Debbie Reynolds - actor, singer, dancer, author, champion for the preservation of the artifacts of film history and for the understanding and treatment of mental illness - has been named the 51st recipient of SAG-AFTRA's highest honor: the SAG Life Achievement Award for career achievement and humanitarian accomplishment. Given annually to an actor who fosters the "finest ideals of the acting profession," the union's highest accolade will be presented to the Oscar®, Emmy® and Tony®-nominated Reynolds at the 21st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®, which will be simulcast live on TNT and TBS on Sunday, Jan. 25, 2015 at 8 p.m. (ET), 7 p.m. (CT), 6 p.m. (MT) and 5 p.m. (PT).
SAG-AFTRA President Ken Howard praised Reynolds' artistry over her very accomplished career, saying, "I'm thrilled that SAG-AFTRA is presenting our Life Achievement Award to Debbie Reynolds. She is a tremendously talented performer with a diverse body of screen and stage work, live performances and several hit records. Her generous spirit and unforgettable performances have entertained audiences across the globe, moving us all from laughter to tears and back again. Congratulations, Debbie, on your life achievements."
Star of more than 50 motion pictures, two Broadway shows, two television series, as well as dozens of television, cabaret and concert appearances here and abroad, the 82-year-old Reynolds is celebrating her 66th year in show business. Born Mary Frances Reynolds on April 1, 1932, in El Paso, Texas, she moved with her railroad worker father, mother and brother to Burbank, California, in 1939 and as a young teen performed with the Burbank Youth Symphony and in
High School plays. At 16, she entered the Miss Burbank contest in hopes of receiving a free blouse and scarf, and not only won the title, but was seen by talent scouts from Warner Brothers and MGM, who flipped a coin to decide which studio would offer her a screen test. Warner won the toss. Mary Frances gained a studio contract and, courtesy of Jack Warner himself, a new first name.
After an uncredited bit part in June Bride, Reynolds made her official screen debut as June Haver's younger sister in the 1950 musical The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady. Soon, a successful audition at MGM for the role of "Boop-Boop-A-Doop" girl Helen Kane in the bio-pic Three Little Words, led to a contract for Reynolds at the studio renowned for its glorious movie musicals and earned her the first of five Golden Globe® nominations. Her subsequent performance in a Busby Berkeley musical Two Weeks with Love, which featured Reynolds and Carleton Carpenter's million-selling rendition of the 1914 ditty Aba Daba Honeymoon, convinced the legendary Louis B. Mayer to choose her to play ingénue Kathy Selden in what become one of greatest screen musicals of all time, Singin' in the Rain, opposite star and co-director Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor.
Over the next 10 years, Reynolds made more than 25 films, including The Unsinkable Molly Brown, for which she was nominated an Oscar for her title role performance; the Cinerama epic How the West Was Won, which garnered three Oscars and five nominations;
Tammy and the Bachelor, which included the Oscar-nominated title song Tammy, a No. 1 smash hit that earned Reynolds a gold record, The Tender Trap, opposite Frank Sinatra; The Pleasure of His Company, in which she danced with Fred Astaire; the title role the film version of the Broadway hit Mary, Mary; Goodbye Charlie, opposite Tony Curtis and Walter Matthau; Divorce American Style, opposite Dick Van Dyke and Jason Robards; and How Sweet It Is, opposite James Garner.
Reynolds' first non-musical dramatic role was as a bride-to-be 1956's The Catered Affair, starring with Bette Davis, Ernest Borgnine, Barry Fitzgerald and Rod Taylor. Her performance earned Reynolds a Best Supporting Actress Award from the National Board of Review. Reynolds was to show her dramatic chops again some 40 years later as the difficult title character in Albert Brooks' Mother, for which she was lauded with a Golden Satellite Award, a Golden Globe nomination and an Online Film & Television Award nomination. Maternal roles became more commonplace for Reynolds since the '90s. In 1997, she starred as Kevin Kline's mother in Frank Oz's In & Out, earned a 2000 Primetime Emmy Outstanding Guest Actress nomination for her recurring role as Debra Messing's mother in the hit comedy series Will & Grace, played Katherine Heigl's grandmother in 2012's
One For the Money and, in 2013, portrayed Liberace's mother Frances (the Liberace family were longtime friends of Reynolds) in the award-winning HBO telefilm Behind the Candelabra.
