|  Debbie
Reynolds doesn’t mind being called a living legend.
It’s more than just the fact that she gets picked up
in a car these days because, as she jokes, everyone knows
that she can’t ride the bike anymore.
Actually,
it’s the word “living” in that description
that’s key. “I’m proud to be old,”
quips the 76-year-old star, who will be appearing at the South
Point on New Year’s Eve. “Otherwise I’d
be dead. There are no compromises.”
It’s
easy to see that 60 years after entering show business, Reynolds
is still singing in the rain, so to speak. Cars and bikes
aside, it’s been quite a trip, though she undoubtedly
has gone through some pretty deep puddles in her personal
life. But like her Oscar-nominated role as “The Unsinkable
Molly Brown,” Reynolds has refused to let her problems
pull her under. She knows the meaning of letting a smile be
her umbrella, but, oh, those spokes.
“I’ve
had some pretty hard lessons in life with men,” says
the thrice-married, thrice-divorced entertainer/actress. “I’ve
made very poor choices. I’ve had a great life and a
wonderful ride and a happy life in my work. But my personal
life has indeed taken a great toll on me emotionally and in
my belief in love. My position is that it is a mistake to
be in business money-wise with the man you love. And it’s
especially difficult if the man you love doesn’t love
you and he’s really in business to get your business.
Unfortunately, when you’re a successful woman in show
business, men come after you with another goal in mind. They’re
attracted to your glamour and your exciting life, not necessarily
you. They marry you for reasons other than love”
 “Being
an Aries, I step out in life,” she continues. “I
believe that in order to live life that you have to do just
that. If you stay home all day, you’ll live a wonderful
secluded, quiet, safe, secure existence. But isit as much
fun as mine? No.”
Debbie
Reynolds was born Mary Frances Reynolds in El Paso, Texas,
on April 1, 1932. She moved to Burbank with her family in
1940 and when she was 16 years old, she won the title of “Miss
Burbank of 1948.” Warner Brothers immediately put her
under contract. It was Jack Warner who changed her name to
“Debbie.”
She made
her movie debut in “The Daughter of Rosie O’Grady”
and after giving her two other small movie roles, Warner Brothers
dropped her. MGM picked her up and she began to rise to the
top. Reynolds achieved stardom in the 1952 classic MGM musical
“Singing In the Rain,” starring Gene Kelly and
Donald O’Connor. She went on to star in hit movies such
as “The Tender Trap,” “How The West Was
Won,” “Divorce American Style” and “The
Unsinkable Molly Brown.” She earned the nicknames of
“America’s Sweetheart” and “Million
Dollar Baby.”
In 1955,
Reynolds married Eddie Fisher and gave birth to Carrie Frances
Fisher (of “Star Wars” fame – “I gave
birth to Princess Leia,” Reynolds quips.) in 1956. She
also gave birth to Todd Fisher in 1958. She and Eddie divorced
in 1959 amid a flurry of press and their own version of star
wars when Fisher admitted that he had left Debbie for actress
Elizabeth Taylor. While Reynolds maintains that she and Liz
have been friends since Taylor’s marriage to Richard
Burton, several years ago Fisher wrote a book in which he
severely denigrated his marriage to Reynolds.
“I
know only that my first marriage was a young love, a virginal
love and an innocent love on my side,” Reynolds notes.
“Whatever Eddie’s bad memory is, it’s not
true In my view, it was the one love. My second marriage,
to Harry Karl, and my third marriage, to Richard Hamlet, were
disasters and cost me about $60 million. I think I’ve
paid the price.”
“I
don’t think Eddie was very dignified but I didn’t
feel much about the book because I thought that it was all
one big fantasy in his mind,” she adds, quipping, “However,
Todd was going to change his last name to Reynolds and Carrie
was going to change her first name to Amy.”
For Reynolds,
it is show business that is still her main reality. She says
that she doesn’t get older, she just gets aged. In terms
of performing, she cites the fact that her heart is the same,
her energy is the same, her show is the same and her entire
demeanor is the same. She feels that the only thing that changes
a person is illness because then the body changes.
“If
your energy and your physical condition is good and if you
love your work, you can go on forever until the good Lord
takes you out,” Reynolds muses.
Though
she has been a dancer all of her life, Reynolds has been battling
her own physical ailment. She discovered during a routine
test about nine years ago that she has advanced osteoporosis
and, since then, has become a spokesperson on the topic. The
entertainer takes calcium and continues to perform, having
learned how to take care of herself and live with the condition.
Reynolds
has also been back in the movie arena over the last decade.
She did a successful film for Disney called “Halloweentown,”
which produced a sequel. She also made a TV movie called “A
Christmas Wish” and appeared in one called “The
Gift of Love,” based on a true story. Reynolds also
had a recurring role on the TV sitcom, “Will and Grace”
in which she played Grace’s mother, Sonny.
While
Reynolds says that acting is acting, she notes that the difference
between the art when she first started and today is that now
it’s a very natural and realistic kind of performance
in which the actor underplays and goes for the character.
Reynolds, who studied acting for 28 years, remembers the “better”
days when the studios put actors under contract and nurtured,
groomed, trained and paid them. She says that her favorite
leading men included Glenn Ford, Dick Van Dyke, Jason Robards
and Jimmy Stewart. She also really liked Frank Sinatra because
he was very hip and sophisticated. And because he was not
after her as a woman, but was more like a big brother to her,
he was also very gentle.
That brings
us back to the subject of marriage, something else Reynolds
has no desire to try again. “I’ve always been
independent but now I’m totally independent without
a man by my side,” she maintains. “I feel that
it’s my destiny so I just have to go with it. My mother
and father were married for 56 years and that is a better
way – there’s nothing that would make me happier
than having a partner in life. But I don’t see that
that will be my life. My life is not a young life anymore
and I’m not going to waste another minute on relationships.
And I am happy without them because it’s less terrifying.
The other way is very painful, frightening and bewildering.”
“It
gets out of your hands and life becomes unhappy,” she
continues. “Why should I have one more unhappy day?
I don’t deserve it and I don’t want to have it.
There’s nothing wrong with having a singular life but
I don’t have one – I have my two children, I have
my granddaughter, I have a terrific brother, I have many terrific
friends and I have a wonderful career. I don’t know
who could ask for more. Marriage is simply not one of my talents
so I don’t see that I’ll step on that avenue again.”
Describing
herself as a religious woman who believes in a higher power
and that she is looked after in that manner, Reynolds says
that she is not insecure and doesn’t need to be. She
feels that a lot of people subscribe to her philosophy which
is to believe in yourself, work very hard, give joy to others
if you can and be true to yourself, your family and to God.
Is there
anything else that the indomitable Debbie Reynolds wants in
her life?
“I
would like to have peace in my life,” she answers. “When
that happens, I’ll be completely happy.”
And like
Molly Brown, until that day, she’s “never gonna
give up.”
ADDITIONAL
ARTICLES
BY
BOBBIE KATZ
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