 1958 This Happy Feeling Janet Blake 1959 Mariette Larkin Say One for Me Holly LeMaise, aka Conroy It Started with a Kiss Maggie Putnam Nell Nash 1960 Peggy Brown Pepe Cameo 1961 Jessica Anne Poole Lucretia 'Lu' Rogers 1962 How the West Was Won Lilith Prescott 1963 My Six Loves Janice Courtney Mary, Mary Mary McKellaway 1964 Margaret Brown Goodbye Charlie Charlie Sorel/Virginia Mason 1966 Sister Ann 1967 Divorce American Style Barbara Harmon 1968 How Sweet It Is! Jenny Henderson 1969 Debbie Reynolds and the Sound of Children Herself TV movie 1971 What's the Matter with Helen? Adelle 1973 Charlotte's Web Charlotte A. Cavatica (voice) 1974 Busby Berkeley Documentary That's Entertainment! Compilation film 1987 Sadie and Son Sadie TV movie 1989 Amanda Cody 1992 Battling for Baby Helen Herself Cameo 1993 Jack L. Warner: The Last Mogul Documentary Heaven & Earth Eugenia 1994 That's Entertainment! III Compilation film 1996 Mother Beatrice Henderson Wedding Bell Blues Herself 1997 In & Out Berniece Brackett 1998 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Herself (voice) Kiki's Delivery Service Madame (voice, Disney English dub) Zack and Reba Beulah Blanton Mrs. Claus/Rudolph's Mother/Mrs. Prancer Voice Halloweentown Agatha "Aggie" Cromwell TV movie Ruth 1999 A Gift of Love: The Daniel Huffman Story Shirlee Allison Keepers of the Frame Documentary 2000 Lulu Pickles (voice) Virtual Mom Gwen TV movie Rugrats: Acorn Nuts & Diapey Butts Lulu Johnson (voice) 2001 These Old Broads Piper Grayson TV movie Agatha "Aggie" Cromwell 2002 Cinerama Adventure Herself (interviewee) Documentary Generation Gap TV movie 2004 Connie and Carla Herself Halloweentown High Agatha "Aggie" Cromwell TV movie 2006 Return to Halloweentown Splendora Agatha "Aggie" Cromwell TV movie; Cameo appearance Lolo's Cafe Mrs. Atkins (voice) TV movie 2007 Herself (interviewee) Documentary 2008 Light of Olympia Queen (voice) Herself Documentary Fay Wray: A Life 2012 One for the Money Grandma Mazur 2013 Behind the Candelabra Frances Liberace TV movie 2016 Herself Documentary
Partial television credits
1981 Aloha Paradise Sydney Chase 8 episodes 1982 Alice Felicia Blake Episode: "Sorry, Wrong Lips!" Madame's Place Self Episode: "Movie Stars and Producers" 1991 The Golden Girls Truby "There Goes the Bride: Part 2" 1994 Wings Deedee Chappel "If It's Not One Thing, It's Your Mother" 1997 Roseanne Audrey Conner "Arsenic and Old Mom" 1999–2006 Will & Grace Bobbi Adler 12 episodes 2000–2002 Rugrats Lulu Pickles (voice) 10 episodes 2003 Tracey Ullman in the Trailer Tales Herself TV comedy special 2003–2007 Kim Possible Nana Possible (voice) 4 episodes 2008 Family Guy Mrs. Wilson (voice) Episode: "Tales of a Third Grade Nothing" 2010 The Penguins of Madagascar Granny Squirrel (voice) "The Lost Treasure of the Golden Squirrel" RuPaul's Drag Race Self (guest judge) 2011 So You Think You Can Dance Self (guest judge) (Alongside Nigel Lythgoe & Mary Murphy) 2015 The 7D Queen Whimsical (voice) "Big Rock Candy Flim-Flam / Doing the 7D Dance"
Radio broadcasts
Two Weeks with Love
See also
Further reading
External links
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