Debbie Reynolds
Debbie Reynolds (born April 1, 1932) is an American actress, singer, and dancer. Initially signed at age sixteen by Warner Bros., Reynolds' career got off to a slow start. When her contract was not renewed, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) gave her a small but significant part in the film Three Little Words (1950) starring Fred Astaire and Red Skelton, then signed her to a seven-year contract. In her next film, Two Weeks with Love (1950), she had a hit with the song "Aba Daba Honeymoon". However, it was her first leading role at age 19 in Singin' in the Rain (1952) with Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor, that set her on the path to fame. By the mid-1950s, she was a major star. Other notable successes include Susan Slept Here (1954), Bundle of Joy (1956), Tammy and the Bachelor (1957), in which her rendering of the song "Tammy" reached number one on the music charts; a major role opposite Gregory Peck in the Western How the West Was Won (1962); and The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964), a biographical film about the famously boisterous Margaret Brown, for which she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. In 1973 Reynolds was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance in Irene. She was also nominated for an Emmy Award for playing Grace's mother on Will & Grace. Reynolds's first marriage, to popular singer Eddie Fisher, produced a son, author/host producer Todd Fisher, and a daughter, actress/author Carrie Fisher, but ended in divorce in 1959 when Fisher fell in love with Reynolds's former (and later) friend Elizabeth Taylor. Reynolds's second and third marriages also ended in divorce. She is a noted collector of film memorabilia, beginning with the landmark 1970 MGM auction. In June 2011, unable to find a suitable home for her large collection, she began auctioning it off. She continues to perform successfully on stage, television and film to the present day. In January 2015, Reynolds received the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.