Saturday, January 7, 2012

Paulette Goddard






































Paulette Goddard (June 3, 1910 – April 23, 1990) was an American film and theatre actress. A child fashion model and a performer in several Broadway productions as a Ziegfeld Girl, she became a major star of the Paramount Studio in the 1940s. She was married to several notable men, including Charlie Chaplin, Burgess Meredith, and Erich Maria Remarque. Goddard was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in So Proudly We Hail! (1943).


Early life

Paulette Goddard was born Marion Pauline Levy in Whitestone Landing, Queens, Long Island. She was the only child of Joseph Russell Levy, who was Jewish, and Alta Mae Goddard, who was Episcopalian and of English heritage. Her parents divorced while she was young, and she was raised by her mother. Her father virtually vanished from her life, only to resurface later in the late 1930s after she became a star. At first, their newfound relationship seemed genial and they attended film premières together, but later he sued her over a magazine article in which she purportedly claimed he abandoned her when she was young. They never reconciled. On his death, he left her one dollar in his will. She remained very close to her mother, however, as both had struggled through those early years, with her great uncle, Charles Goddard (her grandfather's brother) lending a hand.
Charles Goddard helped his great niece find jobs as a fashion model, and with the Ziegfeld Follies as one of the heavily decorated Ziegfeld Girls from 1924 to 1928. She attended Washington Irving High School in Manhattan at the same time as future film star Claire Trevor.

Career

Her stage debut was in the Ziegfeld revue No Foolin in 1926, and played a small role in Rio Rita. The next year she made her stage acting debut in The Unconquerable Male. She also changed her first name to Paulette and took her mother's maiden name (which also happened to be her favorite great uncle Charles' last name) as her own last name. She married an older, wealthy businessman, lumber tycoon Edgar James, in 1926 or 1927 and moved to North Carolina. Goddard returned to Hollywood in 1929 and they were divorced in 1930.

Goddard in Dramatic School (1938).
Upon her return to Hollywood, with her mother, Goddard appeared in small roles in The Girl Habit (1931) and The Mouthpiece (1932). She signed a contract with Hal Roach Studios, and appeared in films such as The Kid from Spain and Laurel and Hardy's Pack Up Your Troubles (both 1932). In 1932, she met Charlie Chaplin. Goddard was considering investing the money from her divorce settlement in a film venture but Chaplin intervened when he discovered the deal was fraudulent, and bought out her contract from Roach. Chaplin began planning a film with Goddard that was released in 1936 as Modern Times. In the interim, Goddard appeared in a few films for Samuel Goldwyn Productions. Along with such actresses as Betty Grable, Lucille Ball, and Ann Sothern, Goddard became a "Goldwyn Girl" and was featured in films such as Roman Scandals (1933) and Kid Millions (1934).
During this time she lived with Chaplin in his Beverly Hills home. Their marital status was a source of controversy and speculation. During most of their time together, both refused to comment on the matter.Chaplin maintained that they were married in China in 1936, but to private associates and family, he claimed they were never legally married, except in common law.

From the trailer for The Women (1939)
Following the success of Modern Times, Chaplin planned other projects with Goddard in mind as a co-star, but he worked slowly and Goddard worried that the public might forget about her if she did not continue to make regular film appearances. She signed a contract with David O. Selznick and appeared with Janet Gaynor in the comedy The Young in Heart (1938) before Selznick loaned her to MGM to appear in two films. The first of these, Dramatic School (1938), costarred Luise Rainer, but the film received mediocre reviews and failed to attract an audience. Her next film, The Women (1939), was a success. With an all-female cast headed by Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, and Rosalind Russell, Goddard played the supporting role of Miriam Aarons. Pauline Kael later commented of Goddard, "she is a stand-out. She's fun."

