As star of more than thirty motion pictures, two Broadway shows,
two series, as well as dozens of television appearances, here
and abroad, in 1991 Debbie Reynolds celebrates her forty-third
year in show business. Born Mary Frances Reynolds on April Fool's
Day, 1932 in El Paso , Texas , she moved with her parents and
brother to Burbank , California when she was eight years old.
An enthusiastic and highly energetic child, she excelled in sports,
particularly sandlot baseball, Girl Scouts, baton ‘twirling And
in music where her specialty was the French horn. Her early comedic
talents first came to light when she auditioned for
dramatic roles in school plays and found everyone laughing at
her “serious' readings. Failing at that, she had to content herself
with doing “everything from the wind machine to the thunder and
lightning offstage,” but she never made it to an onstage appearance.
At age sixteen she entered a local beauty contest sponsored
by Lockhead Aircraft. Never considered one of the “beauties,” she
won on the strength of a lip-synching rendition of Betty Hutton
singing “ I'm A Square Peg In A Social Circle.” Two of the judges
that night were talent scouts from Warner Brothers and MGM. On
the flip of a coin, the Warner Brothers scout, Solly Balano,
got first dibs at a screen test for Mary Frances. The test led
to a contract and the little girl's name was changed to Debbie.
Debbie made her screen debut with June Haver and James Barton
in “The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady.” Her first big break came
in an MOM musical staffing Fred Astaire and Red Skeleton, “Three
Little Words,” in which she portrayed Helen Kane, the Boop-hoop-a-doop” girl
of the late 1930's. A subsequent performance in a Busby Berkley
musical “Two Weeks With Love” convinced the legendary L B Mayer
to choose her for the leading female role in what became one
of the greatest screen musicals of all time, “Singin' In The Rain”.
Over a ten year period, Debbie made more than twenty-five films,
including “How The West Was Won”, “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” (for
which she was nominated for an Oscar), “Susan Slept Here t ', “The
Tender Trap Tammy And the Bachelor', “The Pleasure of his Company”, “Mary.
Mary”, “Divorce
American Style” and “Goodbye Charlie”. Her recordings of “Abba
Dabba Honeymoon” (from” Two Weeks with
Love”) and “Tammy” both sold more than a million copies- In the
mid-1960's Debbie put together her first nightclub act which
debuted at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas. In the twenty-five
years since, she has been a headliner on the casino circuit from
Reno and Tahoe and Las Vegas to Atlantic City to the famed London
Palladium, as well as in concert in every major American city,
touring on the average of forty-two weeks a year.
In 1973, she took a break from her nightclub appearances to
star in the Broadway revival of “Irene, breaking all previous
box office records for a Broadway musical. After an enormously
successful national tour of the show, Debbie returned to the
musical stage with another hit revival, Irving Berlin's “Annie
Get Your Gun”, directed by the late Cower Champion (who also
directed “Irene”). In 1983, she returned to Broadway again to
star in the hit musical, “Woman of the Year. In 1989, a National
Tour of the ‘Unsinkable Molly Brown”.
Debbie's off-screen, off-stage life has been as active and versatile.
Mother of two children, actress/writer, Carrie Fisher and son
Todd Fisher. In 1992, Carrie made her a grandmother, giving birth
to a beautiful baby girl, Billie Catherine. She has been a life-long
supporter and fund raiser for the Girl Scouts, and founder-president
of the Thalians, a charitable organization which has raised millions for emotionally
disturbed children.
Since the late 1960's she has also been actively involved in
a project closest to her heart, the collection and preservation
of memorabilia from Hollywood's first half-century of film making,
gathering thousands of costumes, props and mementos of Hollywood's
studios and their greatest stars.
Her dream to one day establish a Hollywood Motion picture and
Television Museum is finally coming true. She has purchased a
property in Las Vegas just off the Step, named “The Debbie Reynolds
"Hotel and Casino”, which will also house her collection,
the largest individual collection of Hollywood Memorabilia.
In the late 1970's, anticipating her eventual retirement from
performing, Debbie established The Debbie Reynolds Professional
Rehearsal Studios in North Hollywood, which has since become
one of the entertainment industry's leading rehearsal as well
as professional, training studios In 1987, Debbie published her
widely read memoir, “Debbie, My Life”, (co-written with David
Patrick Columbia) with William Morrow & Company Publisher.
Miss Reynolds has been married since 1985 to real estate developer
Richard Hamlett.
n 1987, Debbie published her widely read memoir, “Debbie, My
Life”,
(co-written with David Patrick Columbia) with William Morrow & Company
Publisher. Miss Reynolds has been married since 1985 to real estate
developer Richard Hamlett .