Debbie Reynolds

American actress and singer Debbie Reynolds (1932-2016) is best-remembered opposite Gene Kelly in the classic musical Singin' in the Rain (1952). Her career spanned almost 70 years. She starred in more than forty films and was Oscar-nominated for The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964). Reynolds was also a film historian and a noted collector of film memorabilia, and she was Carrie Fisher's mother.


German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/21.


West German postcard by ISV, no. B 27. Publicity still for Bundle of Joy (Norman Taurog, 1956).


French postcard by M.D., Paris, no. 114.

Most Promising Newcomer

Debbie Reynolds was born Mary Frances Reynolds in El Paso, Texas, in 1932. She was the second child of Maxine N. (Harmon) and Raymond Francis Reynolds, a carpenter who worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad. In 1939, her family moved to Burbank, California. Debbie played the French horn in high school and was a member of the Burbank Youth Symphony.

She planned to go teaching physical education, but the day after she won the 1948 Miss Burbank contest at age 16 impersonating Betty Hutton, Warner Bros. offered her a screen test. Although she wanted to be in show business, the Reynolds family church, the Nazarene, forbade acting. However, Reynolds' father saw her talent and gave his support, seeing it as a means of paying her college costs. In 1950, she graduated from Burbank High School.

Warner Bros gave her a new first name and her first roles in films. When Warner Bros. stopped producing musicals in 1950, she moved to MGM. Her breakout role was Helen Kane in the musical Three Little Words (Richard Thorpe, 1950), about the successful Tin Pan Alley songwriting team of Bert Kalmar (Fred Astaire) and Harry Ruby (Red Skelton). Reynolds was nominated for the Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer. Her song 'Aba Daba Honeymoon', featured in the film Two Weeks with Love (Roy Rowland, 1950) and sung as a duet with co-star Carleton Carpenter, was the first soundtrack recording to become a top-of-the-chart gold record. It reached number three on the Billboard charts. Her performance in the film greatly impressed the studio, which then gave her a co-starring role in what became her highest-profile film.

At age 19, Debbie Reynolds played her first co-starring role as Kathy Selden in Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly, 1952). The musical offers a lighthearted depiction of Hollywood in the late 1920s, with Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor and Reynolds portraying performers caught up in the transition from silent films to 'talkies'. Reynolds wasn't a dancer until she was selected to be Gene Kelly's partner in this musical. Not yet twenty, she was a quick study. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "On the strength of the plot alone, concocted by the matchless writing team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Singin' in the Rain is a delight. But with the addition of MGM's catalogue of Arthur Freed-Nacio Herb Brown songs - 'You Were Meant for Me', 'You Are My Lucky Star', 'The Broadway Melody', and of course the title song - the film becomes one of the greatest Hollywood musicals ever made."

By the mid-1950s, Debbie Reynolds was a major star and it seemed like she had been around forever. Most of her early film work was in MGM musicals, as perky, wholesome young women, such as I Love Melvin (Don Weis, 1953) with Donald O'Connor, The Affairs of Dobie Gillis (Don Weis, 1953) with Bobby Van and Bob Fosse, and Give a Girl a Break (Stanley Donen, 1953) starring Reynolds and the dance team of Marge and Gower Champion. She continued to use her dancing skills with stage work.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 714. Photo: H.P.S.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. D 50. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


British postcard in the Greetings Series, no. A. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


British postcard in the Greetings series. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

To be with Carrie

Debbie Reynolds' other notable successes include the comedy Susan Slept Here (Frank Tashlin, 1954) starring Dick Powell, Bundle of Joy (Norman Taurog, 1956) for which she received a Golden Globe nomination, The Catered Affair (Richard Brooks, 1956) as the daughter of Bette Davis and Tammy and the Bachelor (Joseph Pevney, 1957) with Leslie Nielsen. Her recording of the Jay Livingston / Ray Evans title song from Tammy and the Bachelor (1957), became a number-one hit for Reynolds in August 1957. In 1959, she starred in the comedy The Mating Game (George Marshall, 1959) with Tony Randall and released her first pop music album, titled 'Debbie'.

