Debbie Reynolds

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Debbie Reynolds (2013)

Debbie Reynolds (* 1. April 1932 as Mary Frances Reynolds in El Paso , Texas ; † 28. December 2016 in Los Angeles ) was an American actress , singer and dancer . Her career began in the late 1940s as a contract actress with Warner Brothers . She became internationally known as an actress in film musicals such as Singin 'in the Rain and Tammy .

Life

Childhood and family

She was born in 1932 as the second child of Maxine N. Harman (1913–1999) and Raymond Francis Reynolds (1903–1986) in El Paso . Raymond Reynolds was a carpenter and mechanic for the Southern Pacific Company . The ancestors of the Reynolds were English, Scottish and Irish immigrants. In 1939 the family moved to Burbank , California , where Reynolds attended John Burroughs High School. In her free time, she was with the Girl Scouts , for whom she was involved until her death. The organization awards grants on their behalf.

Marriages and children

In 1955 she married the singer Eddie Fisher . The first child together, Carrie Fisher , was born on October 21, 1956. She later followed in her mother's footsteps as an actress and died on December 27, 2016.

In 1958 the son Todd Emmanuel Fisher was born. It was named after Eddie Fisher's best friend Michael Todd . After Michael Todd's accidental death, Eddie Fisher began an affair with his widow Elizabeth Taylor , who had also been a good friend of Debbie Reynolds since her early days in Hollywood. This led to one of the biggest media scandals of the time. The marriage of Reynolds and Fisher was divorced in 1959 .

A year later Reynolds married businessman Harry Karl, whose gambling addiction and bad investments brought the actress into financial difficulties. The marriage also ended in divorce in 1973.

Her third marriage went to Reynolds in 1984 with the contractor Richard Hamlett. The couple bought a small hotel and casino in Las Vegas in 1992 . However, the venture turned out to be a financial fiasco. After ten years, Reynolds divorced Hamlett in 1994 and was forced to declare their bankruptcy.

death

On December 28, 2016, the day after the death of her daughter Carrie Fisher, Reynolds suffered a stroke at the age of 84 , of which she died the same day at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. She left behind her son Todd Fisher and a granddaughter, Carrie Fisher's daughter Billie Lourd .

Debbie Reynolds was buried next to her daughter Carrie in Forest Lawn Memorial Park ( Courts of Remembrance section ) in Hollywood .

Acting career

Beginnings from 1948

After winning the “Miss Burbank” election in 1948 and signing a contract with the Warner Brothers film studio, the then 16-year-old made her film debut under her new stage name Debbie Reynolds . At the side of Bette Davis and Robert Montgomery , she stood in a small role in the comedy June Bride in front of the camera. After another role in a Warner Bros. film, she moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer . For her new studio, she stood in front of the camera for the first time in 1950 for the film musical Drei kleine Wort with Fred Astaire and Vera-Ellen .

After two major supporting roles in Two Weeks with Love and Mr. Imperium , Reynolds got her first leading role in Singin 'in the Rain in 1951, despite opposition from lead actor Gene Kelly . The young actress, who had been inexperienced in dancing until then, was able to convince with her performance alongside Kelly and Donald O'Connor . Thanks to the success of this film musical, she gained international popularity.

Success with musicals in the mid-1950s

In the following years Reynolds could be seen almost exclusively in film musicals, for example in 1953 in I Love Melvin again with Donald O'Connor, in 1954 in Give a Girl a Break or in 1955 in Hit the Deck with Tony Martin and Jane Powell .

From the mid-1950s, more serious roles in other film genres were added. 1954 Reynolds stood together with Dick Powell for his last film as an actor in the romantic comedy One Night with Susanne in front of the camera. In 1956, she played the daughter of Bette Davis and Ernest Borgnine in the family drama Girls Without a Dowry . Reynolds was named Best Supporting Actress by the National Board of Review for portraying the bride-to-be .

