Together in death
Actress Reynolds dies at 84 a day after daughter’s death
Actress Debbie Reynolds dies at 84, a day after daughter Carrie Fisher died of heart attack.
DEBBIE Reynolds, the “Singin’ in the Rain” actress who tap-danced her way into American hearts as a star of Hollywood’s Golden Age, died on Wednesday, grief-stricken over daughter Carrie Fisher’s death a day earlier.
The 84-year-old suffered a stroke at son Todd Fisher’s Beverly Hills home after telling him “I miss her so much, I want to be with Carrie,” he was quoted as telling celebrity news website TMZ.
Reynolds was the girl-next-door lead of a string of hit musicals in the 1950s after being discovered by MGM studio bosses at a beauty contest in southern California, going on to earn an Oscar nomination for playing the title role in 1964’s “The Unsinkable Molly Brown.”
“We have lost a unique talent and a national treasure. Coming so close to the death of her daughter, Carrie, this is truly a double tragedy,” Screen Actors Guild president Gabrielle Carteris said in a state- ment here yesterday.
“Their imprint on our culture is profound, and they both will live on.”
Reynolds is best remembered as sweet but shy voice artist Kathy Selden in “Singin’ in the Rain” (1952) and holding her own despite being cast opposite tap-dancing superstar Gene Kelly, who was more than twice her age.
Off-screen, she was known as the wronged party in one of Hollywood’s most notorious scandals, when her husband, singer Eddie Fisher, left her for her friend and fellow screen icon Elizabeth Taylor.
Reynolds’ daughter Carrie Fisher, who catapulted to worldwide stardom as rebel warrior Princess Leia in the original “Star Wars” trilogy, died in Los Angeles on Tuesday, four days after suffering a heart attack on a transatlantic flight.
Media reports said Reynolds had been at her son’s house to discuss funeral arrangements.
Fans and fellow celebrities struggled to come to terms with another devastating blow so soon after Fisher’s death. — AFP