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Actress Debbie Reynolds, Mother Of Carrie Fisher, Dead At 84
Actress, Broadway star and singer Debbie Reynolds, best known for her role as Kathy Selden in the classic Singin' In The Rain, has died. She was 84. Reynolds was the mother of actress Carrie Fisher, who died on Tuesday after suffering a heart attack on a flight from London to Los Angeles.
Reynolds was taken to the hospital earlier on Wednesday when it was believed she suffered a stroke.
"She wanted to be with Carrie," her son Todd Fisher told Variety. And TMZ reports that hours before her stroke, she told him, "I miss her so much, I want to be with Carrie."
Born April 1, 1932 in El Paso, Texas, her family later moved to Burbank where she attended Burbank High School. When she was 16 she won the Miss Burbank beauty contest, which led to a seven-year contract with Warner Bros. studios.
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Mary Francis Reynolds a/k/a Debbie Reynolds "Miss Burbank 1948" pic.twitter.com/YWoowiCGcU
— Pamela Greyson's LOST LOS ANGELES Est. 2008🧢 (@pamelagreyson) July 12, 2015
Reynolds would only make one film with Warner Bros., and later went to MGM where she would go on to greater success. She would earn a Golden Globe nomination as New Star of the Year in 1950's Three Little Words, and was only 19-years-old when she was cast in a lead role in Singin' In The Rain opposite of Gene Kelly.
During the 1950s, Reynolds was also a successful singer, getting a Billboard top-three hit with "Aba Daba Honeymoon," her duet with Carleton Carpenter from the 1951 musical Two Weeks To Love. She also later had a number one hit with "Tammy" in 1957 (it would eventually go Gold).
In 1955, she married singer Eddie Fisher, with whom she had two children, Carrie and Todd Fisher. The couple would become tabloid fodder when Fisher had an affair with Elizabeth Taylor, divorcing in 1959. Despite this betrayal, Reynolds and Taylor were friends and reconciled years later. Reynolds would remarry twice.
In 1964, Reynolds would earn her only Academy Awards nomination for her lead role in The Unsinkable Molly Brown. She later starred in her own TV show, which lasted only one season. In 1973 she turned to Broadway, and continued to perform on the stage throughout her life. In 2010, she brought her one-woman show, Debbie Reynolds: Alive and Fabulous, to London's West End where she reminisced on her life in showbiz and tumult off-screen/stage.
She also remained on the screen, both big and small, until the very end. She earned an Emmy nomination for her role as Grace's mother in Will & Grace, and was last seen as Liberace's mother in Steven Soderbergh's 2013 HBO film Behind The Candelabra.
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