Life of Debbie Reynolds

 

Mary Frances "Debbie" Reynolds (April 1, 1932 – December 28, 2016) was an American actress, singer, and businesswoman. Her career spanned almost 70 years. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer with her portrayal of Helen Kane in the 1950 film Three Little Words. Her breakout role was her first leading role, as Kathy Selden in Singin' in the Rain (1952). Her other successes include The Affairs of Dobie Gillis (1953), Susan Slept Here (1954), Bundle of Joy (1956 Golden Globe nomination), The Catered Affair (1956 National Board of Review Best Supporting Actress Winner), and Tammy and the Bachelor (1957), in which her performance of the song "Tammy" topped the Billboard music charts. In 1959, she starred in The Mating Game (with Tony Randall) and released her first pop music album, titled Debbie.

She starred with Gene Kelly in Singin' in the Rain (1952), How the West Was Won (1962), and The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964), a biographical film about the famously boisterous Titanic passenger Margaret "Molly" Brown. Her performance as Brown earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Some of Reynolds' other films include The Singing Nun (1966), Divorce American Style (1967), What's the Matter with Helen? (1971), Charlotte's Web (1973), Mother (1996; Golden Globe nomination) and In & Out (1997). Reynolds was also known as a cabaret performer; in 1979, she opened the Debbie Reynolds Dance Studio in North Hollywood, which was eventually demolished in 2019. The building would go on to be sold at auction, despite efforts to turn it into a museum.

In 1969, Reynolds starred in a self-titled television program, The Debbie Reynolds Show, earning her a Golden Globe nomination. In 1973, she starred in the Broadway revival of the musical Irene, which earned her a Tony Award nomination for "Best Leading Actress in a Musical". She was also nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for her performance in A Gift of Love (1999). After appearing in the popular early-2000s sitcom Will & Grace, Reynolds was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series" for her role of Bobbi (the lead character Grace Adler's mother).

Also around the turn of the millennium, Reynolds reached a new, younger audience with her role as Aggie Cromwell in Disney's Halloweentown series. In 1988, she published her autobiography titled Debbie: My Life; in 2013, she released a second autobiography, titled Unsinkable: A Memoir.

Reynolds also had several business ventures (besides the ownership of her dance studio), including a Las Vegas hotel and casino; she was also an avid collector of film memorabilia, beginning with items purchased at the landmark 1970 MGM Auction. She served as president of The Thalians, an organization dedicated to mental health causes. Reynolds continued to successfully perform on stage, television, and in films into her 80s. In January 2015, she received the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. In 2016, she received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. In the same year, a documentary about her life was released, titled Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds—which would be her final film appearance; the film premiered on HBO on January 7, 2017.

Reynolds died following a hemorrhagic stroke on December 28, 2016, one day after the death of her daughter, actress Carrie Fisher.

Early life

Mary Frances Reynolds was born on April 1, 1932, in El Paso, Texas, to Maxene N. "Minnie" Harman and Raymond Francis "Ray" Reynolds, a carpenter who worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad. She was of Scottish-Irish and English ancestry and was raised in a strict Nazarene church of her domineering mother. She had an older brother, William, who was two years, her senior. Reynolds was a Girl Scout, once saying that she wanted to die as the world's oldest living Girl Scout. Reynolds was also a member of The International Order of Job's Daughters.

Her mother took in laundry for income, while they lived in a shack on Magnolia Street in El Paso. "We may have been poor," she said in a 1963 interview, "but we always had something to eat, even if Dad had to go out in the desert and shoot jackrabbits."

One of the advantages of having been poor is that you learn to appreciate good fortune and the value of a dollar, and poverty holds no fear for you because you know you've gone through it and you can do it again... But we were always a happy family and a religious one. And I'm trying to inculcate in my children the same sense of values, the same tone that my mother gave to me.

Her family moved to Burbank, California, in 1939. When Reynolds was a 16-year-old student at Burbank High School in 1948, she won the Miss Burbank beauty contest. Soon after, she was offered a contract with Warner Brothers and was given the stage name "Debbie" by studio head Jack L. Warner.

One of her closest high school friends said that she rarely dated during her teenaged years in Burbank.

They never found her attractive in school. She was cute, but sort of tomboyish, and her family never had any money to speak of. She never dressed well or drove a car. And, I think, during all the years in school, she was invited to only one dance.