Reynolds was no stranger to television. She received a 1970 Golden Globe nomination for her work in the eponymous NBC series The Debbie Reynolds Show and headlined ABC's Aloha Paradise in 1981. She has guest starred in numerous series and variety programs and was one of a quartet of iconic actresses, including Elizabeth Taylor, Shirley MacLaine and Joan Collins, who starred in the 2001 ABC telefilm These Old Broads, co-written by Reynolds' daughter, actress and author Carrie Fisher.
Reynolds is also no stranger to live performances. She debuted her first nightclub act at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas in 1960, and over the years it has evolved to include songs and clips from her most popular films, as well as tributes to Katharine Hepburn, Bette, Davis, Jimmy Stewart, Mae West, Marlene Dietrich, Jimmy Stewart, Barbra Streisand and Judy Garland. Over the next half-century, she has been a headliner on the casino circuit from Reno to Tahoe to Vegas to Atlantic City to the famed London Palladium, performed in concert in every major American city, touring often on the average of 44 weeks a year. She headlined her own showroom, the Star Theatre, at the Debbie Reynolds Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, which she owned and operated from 1993 to 1998.
In 1973, she took a break from her nightclub appearances to star in the Broadway revival of Irene, at the new Minskoff Theatre. Reynolds became the first person to be nominated for a Tony Award before the show officially opened and Irene went on to break all previous records for a Broadway musical. After a successful national tour, Reynolds returned to the musical stage with another hit revival, Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun, which like Irene, was directed by Gower Champion. Reynolds and Champion had previously starred for Reynolds' Singin' in the Rain director Stanley Donen in MGM's 1953 musical Give a Girl a Break, along with Champion's wife Marge and Bob Fosse, who like Champion became a legendary Broadway choreographer.
In 1993, she returned to Broadway to star in the hit musical Woman of the Year and, in 1989, toured the country in a revival of The Unsinkable Molly Brown.
Animation fans know Reynolds as the voice of the beloved title character in the 1973 animated feature Charlotte's Web, as Madame in the English version of Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service or as Lulu Pickles in several of the Rugrats movies.
Younger audiences may also identify Reynolds with the series of four
Disney Channel films Halloweentown, which debuted between 1998 and 2006, or may have seen her Daytime Emmy-nominated performance in 2000 in Showtime's A Gift of Love: The Daniel Huffman Story, playing the grandmother whose football-star grandson gave up his promise of a career and his kidney to save her life.
In 1955, Reynolds, along with Jack Haley Jr., Hugh O'Brien and other young stars, founded a charity to fight the stigma of mental illness, calling themselves The Thalians, after the goddess of comedy, Thalia. Over nearly 60 years, The Thalians have raised over $30 million, endowing The Thalians' Mental Health Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. With that center's priorities shifting to other illnesses, The Thalians has shifted its support to UCLA's Operation Mend, which provides medical and mental health support to returning wounded military personnel. Reynolds was elected The Thalians' president in 1957, and for many years alternated between that role and chair of the board with Ruta Lee, and currently serves as the organization's president emeritus. Reynolds has also been a lifelong supporter and fundraiser for the Girl Scouts.
Reynolds other abiding
Passion has been
The Collection and preservation of memorabilia from Hollywood's first half-century of filmmaking. Beginning with the landmark 1970 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer auction, she amassed thousands of costumes, props and mementos of Hollywood's studios and their greatest stars, building the largest individual collection of Hollywood memorabilia, including Marilyn Monroe's white dress from The Seven Year Itch, Judy Garland's ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz, Elizabeth Taylor's headdress and Richard Burton's costume from Cleopatra, and Audrey Hepburn's Ascot gown from My Fair Lady. While
The Collection was showcased at Reynolds' Las Vegas hotel in the 1990's, sadly, after numerous attempts over 50 years to establish a Hollywood Motion Picture and Television Museum to give
The Collection a permanent home, Reynolds sold the memorabilia to private collectors at a series of auctions in between 2011 and 2014.
In 1979, anticipating a retirement from performing that has yet to materialize, Reynolds established the Debbie Reynolds Studio in North Hollywood to provide a comfortable space for dancers to rehearse and attend professional classes, with then-unheard-of amenities such as free parking, a coffee lounge, dressing rooms, showers and spacious rehearsal rooms with pianos. Among the artists who have graced its facilities are Lucille Ball, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Bette Midler, Cher, Usher, Mariah Carey and Johnny Depp.