In the same year she stood for the first time with her then-husband Eddie Fisher in front of the camera. In the musical Bundle of Joy , she played a young saleswoman who is mistaken for the mother of an orphan boy and falls in love with the son of her boss. During filming, Reynolds learned of her own pregnancy, but continued to work despite the grueling and often spectacular dance numbers. She received a nomination for the Golden Globe for Best Actress . 1957 followed with Tammy another romantic comedy. Directed by Joseph Pevney , Reynolds played the eponymous Tambrey "Tammy" Tyree at the side of Walter Brennan and Leslie Nielsen .

End of the studio system at the beginning of the 1960s

Even after the end of the studio system era in the late 1950s, Reynolds was able to assert himself in the film business. After the great success of Tammy , she played the secretary Janet Blake, directed by Blake Edwards in 1958 in This Happy Feeling , who has to choose between two men, played by John Saxon and Curd Juergens . In 1959, four films appeared in which Reynolds acted as the leading lady : The Mating Game with Tony Randall and Paul Douglas , Say One for Me with Bing Crosby and It Started with a Kiss and the black comedy The Gazebo, each with Glenn Ford as a partner.

As part of the increased popularity of Western films in the early 1960s had Reynolds as the lead actress in 1961 in the Western comedy The Second Time Around and 1962 in the star-studded Western epic How the West Was Won with. 1963 followed two other leading roles in the comedies Mary, Mary directed by Mervyn LeRoy and in My Six Loves by Gower Champion . A great success was the film adaptation of the musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown in 1964. The film was released under the title Gold Digger-Molly and Debbie Reynolds was for her portrayal of the eponymous Molly Brown for an Oscar for best actress and for a Golden Globe for best actress in one Comedy or Musical nominated. In the same year, the comedy Goodbye Charlie with Tony Curtis was released .

Career dip in the 1970s

After Reynolds was still in some successful films in the late 1960s, such as Dominique - The Singing Nun , American divorce and the comedy How Sweet It Is! had played leading roles alongside James Garner , things grew quieter around her in the 1970s. Her own sitcom, The Debbie Reynolds Show , was canceled after a year in 1970. After her engagement in the horror film What's the Matter with Helen? (1971) with Shelley Winters , Reynolds was no longer on the big screen until the early 1990s.

She made her Broadway debut in the remake of the musical Irene . Reynolds embodied the main character that gave the title. Production started at the beginning of 1973 and had to deal with numerous setbacks. The main actor had to be replaced several times before the premiere. The reviews for the first tryouts in Toronto and Philadelphia were negative, and Reynolds was struggling with a vocal cord disease. A new director, Peter Gennaro, and screenwriter Joseph Stein were brought in to revise the production. At the subsequent performance in Washington, DC , then US President Richard Nixon was also a spectator. His positive comments about the musical boosted ticket sales, and after 13 previews, the Broadway premiere took place on March 13, 1973 at the Minskoff Theater . The musical came to 594 performances. In February 1974 Jane Powell took over the part from Reynolds. She returned for the final performance in New York and then went on tour with the musical for five months before finally handing her role over to Jane Powell.

1973 Reynolds was nominated for a Tony Award and received the Outer Critics' Circle Award for best actress in a musical. In 1977 she was cast as Annie Oakley by director Gower Champion in the production of the musical Annie Get Your Gun . The cast for the performances at the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera also included Harve Presnell and Gavin MacLeod . In 1979 the actress opened her own dance studio in North Hollywood , a district of Los Angeles.

In 1982, Reynolds appeared again in a Broadway play when she took on the role of Raquel Welch in Woman of the Year . At the age of 52, the actress and her colleagues Dionne Warwick , Shelley Winters , Teri Garr , Virginia Mayo , Florence Henderson and Terry Moore produced a fitness video in 1984 that was quite successful in the wake of the fitness wave of the 1980s. In the 1980s, Reynolds was a regular guest on talk shows and television series such as Golden Girls and Love Boat or the game show Win, Lose or Draw . In addition, she performed her own one-woman show in Las Vegas and was a voice actress in cartoons such as Zuckermann's Farm - Wilbur im Glück and Kiki's small delivery service . The actress also wrote her autobiography with journalist David Patrick Columbia , which was published in 1988 by William Morrow and Company under the title Debbie: My Life . The following year she slipped back into the role of Molly Brown. Together with Harve Presnell, she went on a theater tour with a stage production of the musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown .

Bankruptcy and a fresh start in the 1990s

Debbie Reynolds at her Los Angeles home in 1987

After performing shows in Las Vegas for decades, Reynolds and her third husband Richard Hamlett bought a hotel and casino in town in 1991. After extensive renovations, she exhibited her collection of film props there and performed regularly with her one-woman show. However, the investment turned out to be unprofitable and after Hamlett's divorce in 1994, the hotel went bankrupt in 1997 due to the poor economic situation in the hotel.

Reynolds' acting career was revived in the early 1990s. After her cameo in Bodyguard in 1992 , she played a supporting role in the anti-war film Between Heaven and Hell in 1993 . In 1996 she played the eponymous mother in the comedy by Albert Brooks . She received a Satellite Award for her performance and was nominated for a Golden Globe. In 1997 she played the mother of Kevin Kline in the comedy In & Out . In 1998 she took on the role of the grandmother of the young actors Kimberly J. Brown and Joey Zimmerman in the fantasy film Halloween Town - My grandma is a witch . She also played the witch Agatha Cromwell in the sequels of the 2001 , 2004 and 2006 film series .

From 1999 to 2006 she was seen at irregular intervals as Grace Adlers ( Debra Messing ) crazy mother Bobbi Adler in the sitcom Will & Grace . For this role she was nominated for an Emmy in 2000 in the category Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series . A screenplay written by Reynolds' daughter Carrie Fisher was filmed in 2001 with Reynolds and Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Collins and Shirley MacLaine . The television film These Old Broads has autobiographical traits and takes up the marriage scandal involving Reynolds, Taylor and Eddie Fisher from the 1950s. In 2004 Reynolds had a cameo role in the crime comedy Connie and Carla with Nia Vardalos and Toni Collette .

From 2010 she toured the United States and Great Britain with her stage program Alive & Fabulous . In 2012, she was the grandmother of Katherine Heigl in the crime comedy Once is never on the big screen again. The following year she starred in the film Liberace - Too Much of a Good Is Wonderful the role of Frances Liberace.

Hollywood Motion Picture Collection

When Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer began auctioning off all film props in the early 1970s, Reynolds was among the bidders. She bought numerous costumes and props and in 1972 founded the non-profit organization “Hollywood Motion Picture Museum”. When 20th Century Fox held a similar auction a short time later, Reynolds again bought many pieces. The extensive collection has been constantly expanded and includes not only costumes, but also cameras, letters, cars and smaller props. The material was first exhibited in 1993 at the Reynolds Hotel in Las Vegas. After the closure in 1997, the actress first had to store her collection before she could rent rooms in the Hollywood & Highland complex for it. In 2001, Reynolds received a check for $ 50,000 from the Honorary Mayor of Hollywood, Johnny Grant, for her museum, which was scheduled to open in 2004. However, financial difficulties forced the organization to move to a cheaper building in Pigeon Forge ( Tennessee ), near the theme park Dollywood . After another six years of planning, Reynolds had to give up on her dream of the Hollywood Motion Picture Museum for good. She finally made the decision to auction the collection of over 5,000 pieces.

Some of the most famous pieces from Reynolds' collection included:

Filmography (selection)

In the German dubbed version, Debbie Reynolds was voiced by Marianne Prenzel at the beginning. In the mid-1950s Maria Körber took over the dubbing and from the 1990s Anita Höfer .

Music career

1971 at a gig at Knott's Berry Farm

Through her participation in numerous film musicals, Reynolds was also heard as an interpreter on the respective soundtracks for the films. In her first film Three Little Words , her vocal part was still dubbed by Helen Kane . In her second film, Once a Lady , the then 18-year-old sang herself and with the song Aba Daba Honeymoon she landed a number one hit in the Australian ARIA charts . With the title song of the same name for the film musical Tammy , she was number 1 on the US Billboard charts for five weeks in 1957 . The song brought Reynolds a gold record , and it was nominated for an Oscar for best song in 1958 .