Reynolds agreed, saying, "When I started, I didn't even know how to dress. I wore dungarees and a shirt. I had no money, no taste, and no training." Her friend adds:

I say this in all sincerity. Debbie can serve as an inspiration to all young American womanhood. She came up the hard way, and she has a realistic sense of values based on faith, love, work, and money. Life has been kind to her because she has been kind to life. She's a young woman with a conscience, which is something rare in Hollywood actresses. She also has a refreshing sense of honesty.

Career

Film and television

Reynolds was discovered by talent scouts from Warner Bros. and MGM, who were at the 1948 Miss Burbank contest. Both companies wanted her to sign up with their studio, and had to flip a coin to see which one got her. Warner Bros. won the coin toss, and she was with the studio for two years. When Warner Bros. stopped producing musicals, she moved to MGM.

With MGM, Reynolds regularly appeared in movie musicals during the 1950s, and had several hit records during the period. Her song "Aba Daba Honeymoon" (featured in the film Two Weeks with Love (1950) and sung as a duet with co-star Carleton Carpenter) was the first soundtrack recording to become a top-of-the-chart gold record, reaching number three on the Billboard charts.

Her performance in the film greatly impressed the studio, which then gave her a co-starring role in what became her highest-profile film, Singin' in the Rain (1952), a satire on movie-making in Hollywood during the transition from silent to sound pictures. It co-starred Gene Kelly, whom she called a "great dancer and cinematic genius", adding, "He made me a star. I was 18 and he taught me how to dance and how to work hard and be dedicated." In 1956, she appeared in the musical Bundle of Joy with her then-husband, Eddie Fisher.

Reynolds was one of 14 top-billed names in How the West Was Won (1962) but she was the only one who appeared throughout, the story largely following the life and times of her character Lilith Prescott. In the film, she sang three songs: What Was Your Name in the States?, as her pioneering family begin their westward journey; Raise a Ruckus Tonight, starting a party around a wagon train camp fire; and, three times, Home in the Meadow – to the tune of Greensleeves with lyrics by Sammy Cahn.

Her starring role in The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964) led to a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Reynolds noted that she initially had issues with its director, Charles Walters. "He didn't want me," she said. "He wanted Shirley MacLaine," who at the time was unable to take the role. "He said, 'You are totally wrong for the part." But six weeks into production, he reversed his opinion. "He came to me and said, "I have to admit that I was wrong. You are playing the role really well. I'm pleased." Reynolds also played in Goodbye Charlie, a 1964 comedy film about a callous womanizer who gets his just reward. It was adapted from George Axelrod's play Goodbye, Charlie and also starred Tony Curtis and Pat Boone.

She next portrayed Jeanine Deckers in The Singing Nun (1966). In what Reynolds once called the "stupidest mistake of my entire career", she made headlines in 1970 after instigating a fight with the NBC television network over cigarette advertising on her weekly television show. Although she was television's highest-paid female performer at the time, she quit the show for breaking its contract:

I was shocked to discover that the initial commercial aired during the premiere of my new series was devoted to a nationally advertised brand of cigarette (Pall Mall). I fully outlined my personal feelings concerning cigarette advertising ... that I will not be a party to such commercials, which I consider directly opposed to health and well-being.

When NBC explained to Reynolds that banning cigarette commercials from her show would be impossible, she kept her resolve. The show drew mixed reviews, but according to NBC, it captured about 42% of the nation's viewing audience. She said later she was especially concerned about the commercials because of the number of children watching the show. She did quit doing the show after about a year, which she said had cost her about $2 million of lost income: "Maybe I was a fool to quit the show, but at least I was an honest fool. I'm not a phony or pretender. With me, it wasn't a question of money, but integrity. I'm the one who has to live with myself." The dispute would have been rendered moot and in Reynolds' favor anyway had she not resigned; by 1971, the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act (which had been passed into law before she left the show) would ban all radio and television advertising for tobacco products.

Reynolds played the title role in the Hanna-Barbera animated musical Charlotte's Web (1973), in which she originated the song "Mother Earth and Father Time". Reynolds continued to make other appearances in film and television. She played Helen Chappel Hackett's mother, Deedee Chappel, on an episode of Wings titled, "If It's Not One Thing, It's Your Mother", which originally aired on November 22, 1994.

Reynolds in 1998

From 1999 to 2006, she played Grace Adler's theatrical mother, Bobbi Adler, on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace, which earned Reynolds her only Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series in 2000. She played a recurring role in the Disney Channel Original Movie Halloweentown film series as Aggie Cromwell. Reynolds made a guest appearance as a presenter at the 69th Academy Awards in 1997.