Over her more than six decades in show business, Reynolds has received numerous accolades for her performing and charitable endeavors. Among them, the Costume Designers Guild honored her with its Presidents Award in 2005 for her collection and conservation of classic Hollywood costumes She has received Lifetime Achievement honors from the American Comedy Awards in 1996 and 1997, the Palm Springs International Film Festival in 1999, the
Savannah Film and Video Festival in 2002, and
Chapman University in 2006. In 2007, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the University of Nevada, Reno. Fans can view her stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Palm Springs Walk of Stars as well as her hand and footprints at Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Her philanthropic activities have earned her national honors from the Girl Scouts, a City of Hope Award, The Thalians' Ms. Wonderful award, the National Film Society's Humanitarian Award and a Spirit of Hope medallion from the USO for entertaining the troops during the Korean War.
In 1987, Reynolds published her first memoir, Debbie: My Life, and in 2013 brought her personal and professional story up to date and shared anecdotes about the making of her extensive filmography in Unsinkable: A Memoir. Reynolds is proud of her two children, actor and author Carrie Fisher (Star Wars, Postcards from the Edge) and producer Todd Fisher. Reynolds is devoted to Carrie's daughter and her granddaughter, Billie Catherine Lourd.
About the 21st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®
Lauded by critics for its style, simplicity and genuine warmth, the Screen Actors Guild Awards® (SAG Awards®) annually celebrates the outstanding performances in motion pictures, television, cable and new media programs from the previous calendar year. Of the top industry honors presented to actors, only the SAG Awards are selected entirely by performers' peers in SAG-AFTRA. The SAG Awards was the first televised awards show to acknowledge the work of union members and the first to present awards to the cast of a motion picture and to television drama and comedy ensembles, reflecting the fundamental principle that acting is a collaborative art.
The 21st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards presented by SAG-AFTRA will be simulcast on Sunday, Jan. 25, 2015 at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT on TNT and TBS. Kathy Connell is the executive producer. JoBeth Williams, Daryl Anderson, Scott Bakula, Shelley Fabares and Woody Schultz are producers for SAG-AFTRA. Gloria Fujita O'Brien and Benn Fleishman are producers.Mick McCullough is consulting producer. Rosalind Jarrett Sepulveda is executive in charge of publicity. Jon Brockett is awards supervising producer. Cynthia Kistler is coordinating producer. Maggie Barrett Caulfield is talent producer.
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About SAG-AFTRA
SAG-AFTRA represents more than 165,000 actors, announcers, broadcaster journalists, dancers, DJs, news writers, news editors, program hosts, puppeteers, recording artists, singers, stunt performers, voiceover artists and other entertainment and media professionals. SAG-AFTRA members are the faces and voices that entertain and inform America and the world. With national offices in Los Angeles and New York and local offices nationwide, SAG-AFTRA members work together to secure the strongest protections for media artists into the 21st century and beyond
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About TNT & TBS
TNT is television's destination for drama. Seen in 101 million households and ranking among cable's top networks, TNT is home to such original drama series as Rizzoli & Isles, Major Crimes,Falling Skies, The Last Ship, Murder in the First, Perception, Dallas and Franklin & Bash. TNT's upcoming slate of original scripted dramas includes Legends, The Librarians, Public Morals,Proof and Transporter The Series, which will make its U.S. television debut on the network this fall. TNT also features such dramatic unscripted series as Cold Justice and the upcoming On the Menu and Wake Up Call. In addition, TNT is the cable home to popular dramas like Hawaii Five-0, Castle, The Mentalist, Bones and Supernatural; primetime specials, such as the Screen Actors Guild Awards®; blockbuster movies; and championship sports coverage, including NASCAR, the NBA and the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship.
TNT is part of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner company. Turner Broadcasting creates and programs Branded news; entertainment; animation and young adult; and sports media environments on television and other platforms for consumers around the world.
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TBS is basic cable's reigning champion among young adults in primetime. Available in 101 million households, TBS features original scripted comedies like Cougar Town, Ground Floor andSullivan & Son, as well as the upcoming Angie Tribeca (working title), Your Family or Mine (working title), Buzzy's and American Dad!, which will become a TBS original series in late 2014. TBS also features original unscripted series like King of the Nerds, Deal With It, Bam's Bad Ass Game Show, CeeLo Green's The Good Life and Funniest Wins. In late night TBS, is home to the Emmy®-winning series CONAN, starring Conan O'Brien. The TBS lineup also includes popular contemporary comedies, such as The Big Bang Theory and Family Guy, along with blockbuster movies and championship sports.
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