In 1959, Reynolds released her first music album, Debbie, on PolyGram . The single Am I That Easy to Forget? ranked 25th on the Billboard charts. The second album followed in 1960 and was titled Fine and Dandy . Her third music album, And Then I Sang , was released in 1978.

Discography

Albums

  • 1950: Two Weeks with love ( OST )
  • 1953: I Love Melvin (OST)
  • 1955: Singing In The Rain (OST)
  • 1957: Tammy (OST)
  • 1959: Say one for me (OST)
  • 1959: Debbie
  • 1960: Fine and Dandy
  • 1963: How the West was won (OST)
  • 1966: The singing Nunn (OST)
  • 1967: Divorce American Style (OST)
  • 1973: Irene - Broadway Revival Cast
  • 1978: And Then I Sang
  • 1984: Do it Debbies Way

Singles

year Title
album 		Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements
(Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
US US
1951 Aba Daba Honeymoon
Debbie Reynolds & Carleton Carpenter 		US3US
from the soundtrack of Two Weeks with Love
1957 Tammy
Debbie Reynolds 		US1 (5 weeks)
US
from the soundtrack Tammy and the Bachelor
1958 A Very Special Love
Debbie Reynolds 		US25thUS
1960 On I That Easy To Forget?
Debbie Reynolds 		US25 (17 weeks)
US
from the album Debbie
1960 City lights US55 (4 weeks)
US
1973 What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For
Cover by Emile Ford and the Checkmates 		-

Awards and honors

Debbie Reynolds was also a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame honored, this is located at the address 6654 Hollywood Blvd . There is also a star in honor of the actress on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars, which is modeled on the Walk of Fame.

literature

  • Debbie Reynolds, David Patrick Columbia: Debbie: My Life . William Morrow & Company, 1988, ISBN 0-688-06633-X .