Selznick had been pleased with Goddard's recent performances, and specifically her work in The Young at Heart, and considered her for the role of Scarlett O'Hara. Initial screen tests convinced him and the director George Cukor that Goddard would require coaching to be effective in the role, but that she showed promise, and she was the first actress given a Technicolor screen test. Russell Birdwell, the head of Selznick's publicity department, had strong misgivings about Goddard. He warned Selznick of the "tremendous avalanche of criticism that will befall us and the picture should Paulette be given this part… I have never known a woman, intent on a career dependent upon her popularity with the masses, to hold and live such an insane and absurd attitude towards the press and her fellow man as does Paulette Goddard… Briefly, I think she is dynamite that will explode in our very faces if she is given the part." Selznick remained interested in Goddard and after he had been introduced to Vivien Leigh, he wrote to his wife that Leigh was a "dark horse" and that his choice had "narrowed down to Paulette, Jean Arthur, Joan Bennett, and Vivien Leigh" After a series of tests with Leigh that pleased both Selznick and Cukor, Selznick cancelled the further tests that had been scheduled for Goddard, and the part was given to Leigh. It has been suggested that Goddard lost the part because Selznick feared questions surrounding her marital status with Chaplin would result in scandal. However, Selznick was aware that Leigh and Laurence Olivier lived together as their respective spouses had refused to divorce them, and in addition to offering Leigh a contract, he engaged Olivier as the leading man in his next production Rebecca (1940). Chaplin's biographer Joyce Milton wrote that Selznick was worried about legal issues by signing her to a contract that might conflict with her preexisting contracts with the Chaplin studio..
Goddard signed a contract with Paramount Pictures and her next film The Cat and the Canary (1939) with Bob Hope, was a turning point in the careers of both actors. She starred with Chaplin again in his 1940 film The Great Dictator. The couple split amicably soon afterward, and Goddard allegedly obtained a divorce in Mexico in 1942, with Chaplin agreeing to a generous settlement. She was Fred Astaire's leading lady in the musical Second Chorus (1940), where she met Burgess Meredith. One of her best-remembered film appearances was in the variety musical Star Spangled Rhythm (1943), in which she sang a comic number, A Sweater, a Sarong, and a Peekaboo Bang, with fellow sex symbols Dorothy Lamour and Veronica Lake.[citation needed]

from the trailer for So Proudly We Hail! (1943)
She received one Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, for the 1943 film So Proudly We Hail!, but did not win. Her most successful film was Kitty (1945), in which she played the title role. In The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946), she starred opposite Meredith, by then her husband. Cecil B. DeMille cast her in three blockbusters: North West Mounted Police (1940), Reap the Wild Wind (1942) (where Goddard played a Scarlett O'Hara-type role), and Unconquered (1947).
Her career faded in the late 1940s. In 1947 she made An Ideal Husband in Britain for Alexander Korda films, being accompanied on a publicity trip to Brussels by Clarissa Churchill, niece of Sir Winston and future wife of Prime Minister Anthony Eden. In 1949, she formed Monterey Pictures with John Steinbeck. Her last starring roles were the English production A Stranger Came Home (known as The Unholy Four in the USA), and Charge of the Lancers in 1954. She also acted in summer stock and on television, including in the 1955 television remake of The Women, playing a different character than she played in the 1939 feature film. In 1964, she attempted a comeback in films with a supporting role in the Italian film Time of Indifference, but that turned out to be her last feature film. Her last performance was a small role in The Snoop Sisters (1972) for television.

Later life

Goddard was married to actor Burgess Meredith from 1944 to 1949. She suffered a miscarriage while married to him. In 1958 she married Erich Maria Remarque, author of, among other best-sellers, All Quiet on the Western Front. They remained married until his death in 1970, and she inherited much of his money and several important properties across Europe including a wealth of contemporary art, which augmented her own long-standing collection. During this period, her talent at accumulating wealth became a byword amongst the old Hollywood élite. During the 1980s she became a fairly well known (and highly visible) socialite in New York City society, appearing, covered with jewels, at many high-profile cultural functions with several well-known men including Andy Warhol, with whom she sustained an unlikely friendship for many years until his unexpected death in 1987.

Death

Goddard was treated for breast cancer, apparently successfully, but the surgery was very invasive and the doctor removed several ribs. She later settled in Ronco sopra Ascona, Switzerland, where she died after a short illness (reportedly emphysema) several months before her 80th birthday. She is buried in Ronco cemetery, next to Remarque and her mother.

Family

She had no children during her four marriages but she was stepmother to Charles Chaplin, Jr. and Sydney Chaplin, sons of Charlie Chaplin.

