Age, Biography, and Wiki
- Birthdate: April 1, 1932
- Birthplace: El Paso, Texas, USA
- Death Date: December 28, 2016
- Debbie Reynolds was a prominent figure in Hollywood, known for her versatility in film, television, and stage performances. She is best remembered for her roles in "Singin' in the Rain," "The Affairs of Dobie Gillis," and "Tammy and the Bachelor."
| Occupation | Autobiographer |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | 1 April 1932 |
| Age | 93 Years |
| Birth Place | El Paso, Texas, U.S. |
| Horoscope | Aries |
| Country | U.S |
| Date of death | 28 December, 2016 |
| Died Place | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Height, Weight & Measurements
- Height: 5 feet 4 inches (162.56 cm)
- Weight (at the time of passing): Not specified
- Debbie Reynolds was known for her energetic performances and charming on-screen presence.
| Height | 5 feet 4 inches |
| Weight | |
| Body Measurements | |
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Dating & Relationship Status
- Debbie Reynolds was married three times:
- Eddie Fisher (1955-1959): This marriage gained significant media attention due to Fisher's subsequent marriage to Elizabeth Taylor.
- Harry Karl (1960-1973): Karl's gambling issues led to financial difficulties for Reynolds.
- Richard Hamlett (1984-1996): With Hamlett's support, she invested in a Las Vegas casino, but the venture ended in bankruptcy.
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 her performance of the song "Tammy" 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 famously 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 known as 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 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.
"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 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 Gene Kelly, 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." In 1956, she appeared in the musical Bundle of Joy with her then-husband, Eddie Fisher.
Reynolds voiced Charlotte in the Hanna-Barbera animated musical Charlotte's Web (1973), where she originated the song "Mother Earth and Father Time." 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 Grace Adler'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.
In 2000, Reynolds took up a recurring voice role on the children's television program Rugrats, playing the grandmother of two of the characters. In 2001, she co-starred with Elizabeth Taylor, Shirley MacLaine, and Joan Collins in the comedy These Old Broads, a television movie written for her by her daughter, Carrie Fisher. 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 Liberace.
Reynolds appears with her daughter in Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, 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 HBO. According to USA Today, 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."
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.
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."
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 Fisher – Elizabeth 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' daughter, actress and writer Carrie Fisher, suffered a medical emergency December 23, 2016, 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."
| Parents | |
| Husband | Eddie Fisher (m. 1955-1959) Harry Karl (m. 1960-1973) Richard Hamlett (m. 1984-1996) |
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Net Worth and Salary
- Net Worth at Death: Estimates range from $50 million to $85 million. The discrepancy may be due to the different sources valuing her estate at different times or considering various assets.
- Despite financial challenges, Reynolds maintained a significant net worth through her real estate holdings and memorabilia collection.
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.
Career, Business, and Investments
- Film Career: Debbie Reynolds starred in numerous films, including "Singin' in the Rain," "Tammy and the Bachelor," and "The Unsinkable Molly Brown."
- Television: She had her own show, "The Debbie Reynolds Show," though it was short-lived.
- Stage: Reynolds performed in a Broadway revival of "Irene."
- Business Ventures: In 1994, she invested $10 million in a Las Vegas casino to showcase her memorabilia collection. Unfortunately, the venture led to bankruptcy in 1997.
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.
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.
She next portrayed Jeanine Deckers in The Singing Nun (1966). In what Reynolds once called the "stupidest mistake of my entire career," 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:
Social Network
- Debbie Reynolds was not active on social media platforms herself, as she passed away before the widespread use of these platforms became common. However, her legacy continues to be celebrated through her family and fans.
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 Greensleeves with lyrics by Sammy Cahn.
"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."
Education
- Debbie Reynolds' educational background is not detailed in public records, but her early life was marked by her entry into the entertainment industry as a teenager.
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.
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.
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 film studies program.