Web links

Commons : Debbie Reynolds  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Debbie Reynolds Dead at 84. In: TMZ. Retrieved December 29, 2016 .
  2. ^ Obituary for Debbie Reynolds in Variety
  3. ↑ Debbie Reynolds - Biography. In: thebiographychannel.co.uk. Archived from the original on May 3, 2015 ; Retrieved November 8, 2012 (English): "Reynolds was born Mary Frances Reynolds, the second child of Raymond Francis Reynolds, a carpenter for Southern Pacific Railroad, and Maxine Harman."
  4. ↑ Debbie Reynolds at Reel Classics. In: reelclassics.com. Retrieved November 14, 2012 : “In 1958, shortly after Debbie gave birth to her son, Todd Emmanuel, on February 24, movie producer Mike Todd, Fisher's best friend and husband of Debbie's fellow MGM contract star Elizabeth Taylor, was killed in an airplane crash. Fisher's efforts to console Todd's grieving widow lead to a very public affair, and by the fall of 1958, the Reynolds-Fisher-Taylor love triangle had become one of the most publicized romantic scandals in Hollywood history. "
  5. ↑ 'Unsinkable' Debbie Reynolds to write tell-all memoir. In: usatoday.com. Retrieved on November 14, 2012 : "The new tell-all will cover everything from the end of her marriage to Hamlett (along with taking a mistress, he embezzled proceeds from her business, leaving her" emotionally and financially bankrupt "after the divorce), to the catastrophic endings to her two previous marriages (to Eddie Fisher, who left her for Elizabeth Taylor in 1959, and to Harry Karl, who lost their fortune in 1973, leaving Reynolds $ 10 million in debt). "
  6. ↑ Debbie Reynolds on losing husband Eddie Fisher to Elizabeth Taylor. In: dailymail.co.uk. Retrieved November 8, 2012 .
  7. ↑ Obituary for Debbie Reynolds in Los Angeles Times
  8. ↑ Hollywood icon Debbie Reynolds is dead. Spiegel Online, December 29, 2016, accessed December 29, 2016 .
  9. ↑ [1] Todd Fisher mourns mother and sister, n-tv.de, December 30, 2016, accessed December 30, 2016
  10. ↑ Billie Lourd, Carrie Fisher's daughter, gets 'whatever she wants' amid inheritance, funeral plans, Todd Fisher say , New York Daily News, December 29, 2016
  11. ↑ The grave of Debbie Reynolds. In: knerger.de. Klaus Nerger, accessed on May 8, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Debbie Reynolds. In: filmreference.com. Retrieved on November 14, 2012 : "Debbie Reynolds may have been crowned Miss Burbank of 1948, but the qualities she brought to her movie debut that same year were more those of the [...]"
  13. ↑ Debbie Reynolds at Reel Classics. In: reelclassics.com. Retrieved November 14, 2012 : "[…]" The Debbie Reynolds Show "which debuted to little critical fanfare on September 16, 1969. […] the series was eventually canceled in 1970, and Debbie briefly returned to film in the camp horror movie WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH HELEN? [...] "
  14. ↑ Peter Filichia: The Much Nicer Irene. In: masterworksbroadway.com. August 30, 2011, accessed on November 14, 2012 (English): "Irene ran a then-healthy 594 performances [...] So Irene wasn't a great show (although that's what President Nixon said it was after he saw it during its Washington tryout). But Irene is one of those musicals that plays better on disc. That's first and foremost because of Reynolds, who throws herself into her songs with - well, the force of a hurricane "
  15. ↑ Debbie Reynolds at Reel Classics. In: reelclassics.com. Retrieved November 14, 2012 .
  16. ↑ Debbie Reynolds Dance Studios. Retrieved November 8, 2012 .
  17. ↑ Jeff Jarvis: Picks and Pans Review: Do It Debbie's Way. In: people.com. April 30, 1984, accessed November 15, 2012 .
  18. ^ Nancy Rivera Brooks: Debbie Reynolds, Hotel in Chapter 11. In: Los Angeles Times. July 8, 1997, accessed on November 15, 2012 (English): "[...] Debbie Reynolds and her namesake Las Vegas hotel, which has filed for Bankruptcy Court protection."
  19. ↑ Debbie Reynolds interview. In: telegraph.co.uk. March 11, 2010, accessed on November 8, 2012 (English): "At 77 Debbie Reynolds is starting a new tour - she explains why she's never let anything get her down"
  20. ^ History of Debbie's Collection. (No longer available online.) In: debbiereynolsonline.com. Archived from the original on August 30, 2012 ; accessed on December 6, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.debbiereynoldsonline.com
  21. ↑ Jon Bream: The latest Kodak moment in Hollywood. In: Star Tribune. March 23, 2002, accessed December 6, 2012 : “Hollywood & Highland - at the intersection of Hollywood Blvd. and Highland Av - opened in November. The complex houses more than 75 shops and restaurants with others - including Debbie Reynolds' Hollywood Motion Picture Collection (of movie costumes) and a working film studio. "
  22. ↑ Susan King: Going, going ... In: LA Times. June 14, 2011, accessed December 6, 2012 .
  23. ↑ Debbie Reynolds Music News & Info. In: billboard.com. Retrieved November 12, 2012 .
  24. ↑ DEBBIE REYNOLDS LYRICS. (No longer available online.) In: batlyrics.com. Formerly in the original ; Retrieved on November 14, 2012 : “Reynolds also scored two additional top 25 Billboard hits with A Very Special Love and Am I That Easy To Forget? "
  25. ↑ CD Universe , Debbie Reynolds - Debbie / Am I That Easy to Forget? Audio CD
personal data
SURNAME Reynolds, Debbie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Reynolds, Mary Frances (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American actress and singer
DATE OF BIRTH April 1, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH El Paso , Texas , United States
DATE OF DEATH December 28, 2016
Place of death Los Angeles , California , United States