In 2000, Reynolds took up a recurring voice role on the children's television program Rugrats, playing the grandmother of two of the characters. In 2001, she co-starred with Elizabeth Taylor, Shirley MacLaine, and Joan Collins in the comedy These Old Broads, a television movie written for her by her daughter, Carrie Fisher. She had a cameo role as herself in the 2004 film Connie and Carla. In 2013, she appeared in Behind the Candelabra, as the mother of Liberace.

Reynolds appears with her daughter in Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, a 2016 documentary about the very close relationship between the two. It premiered at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. The television premiere was January 7, 2017, on HBO. According to USA Today, the film is "an intimate portrait of Hollywood royalty ... [it] loosely chronicles their lives through interviews, photos, footage, and vintage home movies... It culminates in a moving scene, just as Reynolds is preparing to receive the 2015 Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award, which Fisher presented to her mom."

Music career and cabaret

Her recording of the song "Tammy" (1957; from Tammy and the Bachelor), earned her a gold record. It was a number one single on the Billboard pop charts in 1957. In the movie (the first of the Tammy film series), she co-starred with Leslie Nielsen.

Reynolds also scored two other top-25 Billboard hits with "A Very Special Love" (number 20 in January 1958) and "Am I That Easy to Forget" (number 25 in March 1960)—a pop-music version of a country-music hit made famous by Carl Belew (in 1959), Skeeter Davis (in 1960), and several years later by singer Engelbert Humperdinck.

In 1991, she released an album titled The Best of Debbie Reynolds.

 

Marquee listing Reynolds' world premiere at the Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas, December 1962

For 10 years, she headlined for about three months a year in Las Vegas's Riviera Hotel. She enjoyed live shows, though that type of performing "was extremely strenuous," she said in 1966:

With a performing schedule of two shows a night, seven nights a week, it's probably the toughest kind of show business, but in my opinion, the most rewarding. I like the feeling of being able to change stage bits and business when I want. You can't do that in motion pictures or TV.

As part of her nightclub act, Reynolds was noted for doing impressions of celebrities such as Eva and Zsa Zsa Gabor, Mae West, Barbra Streisand, Phyllis Diller, and Bette Davis. Her impersonation of Davis was inspired following their co-starring roles in the 1956 film, The Catered Affair. Reynolds had started doing stage impersonations as a teenager; her impersonation of Betty Hutton was performed as a singing number during the Miss Burbank contest in 1948.

Reynolds' last recording was a 1992 Christmas album with Donald O'Connor entitled Christmas with Donald and Debbie, arranged and conducted by Angelo DiPippo.

Reynolds was also a French horn player. Gene Kelly, reflecting on Reynolds's sudden fame, recalled, "There were times when Debbie was more interested in playing the French horn somewhere in the San Fernando Valley or attending a Girl Scout meeting....She didn't realize she was a movie star all of a sudden."

Stage work

With limited film and television opportunities coming her way, Reynolds accepted an opportunity to make her Broadway debut. She starred in the 1973 revival of Irene, a musical first produced 60 years before. When asked why she waited so long to appear in a Broadway play, she explained:

Primarily because I had two children growing up, I could make movies and recordings and plays in nearby Las Vegas and handle a television series without being away from them. Now, they are well on the way to being adults. Also, there was the matter of being offered a show that I felt might be right for me ... I felt that Irene was it and now was the time.

Reynolds and her daughter Carrie both made their Broadway debuts in the play. Per reports, the production broke records for the highest weekly gross of any musical. For that production, she received a Tony nomination. Reynolds also starred in a self-titled Broadway revue, Debbie, in 1976. She toured with Harve Presnell in Annie Get Your Gun, then wrapped up the Broadway run of Woman of the Year in 1983. In the late 1980s, Reynolds repeated her role as Molly Brown in the stage version of The Unsinkable Molly Brown, first opposite Presnell (repeating his original Broadway and movie role) and later with Ron Raines.

Best Foot Forward (1953) (Dallas State Fair)

Irene (1973) (Broadway and US national tour)

Debbie (1976) (Broadway)

Annie Get Your Gun (1977) (San Francisco and Los Angeles)

Woman of the Year (1982) (Broadway) (replacement for Lauren Bacall)

The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1989) (US national tour)

Irene (2008) Perth Western Australia

In 2010, she appeared in her own West End show Debbie Reynolds: Alive and Fabulous.