Legacy


Paulette Goddard in Second Chorus.
Goddard, in her youth, was forced to drop out of school to support herself and her mother, bequeathed US$ 20 million to New York University (NYU). This was also in recognition of her friendship with the Indiana-born politician and former NYU President John Brademas. Goddard Hall, an NYU freshman residence hall on Washington Square, is named in her honor.
Efforts to raise CHF 6.2M ($7M), to buy and save the villa of Erich Maria Remarque and Paulette Goddard from most certain demolition, are well underway. The intent is to transform the Casa Monte Tabor into a museum and home to an artist-in-residence program, focused on creativity, freedom and peace. 

Fictional portrayals

She was portrayed by Diane Lane in the 1992 film Chaplin. And she was portrayed by Natalie Wilder in the 2011 play "Puma," written by Julie Gilbert, who had also written the joint biography "Opposite Attraction: The Lives Of Erich Maria Remarque and Paulette Goddard."






Filmography
Title Year Role Notes
Film credits Berth Marks 1929 Train passenger Short subject
The Locked Door 1929 Girl on rum boat Uncredited
City Streets 1931 Dance extra Uncredited
The Girl Habit 1931 Lingerie salesgirl
Ladies of the Big House 1931 Inmate in midst of crowd Uncredited
The Mouthpiece 1932 Blonde at party Uncredited
Show Business 1932 Blonde train passenger Uncredited, short subject
Young Ironsides 1932 Herself, Miss Hollywood Uncredited, short subject
Pack Up Your Troubles 1932 Bridesmaid Uncredited
Girl Grief 1932 Student Uncredited, short subject
The Kid From Spain 1932 Goldwyn Girl Uncredited
Hollywood on Parade No. B-1 1933 Herself Short subject
The Bowery 1933 Blonde who announces Brodie's jump Uncredited
Hollywood on Parade No. B-5 1933 Herself Short subject
Roman Scandals 1933 Goldwyn Girl Uncredited
Kid Millions 1934 Goldwyn Girl Uncredited
Modern Times 1936 Ellen Peterson – A Gamine
The Bohemian Girl 1936 Gypsy vagabond Uncredited
The Young in Heart 1938 Leslie Saunders
Dramatic School 1938 Nana
The Women 1939 Miriam Aarons
The Cat and the Canary 1939 Joyce Norman
The Ghost Breakers 1940 Mary Carter
The Great Dictator 1940 Hannah
Screen Snapshots: Sports in Hollywood 1940 Herself Short subject
North West Mounted Police 1940 Louvette Corbeau Alternative titles: Northwest Mounted Police, The Scarlet Riders
Second Chorus 1940 Ellen Miller
Pot o' Gold 1941 Molly McCorkle Alternative titles: The Golden Hour, Jimmy Steps Out
Hold Back the Dawn 1941 Anita Dixon
Nothing But the Truth 1941 Gwen Saunders
The Lady Has Plans 1942 Sidney Royce
Reap the Wild Wind 1942 Loxi Claiborne Alternative title: Cecil B. DeMille's Reap the Wild Wind
The Forest Rangers 1942 Celia Huston Stuart
Star Spangled Rhythm 1942 Herself
The Crystal Ball 1943 Toni Gerard
So Proudly We Hail! 1943 Lt. Joan O'Doul Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Standing Room Only 1944 Jane Rogers/Suzanne
I Love a Soldier 1944 Evelyn Connors
Duffy's Tavern 1945 Herself
Kitty 1945 Kitty
The Diary of a Chambermaid 1946 Célestine Producer (Uncredited)
Suddenly, It's Spring 1947 Mary Morely
Variety Girl 1947 Herself
Unconquered 1947 Abigail "Abby" Martha Hale
An Ideal Husband 1947 Mrs. Laura Cheveley Alternative title: Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband
On Our Merry Way 1948 Martha Pease
Screen Snapshots: Smiles and Styles 1948 Herself Short subject
Hazard 1948 Ellen Crane
Bride of Vengeance 1949 Lucretia Borgia
Anna Lucasta 1949 Anna Lucasta
A Yank Comes Back 1949 Herself Uncredited, short subject
The Torch 1950 María Dolores Penafiel Associate producer, alternative title: Bandit General
Babes in Bagdad 1952 Kyra
Vice Squad 1953 Mona Ross Alternative title: The Girl in Room 17
Sins of Jezebel 1953 Jezebel
Paris Model 1953 Betty Barnes Alternative title: Nude at Midnight
Charge of the Lancers 1954 Tanya
A Stranger Came Home 1954 Angie Alternative title: The Unholy Four
Time of Indifference 1964 Mariagrazia Alternative titles: Les Deux Rivales, Gli Indifferenti
Title Year Role Notes
Television credits The Ed Sullivan Show 1952 Herself 2 episodes
Ford Theatre 1953 Nancy Whiting 1 episode
Sherlock Holmes 1954 Lady Beryl 1 episode
Producers' Showcase 1955 Sylvia Fowler 1 episode
The Martha Raye Show 1955 Herself 1 episode
The Errol Flynn Theatre 1957 Rachel 1 episode
On Trial 1957 Dolly 1 episode
Ford Theatre 1957 Holly March 1 episode
Adventures in Paradise 1959 Mme. Victorine Reynard 1 episode
What's My Line? 1959 Guest panelist 1 episode
The Phantom 1961 Mrs. Harris TV movie
The Snoop Sisters 1972 Norma Treet TV movie. alternative title: Female Instinct

