ACTRESS DEBBIE REYNOLDS DIES, DAY AFTER DAUGHTER

Reynolds starred in classic 1952 film ‘Singin’ in the Rain.’

LOS ANGELES — Actress Debbie Reynolds died Wednesday, a day after the death of her daughter, writer and actress Carrie Fisher.

Reynolds, 84, had been taken to the hospital after paramedics were called to the Los Angeles home of her son, Todd Fisher, who announced her death.

“She’s now with Carrie and we’re all heartbroken,” Fisher said.

He said the stress of his sister’s death on Tuesday “was too much” for Reynolds.

“She said, ‘I want to be with Carrie,’ ” her son said. “And then she was gone.”

Reynolds sang and danced her way into film history opposite Gene Kelly in the classic 1952 musical “Singin’ in the Rain,” a movie that helped turn her into a sweetheart of American film.

On Tuesday, Reynolds had posted a statement on Facebook about the outpouring of grief about her daughter’s unexpected death.

“Thank you to everyone who has embraced the gifts and talents of my beloved and amazing daughter,” she wrote. “I am grateful for your thoughts and prayers that are now guiding her to her next stop. Love Carries Mother.”

Between 1950 and 1967, Reynolds appeared in more than 30 movie musicals and light comedies, receiving her lone Oscar nomination for playing the title character in 1964’s “The Unsinkable Molly Brown.” Many crit- ics considered it her most memorable early role, and it was a favorite — Reynolds related to a woman with tremendous zest for life.

Off-screen, she starred as the wronged woman in a love triangle that many in the late 1950s considered the Hollywood scandal of the century. Her first husband, pop singer Eddie Fisher, left Reynolds — perceived by moviegoers as the girl next door — for sultry actress Elizabeth Taylor.

The outpouring of public sympathy for Reynolds only served to increase her fame — the comedy “The Mating Game” that she co-starred in with Tony Randall was one of four movies she appeared in the next year.

But as the frothy films she was known for went out of style in the late 1960s in favor of message movies, Reynolds turned to the stage. She earned a Tony Award nomination for playing the title role in a Broadway revival of “Irene” in the early 1970s.

In 1996, she returned to the big screen for her first major part in years, playing the title role in the well-reviewed Albert Brooks’ comedy “Mother.”

She was just 18 when studio chief Louis B. Mayer cast her in “Singin’ in the Rain” over the objections of Kelly, who wanted a professional dancer for the part. Decades later, Reynolds said she could still recall the pain from three months of dance rehearsals that made her feet bleed.

“‘Singin’ in the Rain’ and childbirth were the hardest things I ever had to do in my life,” Reynolds wrote in her 1988 autobiography.

Work was a necessity for the thrice-divorced Reynolds, whose public image was far more rosy than her private life.

After Reynolds married Fisher in 1955, they had Carrie and Todd. Their daughter became an actress best known for playing Princess Leia in the “Star Wars” movies and, later, a successful writer. She died Tuesday after what was reported to have been a heart attack suffered during a flight to Los Angeles from London on Friday.

Reynolds’ and Fisher’s son was named for Fisher’s best friend, producer Mike Todd.

When Mike Todd died in a plane crash, Fisher consoled his widow, Taylor — a friend of Reynolds’ from their days as teenage contract players at Warner Bros. Fisher soon left Reynolds, whom he had met in a publicist’s office.

“I always thought their whole courtship was a sort of press release,” Carrie Fisher told People magazine in 1988. “They were riding the wave of being a media couple . ... And I think the burn-off on the infatuation was very quick.”