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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 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 , and released Debbie, her first pop music album. She starred in Singin' in the Rain (1952) with , How the West Was Won (1962), and The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964), where her performance as the famously boisterous passenger earned Reynolds an 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 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 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 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 , 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 .


Early life
Mary Frances Reynolds was born on April 1, 1932, in El Paso, Texas, to Maxene N. "Minnie" Harman and Raymond Francis "Ray" Reynolds, a carpenter who worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad. She was of Scottish-Irish and English ancestryByrne, James Patrick. Coleman, Philip. King, Jason Francis. Ireland and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History: A Multidisciplinary Encyclopedia. Volume 2, p. 804. ABC-CLIO, 2008; . and was raised in a strict Nazarene church of her domineering mother. She had an older brother, William, who was two years her senior. Reynolds was a , once saying that she wanted to die as the world's oldest living Girl Scout. Reynolds was also a member of The International Order of Job's Daughters.

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:


Career

Film and television
Reynolds was discovered by talent scouts from Warner Bros. and MGM, who were at the 1948 Miss Burbank contest. Both companies wanted her to sign up with their studio, and had to flip a coin to see which one got her. Warner Bros. won the coin toss, and she was with the studio for two years. Leading Ladies, Chronicle Books (2006) p. 161 When Warner Bros. stopped producing musicals, she moved to MGM.

With MGM, Reynolds regularly appeared in 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 , 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, .

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 "" with lyrics by .

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, . "He didn't want me," she said. "He wanted ," 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 , a 1964 comedy film about a callous womanizer who gets his just reward. It was adapted from 's play Goodbye, Charlie and also starred and .

She next portrayed 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 animated musical Charlotte's Web (1973), where she originated the song "Mother Earth and Father Time." (April 25, 1973). "Charlotte's Web" 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 '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.*

(2026). 9780345449702, . .

In 2000, Reynolds took up a recurring voice role on the children's television program , playing the grandmother of two of the characters. In 2001, she co-starred with , Shirley MacLaine, and 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 .

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 . According to , 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."


Music career and cabaret
Her recording of the song "Tammy" (1957; from Tammy and the Bachelor) earned her a gold record.
(1978). 9780214205125, Barrie & Jenkins. .
It was a number one single on the Billboard pop charts in 1957. In the movie (the first of the Tammy ), she co-starred with . Debbie (1959), Vinyl record, Amazon.com records

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 hit made famous by (in 1959), (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:

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.

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 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.


Stage work
With limited film and television opportunities coming her way, Reynolds accepted an opportunity to make her Broadway debut. She starred in the 1973 revival of Irene, a musical first produced 60 years before. When asked why she waited so long to appear in a Broadway play, she explained:

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 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 .

In 2010, she appeared in her own West End show Debbie Reynolds: Alive and Fabulous.


Film history preservation
Reynolds amassed a large collection of , beginning with items from the landmark 1970 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer auction, and she displayed them, first in a museum at her Las Vegas hotel and casino during the 1990s and later in a museum close to the in Los Angeles.

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 's bowler hat and '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.


Business ventures
In 1979, Reynolds opened her own dance studio in North Hollywood. In 1983, she released an exercise video, Do It Debbie's Way! She purchased the Clarion Hotel and Casino, a hotel and casino in , in 1992. She renamed it the Debbie Reynolds Hollywood Hotel but it was not a success and Reynolds was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1997. In June 2010, she replaced on the Globe weekly's but many of the published letters were plagiarized from Slate's Dear Prudence and possibly others.


Advocacy
Reynolds was a longtime ally of the LGBT community and an early advocate for people with AIDS. In 1983, Reynolds performed at an AIDS fundraiser with her friend Shirley MacLaine. In a 2014 interview with The Daily Telegraph, Reynolds revealed that she had helped several closeted actors conceal their homosexuality by dating them. When asked when she realized she was a gay icon, Reynolds replied, "Over the years many of the boys that have worked for me as dancers have been gay. The creative people were all gay people, from producers to writers. To me, they were just family."


Marriages and later life
Reynolds was married three times. Her first marriage was to singer and actor in 1955. They became the parents of and . The couple divorced in 1959 when it was revealed shortly after the death of 's husband that Fisher had been having an affair with her; Taylor and Reynolds were good friends at the time. The Eddie FisherElizabeth Taylor affair was a great public scandal, which led to the cancellation of Eddie Fisher's television show.
(2014). 9781634172073, Page Publishing Inc. .

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 , 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.


Death and legacy
On December 28, 2016, Reynolds was taken by ambulance to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, after suffering a "severe stroke," according to her son. Later that afternoon, Reynolds was pronounced dead in the hospital; she was 84 years old. On January 9, 2017, her cause of death was determined to be an intracerebral hemorrhage, with a contributing factor.

On December 23, 2016, Reynolds' daughter, actress and writer , 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 during a memorial service held on January 6, while the remainder of Carrie Fisher's ashes are held in a giant, novelty pill.


Awards and honors
Reynolds was the 1955 Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year. Her footprints and handprints are preserved at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California. She also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6654 Hollywood Boulevard, for live performance and a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars dedicated to her. In keeping with the celebrity tradition of the Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival of Winchester, Virginia, Reynolds was honored as the Grand Marshal of the 2011 ABF that took place from April 26 to May 1, 2011.

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 program.