Full Film,The Last Time I Saw Paris,1954 Starring Elizabeth Taylor

The Last Time I Saw Paris is a 1954 romantic drama made by MGM. It is loosely based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story "Babylon Revisited." It was directed by Richard Brooks, produced by Jack Cummings and filmed on locations in Paris and the MGM backlot. The screenplay was by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein and Richard Brooks.
The film starred Elizabeth Taylor and Van Johnson in his last role for MGM, with Walter Pidgeon, Donna Reed, Eva Gabor, Kurt Kasznar, George Dolenz, Sandy Descher and Roger Moore in his Hollywood debut. The film's title song, by composer Jerome Kern and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, was already a classic when the movie was made and inspired the movie's title. Though the song had already won an Oscar after its film debut in 1941's Lady Be Good, it is featured much more prominently in The Last Time I Saw Paris. It can be heard in many scenes, either being sung by Odette Myrtil or being played as an instrumental.


Plot

As World War II ends in Europe, Stars and Stripes journalist Charles Wills (Van Johnson) is on the streets of Paris, covering the celebrations. He is suddenly grabbed by a beautiful woman, who kisses him and disappears. Charles follows the crowd to Café Dhingo and meets another pretty woman named Marion Elliswirth (Donna Reed). The mutual attraction is instant and she invites him to join her father's celebration of the end of the war in Europe. Charles, Marion and her persistent French suitor Claude Matine (George Dolenz) arrive at the Elliswirth household, and we find that the woman who had kissed Charles is Marion's younger sister Helen (Elizabeth Taylor).
Their father, James Elliswirth (Walter Pidgeon), had survived World War I and promptly joined the Lost Generation. Unlike most drifters, he never grew out of it; raising his two daughters to desire such a lifestyle. Helen takes after her father and uses her beauty to sustain a life of luxury even though they are flat broke. Marion goes the other way and looks for serious-minded and conventional young men such as Claude, an aspiring prosecutor, and Charles, the future novelist.
Charles and Helen fall in love and start dating. After Helen recovers from a near-death case of pneumonia, they get married and settle in Paris. James good-naturedly joins the happy family of Charles, with Helen eventually having a daughter Vickie (Sandy Descher). Marion, having lost Charles to Helen, agrees to marry Claude. Charles struggles to make ends meet with his meagre salary, unsuccessfully works on his novels and looks after Vickie.
At about this time, the barren oil fields in Texas James had bought years before finally begin to produce. Charles, to whom James had given the oil fields as a dowry, quits his job, and Helen and James begin to host parties instead of going to them. Sudden wealth changes Helen, who becomes more responsible, while Charles parties his wealth away after quitting his newspaper job and having all his novels rejected by publishers. They also each start to pursue other interests: Helen flirts with handsome tennis player Paul Lane (Roger Moore), while Charles competes in a local Paris-to-Monte Carlo race with professional divorcee Lorraine Quarl (Eva Gabor).
After the race Charles returns to Paris, only to find Helen sitting in Café Dhingo with Paul. A fight breaks out between Paul and Charles, and an angry Charles goes home first and puts the chain on the door, preventing it from being opened all the way. When Helen comes home and tries to enter she can't. She calls out to him, but Charles is in a drunken stupor on the staircase and we hear the bottle drop from his hands as Helen calls. Helen ends up having to walk all the way to her sister's in the snow and rain. She catches pneumonia again and dies.
Marion petitions for and gets full custody of Vickie, while Charles returns home to America. A few years later, having straightened himself out, published a book, and stopped boozing, Charles returns to Paris, hoping his reform will persuade Marion to give Vickie back to him. Marion refuses, still feeling resentful towards Charles for having fallen for Helen instead of her. Seeing that Charles and Vickie belong together, Claude steps in and tells Marion that she is punishing Charles for his not realizing that Marion loved him. It is painful for him to tell her that he, Claude, could not have all of her love, but Charles should not be punished any more.
Marion goes into Café Dhingo (on whose main wall is a big picture of Helen) to look for Charles (who is gazing at the painting) and tells him that Helen would not have wanted him to be alone. Outside the cafe, Claude is with Vickie. The child runs to Charles and Charles and the child walk off together as the movie ends.

