Debbie Reynolds

Mary Frances Reynolds, known professionally as Debbie Reynolds, was born on April 1, 1932, in El Paso, Texas, to Maxene N. Harman and Raymond Francis Reynolds, a carpenter employed by the Southern Pacific Railroad. Of Scottish-Irish and English ancestry, Reynolds grew up in modest circumstances, her family living in a shack on Magnolia Street while her mother took in laundry for income. She had an older brother, William. The family relocated to Burbank, California, in 1939, where Reynolds attended Burbank High School and was a member of both the Girl Scouts and the International Order of Job's Daughters. At sixteen, she won the Miss Burbank beauty contest in 1948, an event attended by talent scouts from both Warner Bros. and MGM. The two studios resolved their competing interest with a coin toss, which Warner Bros. won, signing Reynolds and giving her the stage name "Debbie" at the direction of studio head Jack L. Warner.

After two years at Warner Bros., Reynolds moved to MGM when the former studio ceased producing musicals. At MGM she became a fixture in musical films throughout the 1950s. Her duet with Carleton Carpenter on "Aba Daba Honeymoon," featured in Two Weeks with Love (1950), became the first soundtrack recording to reach gold record status, hitting number three on the Billboard charts. A Golden Globe nomination for Most Promising Newcomer followed her portrayal of Helen Kane in Three Little Words (1950). Her profile rose considerably with her co-starring role alongside Gene Kelly in Singin' in the Rain (1952), a satire on Hollywood's transition from silent to sound pictures, which became her highest-profile film. Additional credits from the decade include The Affairs of Dobie Gillis (1953), Susan Slept Here (1954), Bundle of Joy (1956), in which she appeared with her then-husband Eddie Fisher and received a Golden Globe nomination, and The Catered Affair (1956), which earned her a National Board of Review Best Supporting Actress award. Her recording of "Tammy" from Tammy and the Bachelor (1957) reached the top of the Billboard charts. In 1959 she starred opposite Tony Randall in The Mating Game and released her first pop music album, also titled Debbie.

Reynolds continued her film career into the 1960s with notable results. In How the West Was Won (1962), she was the only performer among fourteen top-billed names to appear throughout the entire film, her character Lilith Prescott serving as the narrative's central thread. She sang three songs in the production, including "Home in the Meadow," set to the tune of "Greensleeves" with lyrics by Sammy Cahn. Her most acclaimed film performance came in The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964), in which she portrayed Margaret "Molly" Brown, the famously boisterous Titanic passenger. Director Charles Walters had initially sought Shirley MacLaine for the role and told Reynolds she was wrong for the part, but reversed his position six weeks into production. The performance earned Reynolds an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. She followed that with Goodbye Charlie (1964), alongside Tony Curtis and Pat Boone, and The Singing Nun (1966), in which she portrayed Jeanine Deckers. Later film credits include Divorce American Style (1967), What's the Matter with Helen? (1971), a voice role as Charlotte A. Cavatica in Charlotte's Web (1973), Mother (1996, Golden Globe nomination), and In & Out (1997).

Reynolds was equally active in television. Her series The Debbie Reynolds Show earned her a Golden Globe nomination in 1969. She received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for A Gift of Love (1999). Her recurring role as Bobbi, the mother of Grace Adler, on the sitcom Will & Grace in the early 2000s brought her a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series. She also reached a younger audience through her role as Aggie Cromwell in Disney's Halloweentown series.

Her Broadway career extended from 1973 to 1989. Reynolds starred in the 1973 revival of the musical Irene, a performance that earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical. She also starred in The Unsinkable Molly Brown and in Debbie on Broadway, and appeared in Woman of the Year.

Beyond performing, Reynolds maintained several business ventures. She opened the Debbie Reynolds Dance Studio in North Hollywood in 1979 and operated a Las Vegas hotel and casino. She was an avid collector of Hollywood memorabilia, beginning with items acquired at the 1970 MGM auction. Reynolds served as president of The Thalians, an organization dedicated to mental health causes. She received the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2015 and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 2016. Her final film appearance was in the biographical retrospective Bright Lights. Reynolds died on December 28, 2016, following a hemorrhagic stroke, one day after the death of her daughter, actress Carrie Fisher. Her acting career had spanned nearly seventy years.