Oscar Profile #83: Debbie Reynolds

Born April 1, 1932 in El Paso, Texas, Mary Frances Reynolds, better known as Debbie, has been a vivacious star for so long it’s impossible for anyone under 70 to recall a time when she wasn’t around.

She made her screen debut as a teenager in an un-credited role in 1948’s June Bride, but by the time of her second film, 1950’s The Daughter of Rosie O’Grady, she was prominently cast as star June Haver’s sister. She sparkled in her third, 1950’s Three Little Words as boop-boop-a-doop girl Helen Kane, even though she was dubbed by Kane herself singing her signature song, “I Wanna Be Loved by You”. The film’s star was Fred Astaire.

Two years later she was not only in a film with Astaire’s MGM dancing rival, Gene Kelly, she was his leading lady. The film was, of course, Singin’ in the Rain. A modest hit at the time, the film became revered as a classic with repeated TV showings in the 1960s and a theatrical re-release in the 1970s. It is now considered the greatest original screen musical of all time by most contemporary critics.

Reynolds’ first dramatic role was in the hit 1954 comedy-drama, Susan Slept Here, opposite Dick Powell. In 1955 she married crooner Eddie Fisher and the couple became the most photographed, written about “happy” couple of the day. That same year she joined the Thalians, a charitable organization devoted to children and adults with mental health issues, an organization with which she is still involved.

A straight dramatic role in 1956’s The Catered Affair brought her the Best Supporting Actress award of the National Board of Review.

1956’s Bundle of Joy, a remake of Ginger Rogers’ breakout comedy hit, Bachelor Mother, opposite Fisher was a huge hit. 1957’s Tammy and the Bachelor was not only a huge hit, but Reynolds’ recording of “Tammy” topped Billboard’s chart and became an Oscar nominated Best Song. 1958’s This Happy Feeling proved her to be one of the best comediennes of her generation.

A real life scandal erupted in 1959 when Fisher left her and their two young children for Elizabeth Taylor. Oddly the liaison ruined Fisher’s career but made even bigger stars of the two women. Reynolds was more popular than ever, even playing a showgirl opposite Bing Crosby in his third outing as a priest in the 1959 hit, Say One for Me.

Late in 1960 she married shoe magnate Harry Karl. When his first wife, actress Marie McDonald, died in 1965, Reynolds took on the responsibility of raising his children as well as her own. In the meantime she continued to make hit films including 1961’s The Pleasure of His Company as Fred Astaire’s daughter.

She campaigned for and won the lead in the biggest hit of her career over Shirley MacLaine in 1964’s The Unsinkable Molly Brown, for which she received her only Oscar nomination to date.

1966’s The Singing Nun, a fictitious character based on a real-lie phenomenon of the day, was another big hit. More sophisticated roles in such films as1967’s Divorce American Style and 1968’s How Sweet It Is! followed.

She even successfully conquered the horror genre then still popular with “older” actresses (she was only 39!) in 1971’s What’s the Matter With Helen? in which she co-starred with Shelley Winters.

A bitter divorce from Karl in 1973 left her nearly penniless. She salved her wounds with the starring role in the Broadway revival of Irene for which she received a Tony nomination. Her next foray into Broadway musicals came nearly a decade later when she replaced Lauren Bacall in Woman of the Year.

A long-time collector of film memorabilia, Reynolds’ “hobby” first came to public notice with her 1970 acquisition of items from the massive MGM auction. She displayed these items and other acquisitions in the 1990s at the small hotel and museum she owned with third husband, Richard Hamlett, a real estate developer she married in 1984. Their 1996 divorce led to her filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy to save her museum. In 2001 she moved her memorabilia to a shop in the Kodak Theatre and later to a small museum in Tennessee, but both those ventures ended in heartbreak for Reynolds who ended up having to sell off her collection in 2011 to stay solvent.

Much on TV in later years, her film work had a couple of bright spots beginning with her re-emergence in the title role in Albert Brooks’ 1996 film, Mother, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination. The following year’s In & Out gave her some nice moments as Kevin Kline’s mother. Still girlish at 66, Reynolds had to wear a grey wig to play Neil Patrick Harris’ grandmother in the charming 1998 TV movie, A Christmas Wish.

Nominated for a Golden Globe for her recurring role in TV’s Will & Grace in 2000, she lost a plum big screen role in that year’s Postcards From the Edge to Shirley MacLaine even though the character in the film, written by daughter Carrie Fisher, was based on Reynolds. Hollywood insiders were convinced it was MacLaine’s revenge for Reynolds’ stealing The Unsinkable Molly Brown from her so many years before.

In 2001, Fisher wrote the TV movie These Old Broads for Reynolds and MacLaine, Reynolds’ old nemesis, Elizabeth Taylor and the woman Taylor stole the lead from in 1963’s Cleopatra. Unfortunately the only spark was in the casting. The film itself was a dud.

Reynolds, who turned 80 on April Fools’ Day, still needs a grey wig to play old as she did in the recent One for the Money. We eagerly await her next resurgence!

ESSENTIAL FILMS

SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN (1952), directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen

The classic musical about the transition from the silent screen to the early talkie era seems ot grow more popular with each passing year. Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor and vibrant, emerging star Reynolds are all terrific, though the film is stolen by Jean Hagen as their nemesis, the silent screen star with the squeaky voice who has to be dubbed.

Look for a 60th anniversary Blu-ray upgrade later in the year,

THE UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN (1964), directed by Charles Walters

The buoyant screen version of Mededith Willson’s hit Broadway musical about the real-life Titanic heroine, before and after the disaster, seems tailor-made for Reynolds, but she had to fight for the role for which the producers initially wanted Shirley MacLaine.

At 31, the show business trouper was the perfect age for portraying the country bumpkin who overcomes her humble beginnings to conquer the capitals of Europe.

THE SINGING NUN (1966), directed by Henry Koster

Based on the legend of the real life Singing Nun, this fictional story is pure hokum, but Reynolds is charm personified as the delightful young nun who enchants all with her singing gifts.

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Adapted Score, the acting by Reynolds and Agnes Moorehead as an acerbic nun is quite good, but Greer Garson as the Mother Superior is a bit much. With her big false eyelashes she is as obvious someone masquerading as a nun as was the nun with high heels in Alfred Hitchcock’s classic, The Lady Vanishes.

WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH HELEN? (1971), directed by Curtis Harrington

This was the third horror film written by Henry Farrell whose previous works were What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte. This time around the protagonists are Reynolds and Shelley Winters as the mothers of convicted murderers. While Reynolds’ Adelle remains fairly normal, Winters’ Helen becomes more and more unhinged as the story unfolds.

Reynolds sings “Bye Bye Blackbird” and “Did You Ever See a Dream Walking?” and Reynlds’ friend and frequent co-star, Agnes Moorehead sings “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”

MOTHER (1996), directed by Albert Brooks

Reynolds’ understated portrayal of blocked writer Albert Brooks’ difficult mother is such a gem it’s impossible to imagine another actress in the role. Yet, the role was first offered to Doris day who showed no interest; Kathryn Grayson who felt the role beneath her and Nancy Reagan who wanted to do it but couldn’t leave her husband, the former president who was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Esther Williams was also considered, but Reynolds who knew Brooks through her daughter, Carrie Fisher, was the first to say yes.