If there is a more Hollywood ending than the death of Debbie Reynolds less than 30 hours after the loss of her daughter (and close friend) Carrie Fisher, I sure haven’t seen it. The past two days serve as even more proof that real life is always stranger than fiction. If such a thing happened in a movie, we would almost certainly write it off as manipulative melodrama.
Debbie, who was born in 1932, was 84. Carrie, born 1956, was just 60. Both enjoyed enormous success in the business of show, but of a different kind — the kind that reflected the eras in which they lived.
No one wants to admit this today, but the old, stodgy Hollywood run almost exclusively by conservatives, was much better for women. Unlike today, the long-dead studio system was deeply invested in attracting female customers, and doing so through movies starring women. This is why Katharine Hepburn, Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, Ginger Rogers, Marlene Dietrich, Audrey Hepburn, Irene Dunne, Deborah Kerr, and a host of others were, during their time, every bit as famous and powerful as Cary Grant and John Wayne.
This is the Hollywood Debbie was born into.
With the end of Old Hollywood (circa 1960 – 1965), came an end to female-driven films. “New Hollywood,” as it was called, certainly had its benefits, but one of the drawbacks still plaguing the industry is the sidelining of women. Oh, sure, there’s always a Barbra or Meryl or Julia or Sandra, but they usually stand alone. Although we are told Hollywood is much more progressive and liberal today, even with female studio and production bosses, it is now mostly a man’s world up on that screen.
This is the Hollywood Carrie was born into.
As a result, while both women had equally successful careers, those careers were very different.
Debbie Reynolds was a capital “S” star, an actress who carried or helped carry movies, and did so for decades. At age seventeen(!), she stole (you can watch it happen here) “Three Little Words” from no less than Red Skelton, Fred Astaire and Vera-Ellen. Not long after, and with little to no dancing experience, she was cast opposite Gene Kelly in what would go on to become one of the greatest movies ever made, “Singin’ In the Rain” (1952).
At the time, Kelly was a 40-year-old, Oscar-nominated superstar at the very peak of his creative powers. He was also co-directing with Stanley Donen and resented having a no-name starlet foisted on him by the studio. The legend tells us that Kelly would have nothing to do with poor Debbie. It was Fred Astaire who found Reynolds crying under a piano and took the time to teach her to dance. After spending hours capturing the scene below on film, Reynolds and her bleeding feet had forever earned the notoriously prickly Kelly’s respect.
Imagine being Debbie Reynolds in that scene, imagine you are just 19 and your entire career hinges on holding your own with Donald O’Connor on your right and Kelly on your left. Well, Reynolds not only held her own, she’s the one you can’t take your eyes off of.
That was the beginning of a screen and stage career that would exceed 60 years. Reynolds would star or co-star in countless films, among them “Susan Slept Here” (1954) with Dick Powell, “The Tender Trap” (1955) with Frank Sinatra, “Tammy and the Bachelor” (1957), “The Mating Game” (1959), “The Rat Race” (1960) with Tony Curtis, “How the West Was Won” (1963), “Divorce American Style” (1967), and “Mother”(1996) with Albert Brooks.
Reynolds earned her only Oscar nomination for “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” (1956). In between film work (and a short but successful recording career), and until just a few years ago, Reynolds practically lived on the stage.
Carrie was the product of the four- year storybook marriage between Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher. America’s sweetheart married the boy next door, and America was charmed… until about 1957 when Fisher dumped America’s sweetheart and one-year-old Carrie for screen siren (and Debbie’s best friend) Elizabeth Taylor. Some 60 years later this is still one of the most notorious scandals in all of Hollywood. But I digress.
Carrie’s screen debut occurred in one of the most New Hollywood of all New Hollywood productions, Warren Beatty’s masterpiece “Shampoo” (1975). Her next film would forever seal her fate as a timeless icon, Princess Leia in “Star Wars” (1977).
Fisher was absolutely perfect for the role, and over the six-year life of the trilogy, we saw her blossom into a capable, independent, beautiful woman and outright sex symbol.
Although she secured roles in memorable films such as “The Blues Brothers” (1980), the underrated charmer “Garbo Talks” (1984), “When Harry Met Sally” (1989) and “The ‘burbs” (1989), on screen, Carrie was not destined to be the star her mother was. Her true genius was as a writer. As early as 1983, she was polishing dialogue on “Return of the Jedi,” (note: the “Empire Strikes Back” page circulating on the Internet that claims to show her dialogue changes is a hoax), and this began a lucrative career as a memoirist, novelist, and script doctor.
Unfortunately, although they are hugely important and insanely well paid, script doctors do not earn screen credit. Fisher’s list of writing credits might be short, but she forever left her mark on a number of popular films from the 90’s, including “Sister Act,” “Outbreak,” and “The River Wild.”
If you’re looking for insight into Debbie and Carrie’s relationship, I highly recommend “Postcards From the Edge” (1990). Based on her own memoir (Fisher wrote the screenplay with Mike Nichols directing), “Postcards” stars Shirley MacLaine and Meryl Streep as Debbie and Carrie, respectively. With some fact mixed with fiction, the result is highly entertaining, ultimately moving, and always insightful. There is no question, though, that the real star is Fisher’s incredible writing.
If you are wondering just how small of a world Hollywood is, way back in 1956, MacLaine was first cast in “The Unsinkable Molly Brown,” which, after she dropped out, went to Debbie, and with it her only Oscar nomination. After MacLaine played Debbie in “Postcards,” the two of them co-starred in 2001’s “These Old Broads,” which also starred … Elizabeth Taylor. (After five years of marriage, Taylor ended up dumping Fisher for Richard Burton, and the two women eventually resumed their friendship.)
Yes, both Debbie and Carrie had legendary personal lives filled with scandal, addiction, lovers… The usual-usual. I’m not terribly interested in all that. Anyone can live a dramatic life. What made this mother-daughter duo so uniquely special was their perseverance and talent.
In the end, that is all that matters.
For in the end, that is what makes you an Immortal.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC