Debbie Reynolds went on to establish a film career as one of the most popular actresses of her time. Known for an array of musicals in the 1950s, she made a star turn in
Singin’ in the Rain (1952), in which she offered a spirited performance opposite Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor. The following decade, Reynolds won the respect of her peers with her title role in the musical
The Unsinkable Molly Brown, for which she received an Academy Award nomination.
Debbie Reynolds, in full Mary Frances Reynolds, (April 1, 1932 – December 28, 2016) was an American actress and singer. Her career spanned almost 70 years.
Reynolds’s working-class family moved from Texas to California in the late 1930s. She was spotted by a talent scout when she entered a beauty contest, and she embarked on an acting career while she was still a teenager. In 1948 she made her movie debut in
June Bride. She played supporting parts in four musical comedies before her breakthrough role in 1952 as the ingenue who is made into a star in
Singin’ in the Rain. Reynolds’s bright-eyed personality charmed movie audiences, who soon claimed her as “America’s Sweetheart.” She became a top box-office attraction during the 1950s.
In 1964 Reynolds earned critical acclaim for
The Unsinkable Molly Brown, in which she starred in the title role; she earned an Academy Award nomination for her performance.
Later in her career, Reynolds took on strong matriarchal roles, notably in Albert Brooks’s film
Mother (1996); in episodes (1999–2006) of the
TV series Will & Grace, as the latter title character’s flamboyant mother; and in the movie
Behind the Candelabra (2013), as the mother of the entertainer Liberace.
In 2015 Reynolds received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She died the following year, a day after the sudden and unexpected death of her daughter, Carrie Fisher, who was a noted actress and writer.