Debbie Reynolds

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 she performed the song "Tammy", which 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 boisterous Titanic passenger Margaret "Molly" 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 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 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. She reached 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 Bright Lights. Reynolds died following a hemorrhagic stroke on December 28, 2016, one day after the death of her daughter, actress Carrie Fisher.

Debbie Reynolds studied at Burbank High School and John Burroughs High School. The recorded working language is English. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are pop, traditional pop and jazz. Employment is recorded with Warner Bros. Distinctions recorded are Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award, Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture, National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress and Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

• Name — Debbie Reynolds • Birth Name — Mary Frances Reynolds • Born — 1 April 1932 • Birthplace — El Paso, Texas, U.S. • Died — 28 December 2016 • Place of death — Los Angeles, California, U.S. • Burial Place — Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills • Occupation — * Actress • singer • dancer • Years Active — 1948–2016 • Website — debbiereynolds.com • Children — * Carrie Fisher • Todd Fisher • Relatives — Billie Lourd (granddaughter) Mary Frances "Debbie" Reynolds (April 1, 1932 – December 28, 2016) was an American actress, singer and dancer. 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 she performed the song "Tammy", which 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 boisterous Titanic passenger Margaret "Molly" 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 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 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. She reached 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 Bright Lights. Reynolds died following a hemorrhagic stroke on December 28, 2016, one day after the death of her daughter, actress Carrie Fisher.

• Illustration — Reynolds (right) with her grandmother O. Harman (center) and father Ray Reynolds in 1955 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 ancestry 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 Girl Scout, 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." One of the advantages of having been poor is that you learn to appreciate good fortune and the value of a dollar, and poverty holds no fear for you because you know you've gone through it and you can do it again... But we were always a happy family and a religious one. And I'm trying to inculcate in my children the same sense of values, the same tone that my mother gave to me. 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. They never found her attractive in school. She was cute, but sort of tomboyish, and her family never had any money to speak of. She never dressed well or drove a car. And, I think, during all the years in school, she was invited to only one dance. 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: I say this in all sincerity. Debbie can serve as an inspiration to all young American womanhood. She came up the hard way, and she has a realistic sense of values based on faith, love, work, and money. Life has been kind to her because she has been kind to life. She's a young woman with a conscience, which is something rare in Hollywood actresses. She also has a refreshing sense of honesty.

Her recording of the song "Tammy" (1957; from Tammy and the Bachelor) earned her a gold record. It was a number one single on the Billboard pop charts in 1957. In the movie (the first of the Tammy film series), she co-starred with Leslie Nielsen. 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. • Illustration — Marquee listing Reynolds' world premiere at the Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas, December 1962 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. 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. 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."

• Illustration — Reynolds prior to performing a show in Las Vegas in 1975 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: Primarily because I had two children growing up, I could make movies and recordings and plays in nearby Las Vegas and handle a television series without being away from them. Now, they are well on the way to being adults. Also, there was the matter of being offered a show that I felt might be right for me... I felt that Irene was it and now was the time. 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. • Best Foot Forward (1953) (Dallas State Fair) • Irene (1973) (Broadway and US national tour) • Debbie (1976) (Broadway) • Annie Get Your Gun (1977) (San Francisco and Los Angeles) • Woman of the Year (1982) (Broadway) (replacement for Lauren Bacall) • The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1989) (US national tour) • Irene (2008) Perth Western Australia In 2010, she appeared in her own West End show Debbie Reynolds: Alive and Fabulous.

Reynolds amassed a large collection of movie memorabilia, 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 Kodak Theatre 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 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 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 Las Vegas, 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 Ivana Trump on the Globe weekly's advice column but many of the published letters were plagiarized from Slates Dear Prudence and possibly others.

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."

• Illustration — Reynolds and Eddie Fisher on their wedding day, 1955 Reynolds was married three times. Her first marriage was to singer and actor Eddie Fisher in 1955. They became the parents of Carrie Fisher and Todd Fisher. The couple divorced in 1959 when it was revealed shortly after the death of Elizabeth Taylor's husband Mike Todd 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. 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: Now in retrospect, though it was not my will, I think it probably was the best thing that ever happened to me. He did give me two great children and for that I will ever be grateful. Our door is always open to him. I believe in peaceful coexistence and being friends with the father of your children. 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.

• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1948 — June Bride — Boo's Girlfriend at Wedding — Uncredited • 1950 — The — 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 • The — 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 • The — Julie Gillis • 1956 — Meet Me in Las Vegas — Herself (uncredited) • The — Jane Hurley • Bundle of Joy — Polly Parish • 1957 — Tammy and the Bachelor — Tammy • 1958 — This Happy Feeling — Janet Blake • 1959 — The — Mariette Larkin • Say One for Me — Holly LeMaise, aka Conroy • It Started with a Kiss — Maggie Putnam • The — Nell Nash • 1960 — The — Peggy Brown • Pepe — Cameo • 1961 — The — Jessica Anne Poole • The — Lucretia 'Lu' Rogers • 1962 — How the West Was Won — Lilith Prescott • 1963 — My Six Loves — Janice Courtney • Mary, Mary — Mary McKellaway • 1964 — The — Molly Brown • Goodbye Charlie — Charlie Sorel/Virginia Mason • 1966 — The — 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 — Herself — Documentary • That's Entertainment! — Compilation film • 1987 — Sadie and Son — Sadie — TV movie • 1989 — Perry Mason: The Case of the Musical Murder — Amanda Cody • 1992 — Battling for Baby — Helen • The — Herself — Cameo • 1993 — Jack L. Warner: The Last Mogul — Documentary • Heaven & Earth — Eugenia • 1994 — That's Entertainment! III — Herself — 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 • Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie — Mrs. Claus/Rudolph's Mother/Mrs. Prancer — Voice • Halloweentown — Agatha "Aggie" Cromwell — TV movie • The — Ruth • 1999 — A Gift of Love: The Daniel Huffman Story — Shirlee Allison • Keepers of the Frame — Herself — Documentary • 2000 — Rugrats in Paris: The Movie — Lulu Pickles (voice) • Virtual Mom — Gwen — TV movie • Rugrats: Acorn Nuts & Diapey Butts — Lulu Johnson (voice) • 2001 — These Old Broads — Piper Grayson — TV movie • Halloweentown II: Kalabar's Revenge — Agatha "Aggie" Cromwell • 2002 — Cinerama Adventure — Herself (interviewee) — Documentary • Generation Gap — Herself — TV movie • 2004 — Connie and Carla • 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 — Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project — Herself (interviewee) — Documentary • 2008 — Light of Olympia — Queen (voice) • The — Herself — Documentary • The • Fay Wray: A Life • 2012 — One for the Money — Grandma Mazur • 2013 — Behind the Candelabra — Frances Liberace — TV movie • 2016 — Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds — Herself — Documentary • Sources: • Short subjects • A Visit with Debbie Reynolds (1959) • The Story of a Dress (1964) • In the Picture (2012)

• Year — Title — Role — Episodes — References • 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) — Episode: "Golden Gals" • 2011 — So You Think You Can Dance — (Alongside Nigel Lythgoe & Mary Murphy) • 2015 — The 7D — Queen Whimsical (voice) — "Big Rock Candy Flim-Flam / Doing the 7D Dance"

• Year — Program — Episode/source • | September 8, 1952 — Lux Radio Theatre — Two Weeks with Love