Film history preservation

Reynolds amassed a large collection of movie memorabilia, beginning with items from the landmark 1970 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer auction, and she displayed them, first in a museum at her Las Vegas hotel and casino during the 1990s and later in a museum close to the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles.

The museum was to relocate to be the centerpiece of the Belle Island Village tourist attraction in the resort city of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, but the developer went bankrupt. The museum filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2009. The most valuable asset of the museum was Reynolds' collection. Todd Fisher, Reynolds' son, announced that his mother was "heartbroken" to have to auction off the collection. It was valued at $10.79 million in the bankruptcy filing. Los Angeles auction firm Profiles in History was given the responsibility of conducting a series of auctions. Among the "more than 3500 costumes, 20,000 photographs, and thousands of movie posters, costume sketches, and props" included in the sales were Charlie Chaplin's bowler hat and Marilyn Monroe's white "subway dress", whose skirt is lifted up by the breeze from a passing subway train in the film The Seven Year Itch (1955). The dress sold for $4.6 million in 2011; the final auction was held in May 2014.

Business ventures

In 1979, Reynolds opened her own dance studio in North Hollywood. In 1983, she released an exercise video, Do It Debbie's Way!. She purchased the Clarion Hotel and Casino, a hotel and casino in Las Vegas, in 1992. She renamed it the Debbie Reynolds Hollywood Hotel. It was not a success. In 1997, Reynolds was forced to declare bankruptcy. In June 2010, she replaced Ivana Trump answering reader queries for the weekly paper Globe.

Advocacy

Reynolds was a longtime ally of the LGBT community and an early advocate for AIDS. In 1983, Reynolds performed at an AIDS fundraiser with her friend Shirley MacLaine. In a 2014 interview with The Telegraph, Reynolds revealed that she had helped several closeted actors conceal their homosexuality by dating them. When asked when she realised she was a gay icon, Reynolds replied, "Over the years many of the boys that have worked for me as dancers have been gay. The creative people were all gay people, from producers to writers. To me, they were just family."

Marriages and later life

Reynolds was married three times. Her first marriage was to singer Eddie Fisher in 1955. They became the parents of Carrie Fisher and Todd Fisher. The couple divorced in 1959 when it was revealed shortly after the death of Elizabeth Taylor's husband Mike Todd that Fisher had been having an affair with her; Taylor and Reynolds were good friends at the time. The Eddie Fisher – Elizabeth Taylor affair was a great public scandal, which led to the cancellation of Eddie Fisher's television show.

In 2011, Reynolds was on The Oprah Winfrey Show just weeks before Elizabeth Taylor's death. She explained that Taylor and she happened to be traveling at the same time on the ocean liner (RMS Queen Elizabeth) sometime in the 1960s when they reconciled. Reynolds sent a note to Taylor's room, and Taylor sent a note in reply asking to have dinner with Reynolds and end their feud. As Reynolds described it, "we had a wonderful evening with a lot of laughs." In 1972, she noted the bright side of the divorce and her remarriage:

Now in retrospect, though it was not my will, I think it probably was the best thing that ever happened to me. He did give me two great children and for that I will ever be grateful. Our door is always open to him. I believe in peaceful coexistence and being friends with the father of your children.

Life is both faith and love. Without faith, love is only one dimensional and incomplete. Faith helps you to overlook other people's shortcomings, and love them as they are. If you ask too much of any relationship, you can't help but be disappointed. But if you ask nothing, you can't be hurt or disappointed.

Debbie Reynolds (1964)

Reynolds' second marriage, to millionaire businessman Harry Karl, lasted from 1960 to 1973. For a period during the 1960s, she stopped working at the studio on Friday afternoons to attend Girl Scout meetings, since she was the leader of the Girl Scout Troop of which her 13-year-old daughter Carrie and her stepdaughter Tina Karl, also 13, were members. Reynolds later found herself in financial difficulty because of Karl's gambling and bad investments. Reynolds' third marriage was to real estate developer Richard Hamlett from 1984 to 1996.

In 2011, Reynolds stepped down after 56 years of involvement in The Thalians, a charitable organization devoted to children and adults with mental-health issues.

Reynolds was hospitalized in October 2012 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles due to an adverse reaction to medication. She cancelled appearances and concert engagements for the next three months.

