Portrait of Debbie Reynolds by Philippe Halsman on cover of
Life magazine, 1951
Debbie Reynolds (born April 1, 1932) is an American actress and singer.
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Contents
- 1 Singer and actor
- 2 Personal life
- 3 Awards
- 4 Trivia
- 5 Filmography
- 6 TV appearances
- 7 External links
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Singer and actor
Debbie Reynolds was born as Mary Frances Reynolds in El Paso, Texas, the second child of Raymond Francis Reynolds (1903-1986) and Maxine N. Harman (1913-1999).
Her family moved to Burbank, California, in 1939. At 16, Reynolds won the Miss Burbank Beauty Contest, a motion picture contract with Warner Brothers, and acquired her new first name.
Reynolds appeared in small roles in two Warner Brothers movies and signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Cast in Three Little Words, starring Fred Astaire and Red Skelton, Reynolds second MGM film appearance in Two Weeks With Love, received strong notices. She then appeared in Mr. Imperium opposite Lana Turner.
Over Gene Kelly's initial opposition and her lack of ability to tap dance, Reynolds played the female lead in Singin' in the Rain. Reynolds hard work paid off in a well-received performance with Kelly and Donald O'Connor.
Reynolds went on to star in numerous motion pictures,such as Bundle of Joy in 1956, with her then husband, Eddie Fisher and record hit songs (most notably "Tammy" from her 1957 film Tammy and the Bachelor) and headline major Las Vegas showrooms. Her starring role in The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964) led to an Oscar nomination, but she lost to Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins.
As of 2005 she was still making appearances in film and television, one of the few actors from MGM's "golden age of film" (including Anita Page, Mickey Rooney, Lauren Bacall, Cyd Charisse, Margaret O'Brien, Jane Powell, Rita Moreno, Leslie Caron, Dean Stockwell, Van Johnson, Angela Lansbury, Russ Tamblyn and June Lockhart) who was still active in filmmaking. From 1999 to the present, she has played the recurring role of Grace's dizzy mother Bobbi Adler on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace.
Reynolds has been active in the Thalians Club and has also displayed her collection of movie memorabilia, first in a Las Vegas resort during the 1990s and later in a museum close to the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles, California. She has auctioned off some of these items several times.
Personal life
Reynolds has been married three times:
- Eddie Fisher (married 1955, divorced 1959)
- Harry Karl (married 1960, divorced 1973)
- Richard Hamlett (married 1984, divorced 1994)
She has two children, Carrie Fisher (born 1956, of Star Wars fame) and Todd Fisher (born 1958).
In an enormous scandal, Reynolds' first husband, singer Eddie Fisher, left her to marry the recently-widowed Elizabeth Taylor. Although Reynolds and Taylor were close friends and former child actresses at MGM, Reynolds publicly played the role of scorned wife to the hilt and Taylor played the femme fatale. While both intensely ambitious actresses received enormous publicity as a result, Taylor soon dropped Fisher when she met and married Richard Burton.
Reynolds' marriage to shoe magnate Harry Karl also proved disastrous. Instead of providing stabilty and financial security for Reynolds and her children, Karl was a pathological gambler throwing away her money on his long losing streak.
Awards
Reynolds was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress following her performance in The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964), a Golden Globe for The Debbie Reynolds Show on television (1970), a Golden Globe for the motion picture Mother (1996), and a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for In & Out (1997). In 1997 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Comedy.
In what Reynolds herself called the worst blunder of her career, she made big headlines in 1970 instigating a fight with NBC over cigarette advertising on her TV show. NBC canceled her show despite good ratings.
Reynolds' foot and hand prints are preserved at the Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood. She also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6654 Hollywood Boulevard.
Trivia
For many years Reynolds and Liberace shared the services of personal manager, Seymour Heller.
Reynolds was a Girl Scout and a troop leader. A scholarship in her name is offered to high-school age Girl Scouts.
Height: 5'2"
Filmography
- June Bride (1948)
- The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady (1950)
- Three Little Words (1950)
- Two Weeks with Love (1950)
- Mr. Imperium (1951)
- Singin' in the Rain (1952)
- Skirts Ahoy! (1952)
- I Love Melvin (1953)
- The Affairs of Dobie Gillis (1953)
- Give a Girl a Break (1953)
- Susan Slept Here (1954)
- Athena (1954)
- Hit the Deck (1955)
- The Tender Trap (1955)
- Meet Me in Las Vegas (1956) (Cameo)
- The Catered Affair (1956)
- Bundle of Joy (1956)
- Tammy and the Bachelor (1957)
- This Happy Feeling (1958)
- The Mating Game (1959)
- Say One for Me (1959)
- It Started with a Kiss (1959)
- The Gazebo (1959)
- The Rat Race (1960)
- Pepe (1960) (Cameo)
- The Pleasure of His Company (1961)
- The Second Time Around (1961)
- How the West Was Won (1962)
- Mary, Mary (1963)
- My Six Loves (1963)
- The Story of a Dress (1964) (short subject)
- The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964)
- Goodbye Charlie (1964)
- The Singing Nun (1966)
- Divorce American Style (1967)
- How Sweet It Is! (1968)
- What's the Matter with Helen? (1971)
- Charlotte's Web (1973) (voice)
- Busby Berkeley (1974) (documentary)
- That's Entertainment! (1974) (narrator)
- Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) (voice in 1998 English dubbed version)
- The Bodyguard (1992) (Cameo)
- Heaven & Earth (1993)
- That's Entertainment! III (1994)
- Mother (1996)
- Wedding Bell Blues (1996) (Cameo)
- In & Out (1997)
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) (voice only)
- Zack and Reba (1998)
- Keepers of the Frame (1999) (documentary)
- Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie (1999) (voice)
- Rugrats in Paris: The Movie (2000) (voice)
- These Old Broads (2001)
- Cinerama Adventure (2002) (documentary)
- Connie and Carla (2004) (Cameo)
- Fingers Walking (2005)
TV appearances
- The Eddie Fisher Show (1957-1959) (regular performer throughout run)
- The Debbie Reynolds Show (1969-1970)
- "The Dick Cavett Show" (1970)
- Aloha Paradise (1981) (canceled after 4 months)
- Sadie and Son (1987)
- The Golden Girls (1991)
- Battling for Baby (1992)
- Halloweentown (1998)
- The Christmas Wish (1998)
- A Gift of Love: The Daniel Huffman Story (1999)
- Will & Grace (recurring role from 1999-2006)
- Virtual Mom (2000)
- Rugrats (cast member from 2000-2004) (voice)
- These Old Broads (2001)
- Halloweentown II: Kalabar's Revenge (2001)
- Tracey Ullman in Trailer Tales (2003) (Cameo)
- Halloweentown High (2004)
External links
- Debbie Reynolds at the Internet Movie Database
Categories: 1932 births | American female singers | American film actors | American television actors | Best Actress Oscar Nominee | Gaming Hall of Fame | Girl Scouts of the USA | Hollywood Walk of Fame | Living people | People from Texas | El Pasoans | Will & Grace actors
