Tributes are being paid to Hollywood legend Debbie Reynolds who died just a day after losing her daughter, the actress and writer Carrie Fisher.
One of the few remaining stars from the Golden Age of the movie musical, the 84-year-old actress created the role of Kathy Selden opposite Gene Kelly in the classic movie musical Singin’ in the Rain.
Born Mary Frances Reynolds in 1932 in El Paso, Texas, her fresh-faced all-American prettiness attracted the attention of a movie talent scout who spotted her at a beauty pageant in 1948. She was quickly signed to Warner Bros and at the age of just 16 embarked on a new career with a new first name courtesy of movie mogul Jack Warner.
Her breakthrough came in 1952 when she famously joined Kelly and Donald O’Connor in the timeless tale of the birth of the ‘talkies’, Singin’ in the Rain.
Movie audiences across the world fell in love with her wholesome image and she was quickly christened ‘America’s Sweetheart’ – a title which would persist in spite of an at times turbulent personal life. The latter included three marriages and the headline hitting scandal involving her first husband, crooner Eddie Fisher’s affair with the couple’s friend Elizabeth Taylor.
On screen Reynolds followed Singin’ in the Rain with a string of movies during the 1950s and 1960s including the Frank Sinatra hit The Tender Trap and The Mating Game with Tony Randall, before her Oscar nominated performance in the title role in The Unsinkable Molly Brown.
When the film roles started to dry up, and after taking time out to raise her two children by Fisher, Carrie and Todd, Reynolds was persuaded to take to the stage, making her Broadway debut in the 1973 revival of Irene. The production was also notable for marking the Broadway debut of her daughter.
Reynolds would go on to star in the self-titled Broadway revue Debbie, a US touring production of Annie Get Your Gun, and she replaced Lauren Bacall in the 1982 Broadway production of Woman of the Year. In the late 1980s she would return to the title role in The Unsinkable Molly Brown for a US tour and also starred in an Australian production of Irene in 2008.
Widely regarded as one of the ‘grande dames’ of Hollywood in her later years, she often appeared on the small screen, most notably as Grace Adler’s flamboyant mother in the hit series Will & Grace.
Her tempestuous relationship with her real-life daughter Carrie came under the spotlight with Fisher’s 1987 novel Postcards From the Edge which was widely seen as a thinly disguised account of Fisher’s struggle with drugs and her turbulent life with her Hollywood royalty mother. A film version featuring Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine followed.
On Twitter, Ellen DeGeneres (who interviewed Carrie Fisher recently) wrote: “I can’t imagine what Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds’ family are going through this week. I send all of my love.”
Choreographer Sir Matthew Bourne added: “Unbearably sad and tragic to have died of a broken heart – the last great MGM Musical leading lady RIP Debbie Reynolds.”
Bette Midler said: “Debbie Reynolds has just died. This is too hard to comprehend. Beautiful, talented, devoted to her craft, she follows Carrie, dead days ago.”
Angela Thomas
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