Death and legacy

On December 23, 2016, Reynolds's daughter, actress and writer Carrie Fisher, suffered a medical emergency on a transatlantic flight from London to Los Angeles, and died on December 27, 2016, at the age of 60 at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. The following day, December 28, Reynolds was taken by ambulance to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, after suffering a "severe stroke", according to her son. Later that afternoon, Reynolds was pronounced dead in the hospital; she was 84 years old. On January 9, 2017, her cause of death was determined to be an intracerebral hemorrhage, with hypertension a contributing factor.

Todd Fisher later said that Reynolds had been seriously affected by her daughter's death, and that her grief was partially responsible for her stroke, noting that his mother had stated, "I want to be with Carrie", shortly before she died. During an interview for the December 30, 2016 airing of the ABC-TV program 20/20, Todd Fisher elaborated on this, saying that his mother had joined his sister in death because Reynolds "didn't want to leave Carrie and did not want her to be alone". He added, "she didn't die of a broken heart" as some news reports had implied, but rather "just left to be with Carrie".

Reynolds was entombed, while her daughter was cremated. A portion of Carrie Fisher's ashes was laid to rest beside Reynolds' crypt at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills during a larger joint memorial service held on March 25, while the remainder of Fisher’s ashes is held in a giant, novelty Prozac pill.

Awards and honors

Reynolds was the 1955 Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year. Her footprints and handprints are preserved at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California. She also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6654 Hollywood Boulevard, for live performance and a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars dedicated to her. In keeping with the celebrity tradition of the Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival of Winchester, Virginia, Reynolds was honored as the Grand Marshal of the 2011 ABF that took place from April 26 to May 1, 2011.

On November 4, 2006, Reynolds received the Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award from Chapman University (Orange, California). On May 17, 2007, she was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Nevada, Reno, where she had contributed for many years to the film studies program.

Awards and nominations

1951       Golden Globe Awards   New Star of the Year – Actress  Three Little Words           Nominated        

1956       National Board of Review             Best Supporting Actress                The Catered Affair           Won     

1957       Golden Globe Awards   Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy            Bundle of Joy     Nominated        

1965       Academy Awards             Best Actress       The Unsinkable Molly Brown      Nominated        

1965       Golden Globe Awards   Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy            Nominated        

1970       Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy         Nominated        

1973       Tony Awards      Best Actress in a Musical               Irene     Nominated        

1997       American Comedy Awards          Lifetime Achievement Award in Comedy              Herself Won     

1997       Golden Globe Awards   Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy            Mother                Nominated        

1997       Satellite Awards               Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture             Won     

1998       Blockbuster Entertainment Awards         Favorite Supporting Actress – Comedy  In & Out               Nominated        

2000       Daytime Emmy Awards Outstanding Performer in a Children's Special     A Gift of Love: The Daniel Huffman Story                Nominated        

2000       Primetime Emmy Awards             Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series  Will & Grace       Nominated        