Friday, January 6, 2012

The Audrey Hepburn Story

The Audrey Hepburn Story is a 2000 television movie biography of actress and humanitarian Audrey Hepburn. Jennifer Love Hewitt, who also produced the film, starred as the actress although her casting drew criticism from some of Hepburn's fans and the media. A pre-stardom Emmy Rossum appears during early scenes of the film playing Hepburn in her early teens.


Plot

The film spans from her early childhood to the 1950's which details her life as a Dutch ballerina, coming to grips with her parents' divorce, and enduring life in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands during World War II. Audrey then settles in the U.S. where she succeeds in making it big as a movie actress, in such movies as Breakfast at Tiffany's.
The closing credits include footage of the real Audrey Hepburn during one of the UNICEF missions she undertook near the end of her life.

Broadcast

Several versions of the film were aired. On the American ABC Network, it aired as a three-hour movie, while in other countries a longer version was broadcast over two nights.


Dutch Diva Patricia Paay age 63 still Dazzling!

Patricia Anglaia Margareth Paaij (born April 7, 1949), best known as Patricia Paay, is a Dutch singer, radio host, glamour model and television personality. In the Netherlands, she is well known for her musical career, which spans over four decades. She is also regularly featured on Dutch television and in Dutch tabloid media.


New Years eve she did a striptease at a private party at 63 years old,she is still Dazzling!

Full Film,Female on the Beach 1955 Starring Joan Crawford

Female on the Beach (1955) is a Universal-International feature film starring Joan Crawford and Jeff Chandler in a story about a widow and her beach bum lover. The screenplay by Robert Hill and Richard Alan Simmons was based on the play The Besieged Heart by Robert Hill. The film was directed by Joseph Pevney and produced by Albert Zugsmith.


Plot and cast

Lynn Markham (Crawford) visits a beach house that once belonged to her dead husband. There, she meets real estate agent Amy Rawlinson (Jan Sterling) and Drummond "Drummy" Hall (Chandler), an attractive beach bum who wanders in and out of the house as though he owned it. Lynn learns the house was once rented to Eloise Crandall (Judith Evelyn), an older woman whose cause of death (suicide, accident, or murder) remains undetermined. Lynn later discovers "Drummy" is the accomplice of card sharps Osbert and Queenie Sorenson (Cecil Kellaway and Natalie Schafer), and that he heartlessly pursued Crandall in order to set her up for card games with the Sorensons. Lynn's physical attraction to Drummy is overpowering and she marries him. Events on their honeymoon lead Lynn to believe he murdered Eloise. It transpires however that Amy Rawlinson killed Crandall because she wanted Drummy for herself. Others in the cast include Charles Drake as Police Lieutenant Galley, Stuart Randall as Frankovitch, Marjorie Bennett as Mrs. Murchison, and Romo Vincent as Pete Gomez.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Debbie Reynolds
































