Debbie Reynolds

American actress, dancer, stage entertainer and durable star. As a young actress she had the adorable image of the all-American girl-next-door. She entered films in 1948 after winning the Miss Burbank beauty contest and played bouncy, wholesome parts through the '50s and '60s. In the early '70s as her film career ebbed, she starred on Broadway in a hit revival of "Irene," then in an extravagant revue, "The Debbie Reynolds Show." On 26 September 1955 she married singer Eddie Fisher for four years until he left her with two babies for Liz Taylor, eliciting a wave of sympathy from the public. In 1960 she married 20-year-older wealthy shoe baron Harry Karl. A decade later his business failed and she became responsible for some $2 million of his debts. They divorced in 1975. In 1984 she married real estate developer Richard Hamlett who encouraged her to buy a run-down Las Vegas property for $3 million. She turned it into the Debbie Reynolds Hollywood Hotel Casino, putting about $5 million into the renovation. The club opened in August 1993 to the tune of continual business and money woes. With no head for business, Reynolds hired her son Todd as the CEO in June 1995 to clear up employee problems and upgrade the restaurant and service. Gracious and well-liked, Reynolds is a hard worker and puts on a great entertainment act. In 1996 she returned to film with a movie hit, "Mother." Early 1997, she and her ex-husband, Hamlett are being sued for fraud and misrepresentation by Maxim Financial Corp, a Colorado investment company, who claim that only $50,000 has been paid on a $800,000 loan made in 1993. By mid-'97, with her Las Vegas hotel more than $7 million in debt, she filed bankruptcy Chapter 11. A deal fell through in May to sell her 193-room hotel for $16.5 million. She swears that she'll pull through, as she had before, a survivor in tough times. Perseverance aside, her property went on the auction block in August 1998 and was sold to the World Wrestling Federation for $9 million. Because the bid falls short of the $11.5 million that Reynolds owed, she is liable for the shortfall plus facing personal debts up to $100 million, according to her bankruptcy filing. Money has been a difficult issue often in her life. Her second husband, Harry Karl, squandered her fortune on gambling and bad business investments and Richard Hamlett, whom she divorced in 1996, had encouraged her investment in the Paddlewheel Hotel. Her collection of Hollywood memorabilia was donated to a non-profit agency. Instead of facing a comfortable retirement, Reynolds, who has made three movies in 1998 and works weekends performing in clubs, faces having to start over again at 66. On December 28, 2016, one day after her daughter Carrie Fisher's death, Debbie was rushed to a hospital shortly after 1 PM when someone at the Beverly Hills home of her son, Todd, called 911 to report a possible stroke. Debbie and Todd were making funeral plans for Fisher. Reynolds died that day at 5:39pm of "intracerebral hemorrhage" (stroke), at the age of 84. Link to Wikipedia biography