+Awards and nominations ! Year ! Association ! Category ! Nominated work ! Result ! References
1951Golden Globe AwardsNew Star of the Year – ActressThree Little Words See also the profile of Debbie Reynolds at Goldenglobes.com.
1956National Board of ReviewBest Supporting ActressThe Catered Affair
1957Golden Globe AwardsBest Actress – Motion Picture Musical or ComedyBundle of Joy
1965Best ActressThe Unsinkable Molly Brown
1965Golden Globe AwardsBest Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1970Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy
1973Best Actress in a MusicalIrene
1997American Comedy AwardsLifetime Achievement Award in ComedyHerself
1997Golden Globe AwardsBest Actress – Motion Picture Musical or ComedyMother
1997Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture
1998In & Out
(2026). 9780787646363, Gale. .
2000Daytime Emmy AwardsOutstanding Performer in a Children's SpecialA Gift of Love: The Daniel Huffman Story
2000Primetime Emmy AwardsOutstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy SeriesWill & Grace
2014Screen Actors GuildLife Achievement AwardHerself
2015Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award


Filmography
1948Boo's Girlfriend at WeddingUncredited
1950Maureen O'Grady
Three Little WordsHelen Kane
Two Weeks with LoveMelba Robinson
1951Mr. ImperiumGwen
1952Singin' in the RainKathy Selden
Skirts Ahoy!HerselfUncredited
1953I Love MelvinJudy Schneider / Judy LeRoy
Pansy Hammer
Give a Girl a BreakSuzy Doolittle
1954Susan Slept HereSusan Beauregard Landis
AthenaMinerva Mulvain
1955Hit the DeckCarol Pace
Julie Gillis
1956Meet Me in Las VegasHerself (uncredited)
Jane Hurley
Bundle of JoyPolly Parish
1957Tammy and the BachelorTammy
1958This Happy FeelingJanet Blake
1959Mariette Larkin
Say One for MeHolly LeMaise, aka Conroy
It Started with a KissMaggie Putnam
Nell Nash
1960Peggy Brown
PepeCameo
1961Jessica Anne Poole
Lucretia 'Lu' Rogers
1962How the West Was WonLilith Prescott
1963My Six LovesJanice Courtney
Mary, MaryMary McKellaway
1964
Charlie Sorel/Virginia Mason
1966Sister Ann
1967Divorce American StyleBarbara Harmon
1968How Sweet It Is!Jenny Henderson
1969Debbie Reynolds and the Sound of ChildrenHerselfTV movie
1971What's the Matter with Helen?Adelle
1973Charlotte's WebCharlotte A. Cavatica (voice)
1974 Documentary
That's Entertainment!
1987Sadie and SonSadieTV movie
1989Amanda Cody
1992Battling for BabyHelen
HerselfCameo
1993Jack L. Warner: The Last Mogul Documentary
Heaven & EarthEugenia
1994That's Entertainment! III Compilation film
1996MotherBeatrice Henderson
Wedding Bell BluesHerself
1997In & OutBerniece Brackett
1998Fear and Loathing in Las VegasHerself (voice)
Kiki's Delivery ServiceMadame (voice, Disney English dub)
Zack and RebaBeulah Blanton
Mrs. Claus/Rudolph's Mother/Mrs. PrancerVoice
HalloweentownAgatha "Aggie" CromwellTV movie
Ruth
1999A Gift of Love: The Daniel Huffman StoryShirlee Allison
Keepers of the Frame Documentary
2000Lulu Pickles (voice)
Virtual MomGwenTV movie
Rugrats: Acorn Nuts & Diapey ButtsLulu Johnson (voice)
2001These Old BroadsPiper GraysonTV movie
Agatha "Aggie" Cromwell
2002Cinerama AdventureHerself (interviewee)Documentary
Generation Gap TV movie
2004Connie and CarlaHerself
Halloweentown HighAgatha "Aggie" CromwellTV movie
2006Return to HalloweentownSplendora Agatha "Aggie" CromwellTV movie; Cameo appearance
Lolo's CafeMrs. Atkins (voice)TV movie
2007Herself (interviewee)Documentary
2008Light of OlympiaQueen (voice)
HerselfDocumentary
Fay Wray: A Life
2012One for the MoneyGrandma Mazur
2013Behind the CandelabraFrances LiberaceTV movie
2016HerselfDocumentary

Short subjects
  • A Visit with Debbie Reynolds (1959)
  • The Story of a Dress (1964)
  • In the Picture (2012)


Partial television credits
1981Sydney Chase8 episodes
1982AliceFelicia BlakeEpisode: "Sorry, Wrong Lips!"
Madame's PlaceSelfEpisode: "Movie Stars and Producers"
1991The Golden GirlsTruby"There Goes the Bride: Part 2"
1994WingsDeedee Chappel"If It's Not One Thing, It's Your Mother"
1997Audrey Conner"Arsenic and Old Mom"
1999–2006Will & GraceBobbi Adler12 episodes
2000–2002Lulu Pickles (voice)10 episodes
2003Tracey Ullman in the Trailer TalesHerselfTV comedy special
2003–2007Nana Possible (voice)4 episodes
2008 Mrs. Wilson (voice)Episode: "Tales of a Third Grade Nothing"
2010The Penguins of MadagascarGranny Squirrel (voice)"The Lost Treasure of the Golden Squirrel"
RuPaul's Drag RaceSelf (guest judge)
2011So You Think You Can DanceSelf (guest judge)(Alongside & Mary Murphy)
2015The 7DQueen Whimsical (voice)"Big Rock Candy Flim-Flam / Doing the 7D Dance"


Radio broadcasts
Two Weeks with Love


See also
  • List of American film actresses
  • List of people from California
  • List of people from Texas


Further reading
  • (1988). 9780688066338, William Morrow and Company. .
  • (2026). 9780062213655, William Morrow and Company.
  • (2026). 9780062416636, William Morrow and Company.


External links

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