Debbie Reynolds (born April 1, 1932) is an American actress, singer, and dancer.
She was initially signed at age 16 by Warner Bros., but her career got off to a slow start. When her contract was not renewed, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) gave her a small but significant part in the film Three Little Words (1950), then signed her to a seven-year contract. In her next film, Two Weeks with Love (1950), she had a hit with the song "Aba Daba Honeymoon". However, it was her first leading role, in Singin' in the Rain (1952), that set her on the path to fame. By the mid 1950s, she was a major star. Other notable successes include Tammy and the Bachelor (1957), in which her rendition of the song "Tammy" reached number one on the music charts; and The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964), for which she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She continues to perform successfully on stage, television and film to the present day.
Her personal life has not gone as well. Her first marriage, to popular singer Eddie Fisher, produced a son and a daughter, actress/author Carrie Fisher, but ended in divorce in 1959 when Fisher and her former (and later) friend Elizabeth Taylor fell in love. Her second and third marriages also ended disastrously, each time ruining her financially.
She is a noted collector of film memorabilia, beginning with the landmark 1972 MGM auction. In June 2011, unable to find a suitable home for her large collection, she began auctioning it off.


Early life

She was born Mary Frances Reynolds in El Paso, Texas, the second child of Maxine N. (née Harmon; 1913–1999) and Raymond Francis Reynolds (1903–1986), who was a carpenter for the Southern Pacific Railroad. Her parents were of Irish ancestry. Reynolds was a Girl Scout and a troop leader (a scholarship in her name is offered to high-school age Girl Scouts). Her family moved to Burbank, California, in 1939, and she was raised in a strict Nazarene faith. At age 16, while a student at Burbank's John Burroughs High School, Reynolds won the Miss Burbank Beauty Contest, a contract with Warner Bros., and acquired a new first name.

Career

(From left) Barbara Ruick, Bob Fosse, Reynolds and Bobby Van in The Affairs of Dobie Gillis (1953).
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) as a duet with Carleton Carpenter was a top-three hit in 1951. Her most high-profile film role was in Singin' in the Rain (1952) as Kathy Selden. In Bundle of Joy (1956) she appeared with her then-husband, Eddie Fisher.
Her recording of the song "Tammy" (from her film Tammy and the Bachelor (1957)) earned her a gold record, and was the best-selling single by a female vocalist in 1957. It was number one for five weeks on the Billboard pop charts. In the movie (the first of the Tammy film series), she co-starred with Leslie Nielsen.
In 1959, Reynolds recorded her first album for Dot Records, simply called Debbie, which included her own selection of twelve standards including "S’posin'", "Moonglow," "Mean To Me" and "Time After Time." Bing Crosby paid tribute to Reynolds in the sleeve notes accompanying the album thus:
Someone recently said, and with reasonable accuracy I would think, that good singers make good actors. Evidence in support of this belief is available in the recent performances of Sinatra and Martin, for instance, but I would like to put forth also the proposition that the reverse is quite true: good actors make good singers. Assuming they can carry a tune. We all know that Debbie is better than a good actress — she’s VERY good, and we all know she can sing with a lilt and a listenable quality that’s genuinely pleasant and agreeable. Witness “Tammy”. It was small surprise to me then that when I listened to this beautiful album she has etched for Dot, I found myself captivated and enchanted. Quite obviously Debbie had spent a great deal of time selecting the songs to be included, because she’s made them her own, and invested them with a sincerity that’s inescapable — of contrasting moods to be sure, but the moods are there, and to me, mighty effective. And that, mes amis, is artistry.
Reynolds also scored two other top-25 Billboard hits with "A Very Special Love" (1958) and "Am I That Easy to Forget" (1960) — a pop-music version of a country-music hit made famous by both songwriters Carl Belew (in 1959), Skeeter Davis (in 1960), and several years later by singer Engelbert Humperdinck. She has released several albums of both her vintage performances and her later recordings.
Marquee listing Reynolds's world premiere at the Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas, December 1962
During these years, she also headlined in major Las Vegas showrooms.
Her starring role in The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964) led to a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She then portrayed Jeanine Deckers in The Singing Nun (1966).
In what Reynolds has 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 eponymous television series; NBC cancelled the show.
Reynolds continues to make appearances in film and television. She played Helen Chappel Hackett's mother, Deedee Chappel, on an episode of "Wings" entitled, "If It's Not One Thing, It's Your Mother," which originally aired on November 22, 1994. From 1999 to its 2006 series finale, she played Grace Adler's ditzy mother, Bobbi Adler, on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace (1998–2006), which earned her an Emmy Awardnomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series in 2000. She also plays 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.
Reynolds appeared in her West End show Debbie Reynolds: Alive and Fabulous. In June 2010, her publicist Edward Lozzi secured her a role as a regular columnist for the weekly paper Globe, replacing Ivana Trump in answering reader queries.