She was one of 14 top-billed names in the Western epic How the West Was Won (John Ford, Henry Hathaway, George Marshall, 1963). The family saga covered several decades of Westward expansion in the 19th century, including the Gold Rush, the Civil War, and the building of railroads. She was 31 when she gave an Academy Award-nominated performance as Margaret 'Molly' Brown, who survived the 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic, in The Unsinkable Molly Brown (Charles Walters, 1964). In 1969, Reynolds starred in a self-titled television program, The Debbie Reynolds Show, earning her a Golden Globe nomination. She also appeared in the Horror film What's the Matter with Helen? (Curtis Harrington, 1971) with Shelley Winters. She also produced the film. Reynolds played the title role in the Hanna-Barbera animated musical Charlotte's Web (Charles A. Nichols, Iwao Takamoto, 1973), in which she originated the song 'Mother Earth and Father Time'.

Reynolds continued to perform successfully on stage, television and film. She made her Broadway debut in 1973 in the revival of 'Irene'. Although the reviews for the show itself were mixed, hers were all raves and she wound up with a Tony Award nomination the following year for Best Actress in a Musical. The production ultimately ran for some 20 months. In 1976, she appeared in a one-woman, short-run (10 days - 14 performances) review named 'Debbie!' at the Minskoff Theatre. Her only other Broadway appearance came when she succeeded Lauren Bacall in 'Woman of the Year' in 1983. Reynolds received a Golden Globe nomination for Mother (Albert Brooks, 1996) as the mother of Albert Brooks. In the following years, she appeared in the comedies In & Out (Frank Oz, 1997) with Kevin Kline and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Terry Gilliam, 1998), starring Johnny Depp.

Her three marriages ended in divorce. In 1959, she survived losing her first husband, musician and actor Eddie Fisher (1955-1959) to her best friend Elizabeth Taylor following the tragic death of Taylor's husband, Michael Todd. News crews were camped out around the clock on Reynolds' front lawn. To ingratiate herself to reporters (and engender public sympathy for her role as the 'wronged wife') Reynolds would regularly grant interviews in front of the house. She often did them with diaper pins on her blouse and her two toddler-aged children, the future producer Todd Fisher and actress Carrie Fisher, in her arms. Her second husband, shoe magnate Harry Karl (1960-1973), gambled away his fortune as well as hers. With her children and Karl's children, she had to keep working and turn to the stage. She had her own casino in Las Vegas with a home for her collection of Hollywood memorabilia until its closure in 1997. Nearly all the money she made was spent toward her goal of creating a Hollywood museum. Her collection numbered more than 3000 costumes and 46,000 square feet worth of props and equipment.

Her third husband was Richard Hamlett (1984-1996). She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6654 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California in 1997. On television, she played, among others, Bobby Adler, Grace's mother in the sitcom Will & Grace. Reynolds was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series" for her role. She reconciled with old nemesis Elizabeth Taylor to work on the made-for-TV movie These Old Broads (2001), written by Debbie's daughter, Carrie Fisher, with Taylor, Shirley MacLaine and Joan Collins. 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". Her final film was the biopic Behind the Candelabra (Steven Soderbergh, 2013) starring Michael Douglas as Liberace. She was awarded the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2014 and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 2016. A day after the death of her daughter Carrie Fisher (1956-2016), the 84-year-old Reynolds was rushed to a hospital with a suspected stroke and passed away. Her son, Todd Fisher, said the stress of his sister's death had been too much for her and in her last words, she had said she wanted to be with her daughter. Carrie was cremated and then buried with her mother at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills. Actress and producer Billie Lourd is Debbie Reynold's granddaughter.


Dutch postcard by DRC, no. F 203. Photo: M.G.M.


Vintage postcard. Photo: M.G.M. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 4664. Sent by mail in 1961. Photo: MGM / Ufa. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.


American postcard by Coral-Lee, Rancho Cordova, CAL., no. CL Personality 42, SC18555. Photo: Mike Roberts.

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and IMDb.