Biography

Debbie Reynolds

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Overview

Born
April 1, 1932 · El Paso, Texas, USA
Died
December 28, 2016 · Los Angeles, California, USA (following a stroke)
Birth name
Mary Frances Reynolds
Nicknames
- Frannie
- Aba Dabba
- Debbie
Height
5′ 2″ (1.57 m)

Mini bio

Debbie Reynolds was born Mary Frances Reynolds in El Paso, Texas, the second child of Maxine N. (Harmon) and Raymond Francis Reynolds, a carpenter for the Southern Pacific Railroad. Her film career began at MGM after she won a beauty contest at the age of 16 impersonating Betty Hutton. Reynolds was not a dancer until she was selected to be Gene Kelly's partner in the film Singin' in the Rain (1952). Not yet 20 years old, she was a quick study. Twelve years later, it seemed like she had been around forever. Most of her early film work was in MGM musicals as perky, wholesome young women. She continued to use her dancing skills with theater work.

She was 31 years old when she gave an Academy Award-nominated performance in the film The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964). She survived losing her first ex-husband, Eddie Fisher, to her best friend, Elizabeth Taylor, following the tragic death of director Mike Todd, Taylor's third ex-husband. Her second ex-husband, shoe magnate Harry Karl, gambled away his fortune as well as hers. With her children as well as Karl's, she had to keep on working and turned to the theater. She had her own casino in Las Vegas with a home for her collection of Hollywood memorabilia until it closed down in 1997. She also took the time to personally write a long letter that is on display in the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota and to provide that museum with replicas of Garland's costumes. The originals are in her newly-opened museum in Hollywood, California.

Nearly all of the money that she made was spent toward her goal of creating a Hollywood museum. Her collection numbers more than 3,000 costumes and 46,000 square feet worth of props and equipment.

With her first ex-husband, musician / actor Eddie Fisher, she was the mother of filmmaker Todd Fisher and actress Carrie Fisher. Reynolds died of a stroke on December 28, 2016, one day after the death of her daughter, Carrie Fisher. She was survived by both her son and her granddaughter, up-and-coming actress Billie Lourd.
- IMDb mini biography by: Ray Hamel and Dale O'Connor <daleoc@worldnet.att.net> and Anonymous

Family

Spouses
Children
Parents
Relatives

Trademarks

Most of her roles contained musical performances.
Short stature.
A strong, sultry voice.

Trivia

She reconciled with her old enemy, Elizabeth Taylor, to work on the made-for-TV film These Old Broads (2001), written by Debbie's daughter, Carrie Fisher, with Taylor, Shirley MacLaine and Joan Collins. Debbie and Taylor were best friends until the late 1950s when Debbie's first ex-husband, Eddie Fisher, began having an affair with Taylor, then left Debbie and married Taylor. When they began working on "These Old Broads" together, Taylor told Debbie, "I owe you a lot." Debbie said, "I just got a lump in my throat when she said that.".
Opened the Hollywood Motion Picture Collection near the Kodak Theatre. The collection, which was collected and preserved primarily by Reynolds herself, features over 3,000 costumes including Carmen Miranda's turbans, a pair of Judy Garland's ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz (1939), John Wayne's guns and Marilyn Monroe's windswept dress from The Seven Year Itch (1955).
Won the Miss Burbank Contest of 1948 and was offered a screen test by Warner Bros. the day after she won. She originally entered the contest because everyone who entered it got a blouse, a silk scarf, and a free lunch.
Considered herself a "movie-holic" and had an extensive collection of memorabilia, with over 4,000 costumes ranging from the silent film era to the 1970s. She had been known to gather theatrical release posters from her collection of 3,000 and drive to homes of actor friends for autographs. In the 1990s she turned her collection into a Las Vegas movie museum, but had to shut it down in 1997 due to financial problems. Recently, she had looked into the possibility of opening up a hall of fame museum in Hollywood near Grauman's Chinese Theatre.
She appeared as Dan's mother, fresh out of the mental ward, in an episode of the TV series Roseanne (1988). When she later appeared on Roseanne Barr's talk show, she revealed that during the filming of that episode while she and Roseanne were wrestling in the back yard, Roseanne, quite unknowingly, accidentally broke one of her ribs.

Quotes

Singin' in the Rain (1952) and childbirth were the two hardest things I ever had to do in my life.
I stopped making movies because I don't like taking my clothes off. Maybe it's realism but, in my opinion, it's utter filth.
[when asked what her favorite film was] I think one of my favorite films is Dark Victory (1939) with Bette Davis. Why? She was so wonderful in that film. And... maybe I just want a good cry once in a while without having to go through a divorce.
Daddy had got us rooms in a motel until he could find us a house. There were not a lot of places available for a young family on our budget. Daddy went around to dozens of places. Nobody wanted kids. Finally, he found one in the hills south of Glendale. As usual, the landlady asked if he had kids. "Yep,' he replied. "A boy and a girl". "Well, whatta you going to do about them?" she wanted to know, implying that she didn't allow children. "I'm gonna take 'em out and drown 'em in the Los Angeles River, and come back tomorrow". That was my father - ask a silly question and just wait. She must have had the same sense of humor - we moved in the next day.
I do 20 minutes every time the refrigerator door opens and the light comes on.