Awards and nominations

Reynolds won the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Catered Affair (1956).
She has received various nominations for awards including: an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964), a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy for The Debbie Reynolds Show (1970), a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Mother (1996) and an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, for her role of Bobbi Adler in the sitcom Will & Grace (2000). In 1996 and 1997, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Comedy, in the American Comedy Awards.
Her foot and hand prints are preserved at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California. She also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6654 Hollywood Boulevard.
In November 2006, Reynolds received the "Lifetime Achievement 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, (Reno, Nevada) where she had contributed for many years to the film-studies program. In her acceptance speech, she referred to the University as "Nevahda...Arizona".

Film memorabilia

Reynolds has amassed a large collection of movie memorabilia, beginning with the landmark 1970 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer auction, and 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 Theater in Los Angeles. On several occasions, she has auctioned off items from the collection.
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 itself filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2009.
Todd Fisher, Reynolds' son, announced that his mother was "heartbroken" to have to auction off her collection. It was valued at $10.79 million in the bankruptcy filing. The Vancouver Sun reported that Profiles in History has been given the responsibility of conducting a series of auctions beginning in June and continuing into December 2011. Among the "more than 3500 costumes, 20,000 photographs, and thousands of movie posters, costume sketches, and props" to be sold are 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).
On June 18, 2011, the subway dress was sold for $4.6 million dollars, far in excess of pre-auction estimates of $1-2 million. Another Monroe dress, which she wore in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, fetched $1.2 million, four times the upper pre-sale expectation.

Personal life

Reynolds has been married three times.
She and Eddie Fisher were married in 1955. They are the parents of Carrie Fisher and Todd Fisher. A public scandal ensued when Fisher and Elizabeth Taylor fell in love following the death of Taylor's then-husband Mike Todd, and Reynolds and Fisher were divorced in 1959. In 2011, first on the Oprah show only weeks before Elizabeth Taylor's death from congestive heart failure, Reynolds explained that she and Taylor happened to be traveling on the ocean liner "Queen Elizabeth" at the same time when they made up. Debbie sent a note to Taylor's room, and Taylor sent a note in reply asking to have dinner with Debbie and end their feud. The two reconciled, and, as Debbie put it, "...we had a wonderful evening with a lot of laughs". Reynolds said of Taylor in an interview with Popeater that "[Elizabeth] went through her younger years of just obtaining what she wanted, and later in life she became a little more aware of other people's feelings" and also said of her legendary friend, "Elizabeth worked really hard all of her life and she raised her children really well. She worked really hard for HIV; I've worked hard for mental health. We both feel we've done our job and our commitment to the community" and "I'm very sorry for Elizabeth's passing. She was the most glamorous star of our generation, and women liked her and men adored her, including my husband [Fisher]. She was a symbol of stardom and her legacy will go on forever".
Her second marriage, to millionaire businessman Harry Karl, lasted from 1960 to 1973. He was previously married to Marie McDonald. At its end, she found herself in financial difficulty because of Karl's gambling and bad investments.
Reynolds was married to real estate developer Richard Hamlett from 1984 to 1996. They purchased Greek Isles Hotel & Casino, a small hotel and casino in Las Vegas, but it was not a success. In 1997, Reynolds was forced to declare bankruptcy.
Reynolds has been active in the Thalians Club, a charitable organization.
She resides in Beverly Hills next door to her daughter Carrie.
Her maternal grandmother Joan Harmon (September 5, 1883 – October 31, 1932) was an actress who worked on Broadway from 1929 until late 1930.
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.







