This is Mary Frances Reynolds. She was born the 1st of April, 1932 in the poorest section of El Paso Texas. As a youngster she was nicknamed Frannie but years later she'll become the actress Debbie Reynolds. Debbie's father Raymond Francis Reynolds was called Ray and Ray was a carpenter and would often repair houses for rent so that his family would have a temporary place to live. Debbie's mother Maxine that everybody called Minnie would take in laundry to make extra money. Debbie's brother William, two years older than Debbie will become a well-known Hollywood makeup artist years later. Debbie reflecting on her early childhood said that during the Depression they often slept in parks before they had a house. And when they did get a house it was shared by her parents, grandparents and 5 uncles. She said that her and her brother would oftentimes walk on the rails of a nearby railroad just for fun and one day she brought a hobo home with her. Her mother was shocked, but she gave him something to eat and he went on his way. She said we were poor but we never went hungry, even if daddy had to go to the desert and shoot Jackrabbits. She stated there was an advantage of being raised poor, you appreciate good fortune when you get it and you value money. We were poor but happy. When Debbie was 7 the family moved from El Paso and headed to Burbank California were Ray found a job with the Southern Pacific Railroad. Debbie said that when they reached California her father got them rooms at a motel while he looked for a place to live within their budget. No one wanted to accept children and finally at one place just south of Glendale the landlady asked if he had kids and Ray answered "Yes I've got one boy and one girl". Well then what are you going to do with them she asked, indicating that she didn't accept kids. Her daddy said "Well, I thought I'd take them down to the Los Angeles river and drown em". She must have thought he was funny or maybe she thought he might do it, anyway the next day we moved in. In 1948 at age of 16 while attending the John Burroughs High School, Debbie entered the Miss Burbank beauty and talent contest. Not expecting to win anything except the scarf, blouse and free meal that was given to all the contestants. She did an impersonation of Betty Hutton that she had been practicing. It paid off. She won. She loved doing movie star impressions and she'll do them in her nightclub acts years later. She'll be spotted by a talent scout from Warner Brothers after winning the Burbank contest and offered a contract. Now this is Debbie eating ice cream on the lawn of the family home at 1034 North Evergreen in Burbank. Even after the movie star contract she continued to live there with her brother and parents. Being raised up in the strick nazarene church that was against showbiz and movies, Debbie had to convince her parents it was ok. Her father thought it was alright, knowing how much Frannie or Debbie wanted it. Her mother took a little more convincing but after seeing her daughter's movies she said" well I don't see anything wrong with them". Debbie Reynolds will make her first uncredited screen appearance in June Bride that stars Betty Davis and Robert Montgomery. In 1950 she was let go by Warner Brothers who had changed her screen name to Debbie. Fortunately she was picked up with a long-term contract by MGM Also that year she was paired with Carlton Carpenter in Two Weeks with Love abba-dabba honeymoon, the song, became a hit. Now this is Debbie with Ray in the backyard of their home on Evergreen Street. 1952 is the year that Debbie Reynolds becomes a movie star. Starting with Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor in Singing in the Rain. She was only 19 years old and had no experience whatsoever in dancing. She said the two hardest things that she ever did in her entire life was child bearing and performing in Dancing in the Rain. Although it launched her career she said that Kelly was not happy about the studio signing and inexperienced dancer and showed little mercy towards her. She actually danced until her feet would bleed from blisters. The strain was so great that she was once caught crying by Fred Astair who encouraged and supporter her. The scene Good Morning took 14 brutal hours to film. Debbie Reynolds will star in over 50 movies in her career and will become one of the most loved and respected actresses in Hollywood. When describing Debbie's on-screen Girl Scout image friend said it's pretty much the way she actually was. In 1955 while working with Frank Sinatra on the set of The Tender Trap, Debbie at the time was engaged to Eddie Fisher and Sinatra told her Sweetie don't marry him. They're nice people but singers don't make good husbands. And her answer to Sinatra was, "but I love Eddie". So Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher were married on September 26, 1955. It was considered by the press to be a fairytale marriage. All-american girl admittedly a 23 year old virgin movie actress marries the handsome young singer. It was first marriage for both. The next year in 1956 Debbie and Eddie stared in a movie together entitled Bundle of Joy. Now this is Debbie wearing a fur coat to hide their real bundle of joy. Her pregnancy with their first child Carrie, who was born to 21st of october 1956. After Carrie was born, Debbie's next movie was Tammy and the Bachelor with Leslie Nelson. 