Source: Phil Dent / Getty
(RNN) – Screen and stage icon Debbie Reynolds has died one day after her daughter, actress Carrie Fisher died, according to Variety.
“She wanted to be with Carrie,” her son Todd Fisher told Variety.
Citing their sources, the LA Times reports Reynolds was hospitalized earlier Wednesday complaining of breathing problems.
She was 84 years old.
Reynolds’ fame as a singer, dancer and comedienne came only after studios struggled to find a niche for her precocious personality.
Just a few years after Warner Brothers signed the 16-year-old Reynolds to a contract that paid $65 per week, MGM stole her away and cast her alongside Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor in Singin’ in the Rain. The film is one of the most popular and recognizable musicals of all time. Despite no real background as a dancer before the film, Reynolds quickly had a solid foundation for a long career as a coveted lead actress in musicals during Hollywood’s Golden Age.
Reynolds earned even more acclaim in 1964 with the lead role in The Unsinkable Molly Brown. The film about a simple woman who overcame mountainous odds to build herself a better life not only earned Reynolds an Oscar nomination, it was reflective of her own real-life drama.
Like many Hollywood stars, Reynolds had a love life that was easy fare for gossip, and in 1959 she was involved in one of the most infamous scandals in entertainment.
Her marriage to Eddie Fisher, with whom she shared a much-publicized courtship, ended in 1959 after Fisher left her to marry Elizabeth Taylor. Fisher’s best friend Michael Todd, who was Taylor’s husband, died in a plane crash the previous year.
Fisher and Reynolds had two children – Todd and Carrie, who is best known as playing Princess Leia in the original Star Wars trilogy of the 1970s and 1980s.
Other personal and financial troubles beset Reynolds on numerous occasions.
Her second husband Harry Karl, who made a fortune as the president of a chain of shoe stores, gambled away his money and left Reynolds $10 million in debt. Third husband Richard Hamlett was similar to Karl, and blew his wife’s money instead of his own. The Greek Isles Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas that Hamlett and Reynolds owned together went bust, and Reynolds was forced to file for bankruptcy in 1997.
Reynolds had begun collecting Hollywood memorabilia in 1970, and her collection reached more than 3,500 items. She was not able to sustain the dream of housing the items in her own museum, and she began auctioning them in June 2011 and collected almost $23 million. Some of the items included clothing worn by Marilyn Monroe and Judy Garland, including the red slippers from The Wizard of Oz.
Reynolds parlayed her success on the big screen into a solid run on Broadway. Her performance in the 1973 revival of Irene – a play that originally opened in 1919 – earned her a Tony nomination. She also starred in a stage version of The Unsinkable Molly Brown as well as Annie Get Your Gun and Woman of the Year.
Numerous TV roles included her own sitcom, a voice-over role in the popular cartoon Rugrats and guest appearances on Roseanne, Wings and Will & Grace. The latter role won Reynolds an Emmy Award.
She was also the voice of Charlotte A. Cavatica, the heroine spider in the cartoon movie Charlotte’s Web.
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Article Courtesy of WOIO Cleveland 19 News
Picture Courtesy of Phil Dent and Getty Images