2014       Screen Actors Guild        Life Achievement Award              Herself Won     

2015       Academy Awards             Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award          Won     

Filmography

1948       June Bride           Boo's Girlfriend at Wedding        Uncredited

1950       The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady Maureen O'Grady          

Three Little Words           Helen Kane        

Two Weeks with Love    Melba Robinson              

1951       Mr. Imperium    Gwen   

1952       Singin' in the Rain             Kathy Selden    

Skirts Ahoy!        Herself Uncredited

1953       I Love Melvin     Judy Schneider / Judy LeRoy      

The Affairs of Dobie Gillis             Pansy Hammer

Give a Girl a Break           Suzy Doolittle   

1954       Susan Slept Here              Susan Beauregard Landis             

Athena Minerva Mulvain             

1955       Hit the Deck       Carol Pace          

The Tender Trap               Julie Gillis            

1956       Meet Me in Las Vegas   Herself (uncredited)      

The Catered Affair           Jane Hurley       

Bundle of Joy     Polly Parish        

1957       Tammy and the Bachelor              Tammy

1958       This Happy Feeling          Janet Blake        

1959       The Mating Game            Mariette Larkin

Say One for Me                Holly LeMaise, aka Conroy          

It Started with a Kiss       Maggie Putnam               

The Gazebo        Nell Nash            

1960       The Rat Race      Peggy Brown    

Pepe     Cameo 

1961       The Pleasure of His Company     Jessica Anne Poole         

The Second Time Around             Lucretia 'Lu' Rogers        

1962       How the West Was Won               Lilith Prescott    

1963       My Six Loves      Janice Courtney               

Mary, Mary        Mary McKellaway           

1964       The Unsinkable Molly Brown      Molly Brown     

Goodbye Charlie              Charlie Sorel/Virginia Mason      

1966       The Singing Nun               Sister Ann          

1967       Divorce American Style Barbara Harmon              

1968       How Sweet It Is!               Jenny Henderson           

1969       Debbie Reynolds and the Sound of Children        Herself TV movie

1971       What's the Matter with Helen? Adelle  

1973       Charlotte's Web               Charlotte A. Cavatica (voice)      

1974       Busby Berkeley                 Documentary

That's Entertainment!                    Compilation film

1987       Sadie and Son    Sadie     TV movie

1989       Perry Mason: The Case of the Musical Murder   Amanda Cody    TV movie

1992       Battling for Baby               Helen    TV movie

The Bodyguard Herself Cameo

1993       Jack L. Warner: The Last Mogul                  Documentary

Heaven & Earth                Eugenia               

1994       That's Entertainment! III                               Compilation film

1996       Mother                Beatrice Henderson       

Wedding Bell Blues         Herself

1997       In & Out               Berniece Brackett           

1998       Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas   Herself (voice) 

Kiki's Delivery Service     Madame (voice, Disney English dub)      

Zack and Reba   Beulah Blanton

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie   Mrs. Claus/Rudolph's Mother/Mrs. Prancer        Voice

Halloweentown                Splendora Agatha "Aggie" Cromwell       TV movie

The Christmas Wish        Ruth      TV movie

1999       A Gift of Love: The Daniel Huffman Story              Shirlee Allison    TV movie

Keepers of the Frame                    Documentary

2000       Rugrats in Paris: The Movie         Lulu Pickles (voice)         

Virtual Mom       Gwen    TV movie

Rugrats: Acorn Nuts & Diapey Butts         Lulu Johnson (voice)

2001       These Old Broads             Piper Grayson   TV movie

Halloweentown II: Kalabar's Revenge     Splendora Agatha "Aggie" Cromwell       TV movie

2002       Cinerama Adventure      Herself (interviewee)    Documentary

Generation Gap                               TV movie

2004       Connie and Carla              Herself

Halloweentown High      Splendora Agatha "Aggie" Cromwell       TV movie

2006       Return to Halloweentown           Splendora Agatha "Aggie" Cromwell       TV movie

Cameo appearance

Lolo's Cafe          Mrs. Atkins (voice)          TV movie

2007       Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project     Herself (interviewee)    Documentary

2008       Light of Olympia               Queen (voice)

The Jill & Tony Curtis Story           Herself Documentary

The Brothers Warner                     Documentary

Fay Wray: A Life                                Documentary

2012       One for the Money         Grandma Mazur              

2013       Behind the Candelabra  Frances Liberace              TV movie

2016       Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds               Herself Documentary

Short subjects

A Visit with Debbie Reynolds (1959)

The Story of a Dress (1964)

In the Picture (2012)

Partial television credits

1981       Aloha Paradise  Sydney Chase    8 episodes         

1982       Alice      Felicia Blake        Episode: "Sorry, Wrong Lips!"   

1991       The Golden Girls              Truby    "There Goes the Bride: Part 2"   

1994       Wings    Deedee Chappel              "If It's Not One Thing, It's Your Mother"

1997       Roseanne            Audrey Conner "Arsenic and Old Mom"               

1999–2006           Will & Grace       Bobbi Adler        12 episodes       

2000–2002           Rugrats Lulu Pickles         10 episodes       

2003       Tracey Ullman in the Trailer Tales              Herself TV comedy special          

2003–2007           Kim Possible       Nana Possible    4 episodes         

2008       Family Guy          Mrs. Wilson        Episode: "Tales of a Third Grade Nothing"           

2010       The Penguins of Madagascar      Granny Squirrel (voice) "The Lost Treasure of the Golden Squirrel"           

RuPaul's Drag Race          Self (guest judge)                           

2011       So You Think You Can Dance       Self (guest judge)            (Alongside Nigel Lythgoe & Mary Murphy)          

2015       The 7D  Queen Whimsical (voice)              "Big Rock Candy Flim-Flam / Doing the 7D Dance"           

Radio broadcasts

September 8, 1952          Lux Radio Theatre            Two Weeks with Love