Filmography

Features:

June Bride (1948)
The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady (1950)
Three Little Words (1950)
Two Weeks with Love (1950)
Mr. Imperium (1951)
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Skirts Ahoy! (1952)
I Love Melvin (1953)
The Affairs of Dobie Gillis (1953)
Give a Girl a Break (1954)
Susan Slept Here (1954)
Athena (1954)
Hit the Deck (1955)
The Tender Trap (1955)
Meet Me in Las Vegas (1956)
The Catered Affair (1956)
Bundle of Joy (1956)
Tammy and the Bachelor (1957)
This Happy Feeling (1958)
The Mating Game (1959)
Say One for Me (1959)
It Started with a Kiss (1959)
The Gazebo (1959)
The Rat Race (1960)
Pepe (1960)
The Pleasure of His Company (1961)
The Second Time Around (1961)
How the West Was Won (1962)
Mary, Mary (1963)
My Six Loves (1963)
The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964)
Goodbye Charlie (1964)
The Singing Nun (1966)
Divorce American Style (1967)
How Sweet It Is! (1968)
What's the Matter with Helen? (1971)
Charlotte's Web (1973) (voice)
Busby Berkeley (1974) (documentary)
That's Entertainment! (1974)
Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) (voice in 1998 English dub)
The Bodyguard (1992)(cameo as herself)
Jack L. Warner: The Last Mogul (1993) (documentary)
Heaven & Earth (1993)
That's Entertainment! III (1994)
Mother (1996)
Wedding Bell Blues (1996)
In & Out (1997)
Halloweentown (1998)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
Zack and Reba (1998)
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie (1998) (voice)
Keepers of the Frame (1999) (documentary)
Rugrats in Paris: The Movie (2000) (voice)
Halloweentown II: Kalabar's Revenge (2001)
Cinerama Adventure (2002) (documentary)
Connie and Carla (2004)
Halloweentown High (2004)
Return to Halloweentown (2006)
Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project (2007) (documentary)
The Jill & Tony Curtis Story (2008) (documentary)
Blaze of Glory (2008) (voice)
The Brothers Warner (2008) (documentary)
Fay Wray: A Life (2008) (documentary)
Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age (2009) (documentary)
One for the Money (2011) (Grandma Mazur)

Short subjects:

A Visit with Debbie Reynolds (1959)
The Story of a Dress (1964)

Television work

Jukebox Jury (1953)
The Eddie Fisher Show (recurring guest star from 1957–1959)
A Date with Debbie (1960)
Go!!! (1967)
...And Debbie Makes Six (1968)
The Debbie Reynolds Show (1969–1970)
Debbie Reynolds and the Sound of Children (1969)
Leapin' Lizards It's Liberace (1978)
Aloha Paradise (1981) (canceled after seven episodes)
Win, Lose or Draw (1987)
Sadie and Son (1987)
Perry Mason: The Case of the Musical Murder (1989)
The Golden Girls (1990) (guest star, There Goes The Bride pt. 1 & 2 as Truby)
Movie Memories with Debbie Reynolds (1991–1992)
Battling for Baby (1992)
Wings (1994)
Roseanne (1997)..."Arsenic and Old Mom" as Audrey Conner
Halloweentown (1998)
The Christmas Wish (1998)



Will & Grace (recurring cast member from 1999–2006)
A Gift of Love: The Daniel Huffman Story (1999)
Rugrats (2000-2004) (voice)
Virtual Mom (2000)
These Old Broads (2001)
Halloweentown II: Kalabar's Revenge (2001)
Generation Gap (2002) (unsold pilot)
Tracey Ullman in the Trailer Tales (2003)
Kim Possible (recurring cast member from 2003–2007) (voice)
Pryor Offenses (2004)
Halloweentown High (2004)
Lolo's Cafe (2006) (voice)
Return to Halloweentown (2006)
Secret Talents of the Stars (2008) (canceled after one episode)
RuPaul's Drag Race (2010) Guest Judge
The Penguins of Madagascar (2010) (Lost Treasure of the Golden Squirrel) (voice)
So You Think You Can Dance (2011) Guest Judge
Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil (2011) (season 2)

Albums Recorded: Chrissy the Christmas Mouse with Donald O'Connor