Debbie Reynolds

Maternal granddaughter of Owen (1885-1951), born in the state of Kansas, and Maxie (née Dykeman) Harman (1889-1976), born in the state of Missouri.

Daughter of Raymond (1903-1986), born in the state of Texas, and Maxene (née Harman) Reynolds (1912-1999), born in the state of Oklahoma.

Opened the Hollywood Motion Picture Collection near the Kodak Theatre. The collection, which was collected and preserved primarily by Reynolds herself, features over 3,000 costumes including Carmen Miranda's turbans, a pair of Judy Garland's ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz (1939), John Wayne's guns and Marilyn Monroe's windswept dress from The Seven Year Itch (1955). [April 2002]

Won the 1948 Miss Burbank contest and was offered a screen test by Warner Bros. the day after her win. She initially entered the contest because everyone who entered received a silk scarf, blouse and free lunch.

Her singing of "I Want To Be Loved By You", in the film Three Little Words (1950), was dubbed by Helen Kane.

Debbie Reynolds was born Mary Frances Reynolds in El Paso, Texas, the second child of Maxine N. (Harmon) and Raymond Francis Reynolds, a carpenter for the Southern Pacific Railroad. Her film career began at MGM after she won a beauty contest at age 16 impersonating Betty Hutton. Reynolds wasn't a dancer until she was selected to be Gene Kelly's partner in Singin' in the Rain (1952). Not yet twenty, she was a quick study. Twelve years later, it seemed like she had been around forever. Most of her early film work was in MGM musicals, as perky, wholesome young women. She continued to use her dancing skills with stage work.

Became pregnant by her 2nd husband Harry Karl in 1961 and 1963; on both occasions she suffered stillbirths.

She was 31 when she gave an Academy Award-nominated performance in The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964). She survived losing first husband Eddie Fisher to Elizabeth Taylor following the tragic death of Mike Todd. Her second husband, shoe magnate Harry Karl, gambled away his fortune as well as hers. With her children as well as Karl's, she had to keep working and turned to the stage.

In 1969 she followed Doris Day and some of her contemporaries in launching a sitcom bearing her name. When the debut episode included an advertisement for cigarettes, a direct violation of one of her contractual stipulations, she made such a fuss about it that NBC ended up canceling the series.

Considered herself a "movie-oholic" and has an extensive collection of memorabilia, with over 4,000 costumes from the silent screen period to the 1970s. She had been known to gather posters from her collection of 3,000 and drive to homes of actor pals for autographs. In the 1990s she turned her collection into a Las Vegas movie museum, but had to shut it down in 1997 because of financial problems. Recently she had looked into the possibility of opening up a hall of fame museum in Hollywood near Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

Made her Broadway debut in 1973 in the revival of "Irene". Although the reviews for the show itself were mixed, hers were all raves and she wound up with a Tony Award nomination the following year for Best Actress in a Musical. The production ultimately ran some 20 months. In 1976, she appeared in a one-woman, short-run (10 days - 14 performances) review named "Debbie!" at the Minskoff Theatre. Her only other Broadway appearance to date came when she succeeded Lauren Bacall in "Woman of the Year" in 1983.

In 1975 she sold the Beverly Hills mansion she had lived in with Harry Karl. The house was reputed to be worth over $1,000,000. The buyer was Jim Randall, an industrialist who made aircraft rivets. When he married Marisa Berenson, the wedding was held in the redecorated home and his best man was his friend George Hamilton.

In 1984, with friends like Shelley Winters and Terry Moore, she made a rather restrained exercise video for "women of a certain age".

She appeared as Dan's mother, fresh out of the mental ward, during an episode of the sitcom Roseanne (1988). When she later appeared on Roseanne Barr's talk show, she revealed that during the filming of that episode, while she and Roseanne were wrestling in the back yard, Roseanne, quite unknowingly, accidentally broke one of her ribs.

Campaigned for the role of Doris Mann in Postcards from the Edge (1990), but Shirley MacLaine was cast instead.

Is portrayed by Judith Jones in Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story (1995).

She dedicated the Holland-America Line cruise ship the MS Veendam. [January 1996]

She had her own casino in Las Vegas with a home for her collection of Hollywood memorabilia until its closure in 1997. She took the time to personally write a long letter that is on display in the Judy Garland museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota and to provide that museum with replicas of Garland's costumes. The originals are in her newly-opened museum in Hollywood. Nearly all the money she makes is spent toward her goal of creating a Hollywood museum. Her collection numbers more than 3000 costumes and 46,000 square-feet worth of props and equipment. With musician/actor Eddie Fisher, she was the mother of filmmaker Todd Fisher and actress Carrie Fisher.

In one of her guest appearances on Will & Grace (1998), she entered a room humming a bit of "Good Morning", which was a song she sang in her most famous musical, Singin' in the Rain (1952).

She reconciled with old nemesis Elizabeth Taylor to work on the made-for-TV movie These Old Broads (2001), written by Debbie's daughter, Carrie Fisher, with Taylor, Shirley MacLaine and Joan Collins. Debbie and Taylor were friends until the late 1950s when Debbie's then-husband, Eddie Fisher, began having an affair with Liz, then left Debbie and married Taylor. When they began working on "These Old Broads" together, Taylor told Debbie, "I owe you a lot". Debbie said, "I just got a lump in my throat when she said that".

She made her first appearance at the Hollywood Collectors & Celebrities Show on April 6th and 7th, 2002, at Beverly Garland's Holiday Inn in North Hollywood, California.

In the process of relocating her museum to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. A new Hollywood Motion Picture Museum is being constructed there by Debbie and her children Carrie Fisher and Todd Fisher. It opened in April 2005. [July 2004]

Was close friends with Hugh O'Brian. Serenaded O'Brien and his bride Virginia at their wedding on June 25, 2006.

She was awarded the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2014.