Actress Debbie Reynolds Dies at 84, Day After Actress Daughter Carrie Fisher
FILE - Debbie Reynolds, shown with her SAG Lifetime Achievement Award in January 2015, rose to fame in 1952's "Singin' in the Rain" and earned an Oscar nomination for 1964's "The Unsinkable Molly Brown."
American actress Debbie Reynolds died Wednesday after suffering a stroke, just one day after her actress daughter, Carrie Fisher, passed away.
The 84-year-old Reynolds was stricken in the afternoon at the home of her son in the western city of Beverly Hills, California. The legendary actress was hospitalized a short while later after paramedics were called.
Reynolds’ son, Todd Fisher, confirmed her death to various news media outlets.
“She wanted to be with Carrie,” Fisher was quoted as saying.
“She’s now with Carrie, and we’re all heartbroken,” he said from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where his mother was taken by ambulance. He said the stress of his sister’s death “was too much” for Reynolds.
FILE - Debbie Reynolds entertains at 8th Army headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, May 23, 1955.
Reynolds starred opposite Gene Kelly in the 1952 classic movie Singin’ in the Rain, and was nominated for an Oscar for her role in the musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown. She also was nominated for a Tony Award in 1973 for her performance in the Broadway musical Irene.
She received an honorary Oscar in 2015, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, but was too ill to attend the ceremony. Her granddaughter, actress Billie Lourd, accepted the statuette in her honor. Reynolds was recognized for her decades-long commitment to various charities, including the mental health organization she founded, the Thalians.
FILE - Singer Eddie Fisher and his fiancee, actress Debbie Reynolds, have eyes only for each other at Idlewild Airport, April 19, 1955, in New York on arriving by plane from England.
Born in the southern city of El Paso, Texas, Mary Frances “Debbie” Reynolds was married three times. She had two children with the late singing star Eddie Fisher, who left her for actress Elizabeth Taylor.
Fisher, who starred as Princess Leia in the original Star Wars movie trilogy, died Tuesday at age 60, days after suffering a medical emergency on a flight from London to Los Angeles, California.
In a November interview broadcast on the NPR radio program Fresh Air, Fisher spoke of her admiration for her mother, who she said had some recent health setbacks.
FILE - Carrie Fisher presents Debbie Reynolds with the Screen Actors Guild life achievement award at the 21st annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium, Jan. 25, 2015, in Los Angeles.
“She’s an immensely powerful woman, and I just admire my mother very much,’’ Fisher said. “There’s very few women from her generation who worked like that, who just kept a career going all her life, and raised children, and had horrible relationships, and lost all her money, and got it back again. I mean, she’s had an amazing life, and she’s someone to admire.’’
Reynolds and Fisher appear together in a documentary that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in France earlier this year. Bright Lights: Starring Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher is set to air on the Home Box Office movie channel in early 2017.
Legendary Actress Debbie Reynolds Dies at 84
1/17 Actress Debbie Reynolds poses for a portrait in New York, Oct. 14, 2011.
2/17Actress Debbie Reynolds hands her singing husband Eddie Fisher a piece of cake as they pose at a press conference in Washington, D.C., about 24 hours after their marriage at a Catskill mountain resort, Sept. 27, 1955.
3/17 Eddie Fisher and his wife, Debbie Reynolds, attend the reception at the Prince of Wales Theater, London. Reynolds has likened their split to the Jennifer Aniston-Angelina Jolie-Brad Pitt triangle.
4/17 Singer Eddie Fisher and his fiancée, actress Debbie Reynolds, have eyes only for each other at Idlewild Airport, April 19, 1955, in New York on arriving by plane from England. Eddie performed at the London Palladium and both he and Debbie appeared in a c
5/17 Dean Martin, Elizabeth Taylor, Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds (from left to right) attend the opening show starring Fisher at the Tropicana, June 19, 1958, Las Vegas, Nev.
6/17 Relaxing between scenes, Bing Crosby talks with Debbie Reynolds on the Hollywood set of "Say One for Me" in Los Angeles, Dec. 29, 1958. They co-star with Robert Wagner in the film.
7/17 Debbie Reynolds entertaines at 8th Army headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, May 23, 1955.
8/17 Actress Debbie Reynolds spends a two-week vacation at the Half Moon Hotel in Montego Bay, Jamaica, Jan. 26, 1961, accompanied by her children, Carrie and Todd.
9/17 Actress Debbie Reynolds, 29, and millionaire shoe magnate Harry Karl, 46, pose for photographers just after their marriage at Beverly Hills, Calif., Nov. 26, 1960. She is the former wife of Eddie Fisher, and Karl's fourth bride.
10/17 Debbie Reynolds and daughter Carrie Fisher smile for the crowd of well wishers at a party in New York, Feb. 17, 1983, marking Reynolds' return to Broadway. Reynolds steps into "Woman of the Year," which previously starred Lauren Bacall and Raquel Welch.
11/17 Actress Debbie Reynolds in Los Angeles, Oct. 14, 1979.
12/17 Stage and film actress Debbie Reynolds poses with her second star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Jan. 13, 1997, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles.
13/17 Actress Debbie Reynolds with comedian Rich Little in Los Angeles, March 20, 1982.
14/17 SAG Lifetime Achievement Award winner Debbie Reynolds backstage at the 21st annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium, Jan. 25, 2015, in Los Angeles.
15/17 Carrie Fisher presents Debbie Reynolds with the Screen Actors Guild life achievement award at the 21st annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium, Jan. 25, 2015, in Los Angeles.
16/17 Debbie Reynolds, a cast member in the film "Behind the Candelabra," poses for a portrait with her dog, Dwight, in Beverly Hills, Calif., May 21, 2013. Reynolds plays Frances, the mother of the pianist and vocalist, Liberace.
17/17 Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher arrive at the Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, Sept. 10, 2011, in Los Angeles.
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