25 at the time, she played a seventeen-year-old girl. The movie was a disappointment to the studios until the song "Tammy" sung by Debbie Reynolds became a gold record and saved the movie. The next year in 1957 Debbie and Eddie will serve as brides maid and best man at their close friends wedding. Elizabeth Taylor and Mike Todd. The next year their second child Todd will be born on February the 24th, 1958. He was named after Eddies close friend Mike Todd. That same year Debbie started with Tony Randall in The Mating Game. Now this is Debbie on The Mating Game set with her children. And 1958 will end as a tragic year when Mike Todd will be killed in a plane crash. Debbie will be heartbroken when she learns through the news media that her husband had been having an affair with her best friend Elizabeth Taylor. In 1959 Eddie Fisher will leave his wife of 4 years and on May 12th, 1959 only three and a half hours after his divorce from Debbie, he will marry Elizabeth Taylor. It will become a national scandal. It will permanently damage Eddie Fishers career. NBC will cancel his weekly television show. He was dropped from his RCA Victor recording contract. And next year in 1960 his marriage to Taylor will last only five years when Elizabeth Taylor will leave Fisher for actor Richard Burton. They were divorced on March 6th, 1954. Three years later in 1967 Eddie marries actress Connie Stevens. Eddie and Connie will have two children. Jolie will be born in 1967 and her sister Teresa will be born the next year in 1968. Eddie and Connie will only stay married three years and will divorce in 1969. It will be 1975 before Fisher will marry again. This time to his fourth wife Terry Richard. She was 21 and he was 47. Terry was a beauty queen. She was crowned Miss Louisiana. They'll be married for less than a year. Eddie will make several attempts to revive his career during this time, without success. In 1993 Fisher will marry for the final time. This time it will be a businesswoman and not an actress. Betty Lin. They will remained married until her dead on April 15, 2001 of lung cancer. After Betty's death Fishers health begins to decline. He suffers with back pain, loss of hearing and bad eye sight caused from an eye operation. He will stay out of the public eye as much as possible. Eddie Fisher will be remembered as one of the 1950's great voices. Although, he was not known as the most loving family man and he did have a problem with drugs, he was right about one thing, the public was cruel to his career. When Elizabeth Taylor left Eddie to have an affair with Richard Burton, her career blossomed. No matter how many men she left. All his wives were forgiven by the public regardless of the circumstances but not Eddie. His resentment of this fact is shown in 1999 in his autobiography Been there Done that. On September the 9th, 2009, Eddie Fisher fell and broke his hip. 13 days later after complications of surgery, Eddie Fisher will pass away on September the 22nd 2010. He will be cremated and his ashes buried next to his wife Betty Lin Fisher. He will be buried at the Cypress Lawn Memorial Park and Como California. He has two stars. One for music located at the 6200 block on Hollywood Boulevard and another for television on the east side of 1700 block of Vine Street. Eddie Fisher was 82 years old. Within a year after Fisher left Debbie Reynolds for Elizabeth Taylor she will marry Harry Karl in 1960. Karl was a shoe manufacturer. Debbie said he was a nice man. He loved her kids and her, but he loved her money more. She said his gambling debts and bad investments cost her millions. 62 million to the exact. She had to keep working and that same year she would start with Tony Curtis in The Rat Race. During the filming of The Rat Race Debbie would take off early each Friday to take her 13 year old daughter Carrie and 13 year old step daughter Tina to the Girl Scout meetings. Debbie was involved in Girl Scouting for most of her life. She loved it. Here is 17 year old Debbie in her Girl Scout uniform. During her marriage to Harry Karl it was reported that she became pregnant in 1961 and 63. Both pregnancies ended in stillbirth. As Debbie was working and making money Harry was busy spending it and in 1962 Debbie Reynolds will have a leading role, among many other stars, in a major motion picture How the West was Won. Debbie along with making movies also was performing on stage. She would do great impersonations of movie stars such as Betty Davis, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Betty Hutton and several others. Now this is six-year-old Carrie backstage watching her mother perform at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas in 1963. The next year Debbie's performance in The Unsinkable Molly Brown will win her a nomination for an Oscar. Debbie was second choice for this part she was chosen when Shirley McLaine was unable to accept it. In 1969 Debbie decided to try her hand, as so many others did, in television with The Debbie Reynolds Show on NBC. Within one year Debbie was fighting with NBC executives over their use of cigarette advertisement on her show. They refuse to cancel the ads and soon the show itself was canceled. Between movies, TV and stage acts it did not leave much time for family. Debbie's daughter Carrie said that when her mom was at home on the weekends she was usually tired and mostly asleep that her and Todd would be so lonesome for her that they would sneak into her bedroom and sleep on the floor next to her and then leave before she woke up. Sometime around 1970 Debbie was traveling on the Queen Elizabeth when she learned that Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were on board. She sent Liz a message and Liz sent one back. They had dinner and laughs that night at Eddie Fishers expense. Debbie said looking back that the divorce was the best thing that ever happened because he gave me two wonderful children. I believe she said in being friends with my kids daddy and I would if he had been a better father. In 1973 Harry Karl and Debbie Reynolds were divorced after 13 years. Harry had been married three times before Debbie, but he never married after her. Debbie stated that the marriage to Harry Karl was the biggest heartbreak of all. Harry went through her millions and his too, leaving her homeless and in debt. As unbelievable as it may sound, she even slept a few nights in her car. A Cadillac of course. After the government took everything for taxes, Debbie and seventeen-year-old Carrie had to go to New York and star in a broadway revival of Irene to make money to pay bills. Nine years after his divorce from Debbie, on the 29th of July 1982 Harry Karl will enter the hospital in Los Angeles on the 6th of August. He will have bypass surgery and will pass away the next day the 7th of August, at the age of 68. He will leave a son, Harry and three daughters, Judy, Denise and Tina. After her divorce from Harry Karl in 1973 Debbie Reynolds will continue to work and in time will rebuild her fortune. It will be 11 years before she will marry again. She will spend most of these 11 years working and worrying about her children, especially Carrie. In 1977 through 1983 Carrie at the age of 19 will become world famous as Princes Leia in Star Wars. She will also become dependent on drugs that will plague her for years. By the end of 1983 it was noticeable on the set of Star Wars that she had drug problems. She will also be diagnosed as bipolar and in 1983 on the set of Star Wars Carrie will meet Paul Simon of Simon and Garfunkel. They will marry the 16th of August that same year and divorce within a year. Simon will say that he was depressed for two years after his breakup with Carrie and he will say that his songs on his album Graceland were written especially for her. The same year in 1984 that Carrie divorces Paul Simon, Debbie will marry a real estate developer Richard Hamlett. They were divorced in 1996. Several things will happen during Debbie's 12-year marriage to Richard Hamlett. For one thing Richard will talk her into purchasing a Las Vegas hotel and Casino The Paddlewheel. She will pour millions into refurbishing it. He will secretly transfer the deed to her Bel-Air home and add his name and other assets to his mistress and brother. Debbie will believe that Richard Hamlett was thinking of killing her by pushing her off of 12 story balcony after she confronted him about a mistress. There was a one-million-dollar policy in Debbie's name and he was the beneficiary. She stated that she had hid in the closet for the entire day waiting for him to leave. Debbie stated that he told her that he married her only for her money and it would cost her to get rid of him. She played over 270,000 dollars for him to leave and he left behind her 2 million in debt. She sold her collection of TV and movie memorabilia to help pay off his debts. She later learned that he had pulled the same game on his first wife. In July of 1997 next year after Richard Hamlett left, her Casino filed chapter 11 bankruptcy. During the year Debbie was married to Hamlett her daughter Carrie meets talent agent Brian Lourd. They will not marry but we live together for three years and on July 17th, 1992 their daughter Billie will be born. Through the years Carrie will have romances but Paul Simon will be her only marriage. She will continue to suffer from drug abuse and her bipolar illness while continuing to write movie scripts and actin. In 2001 Carrie wrote These Old Broads a TV movie that aired September 12th, 2001 on ABC. It was written especially for her mother. Some say was a love letter to Debbie. It stared Debbie Reynolds, Elizabeth Taylor, as they were friends again, and Joan Collins and Shirley Mclaine. The movie was a success and showed the talents of Carrie Fisher. By that time Carrie had appeared in 37 movies and written four novels. On the 26th of February, 2005 the home of Carrie Fisher, located in Coldwater Canyon near of Beverly Hills, will be surrounded by reporters. Republican media advisor R. George Stevens was found dead in Carrie's bedroom. The papers had a field day when it was diagnosed and discovered that it was an overdose of cocaine and oxycontin. It was another blow to Carrie's reputation. What the public did not know was that Carrie had often opened her home to friends suffering from addiction and AIDS. Stevens, a gay man, suffered from longtime addiction. As others he was there planning to attend the Academy Awards the next day. There were others staying at Fishers home that night. Beds were all full and that was why he was in Fishers bedroom. It was later determined that Stevens had heart damage from long-term drug use and it contributed to his death. In 2015 Carrie Fisher was offered a part and The Force Awakens. A sequel to Star Wars. Debbie was elated for her daughter Carrie. Although she would have to lose 40 pounds for the role, Carrie was off drugs and her future was looking bright. When on a return transatlantic flight from London to Los Angeles on December the 23rd, 2016 Carrie Fisher suffered what the airline's called a medical emergency. On arrival she was taken to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and placed on a ventilator. Four days later at 8:55 am on the 27th of December the child of Hollywood, Princess Leia, Carrie Frances Fisher will succumb to a massive heart attack at the age of 60. Her mother Debbie Reynolds, her daughter Billie Lourd and her brother Todd Fisher along with her half-sisters Jolie and Teresa will all be heartbroken and shocked. While the family was making plans for Carrie's funeral, they knew that the family matriarch 84 year old Debbie was under tremendous strain but no one expected what happened next. She told her son Todd, " I want to be with Carrie". 30 minutes later she suffered a massive stroke and was rushed from Todd's home to Cedars-Sinai medical center, where later on that afternoon on the 28th of December 2016 she passed away one day after her daughter Carrie. Mourners will come to the front gate of Carrie and Debbies home and walk up the single driveway leading to both houses. Carrie bought her home in 1993 shown in the upper right and Debbie bought hers seven years later next to her daughter in the lower left. They were both laid to rest at the Forrest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills. Carrie's ashes were placed in the crept along with her mother the actress Debbie Reynolds.
