Hollywood legend Debbie Reynolds, who sang and danced her way into the hearts of millions of moviegoers around the world in musicals like "Singin' in the Rain," died on Wednesday at age 84, her son said.
Reynolds, one of the most enduring and endearing Hollywood actresses, died hours after being rushed to the hospital in Los Angeles after suffering a stroke, her son, Todd Fisher said. Her death came just one day after her daughter, the actress Carrie Fisher, died of a heart attack.
"She's now with Carrie and we're all heartbroken," Fisher said from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where his mother was taken by ambulance earlier Wednesday.
The 84-year-old suffered a stroke at Todd Fisher's Beverly Hills home after telling him "I miss her so much, I want to be with Carrie," he was quoted as telling celebrity news website TMZ.
Reynolds enjoyed the heights of show business success and endured the depths of personal tragedy. She lost one husband to Elizabeth Taylor and two other husbands plundered her for millions. Fisher, who found lasting fame as Princess Leia in "Star Wars" and struggled for much of her life with drug addiction and mental health problems, died after falling ill on a plane.
Reaction to Reynolds' death was swift.
"Debbie Reynolds, a legend and my movie mom. I can't believe this happened one day after Carrie," Albert Brooks, who played opposite Reynolds in "Mother," said on Twitter.
"I can't imagine what Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds' family are going through this week. I send all of my love," Ellen DeGeneres tweeted.
Reynolds made a name for herself as the girl-next-door lead of a string of hit musicals in the 1950s after being discovered by MGM studio bosses at a beauty contest in southern California, going on to earn her lone Oscar nomination for playing the title role in 1964's "The Unsinkable Molly Brown."
She is best remembered as sweet but shy voice artist Kathy Selden in "Singin' in the Rain" (1952) and holding her own despite being cast opposite tap-dancing superstar Gene Kelly, who was more than twice her age.
Reynolds' daughter Fisher, who catapulted to worldwide stardom as rebel warrior Princess Leia in the original "Star Wars" trilogy, died in Los Angeles on Tuesday, four days after suffering a heart attack on a transatlantic flight.
eynolds, who received the Academy's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award last year, was just 19 when she got her big break in "Singin' in the Rain," which celebrates Hollywood's transition from the silent era into "talkies."
Her 2013 autobiography "Unsinkable: A Memoir" detailed the highs and lows of her rocky personal life and a career which was still going strong into her 80s as she performed her one-woman stage show.
Reynolds received an honorary Oscar in 2015, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, but was too ill to attend the ceremony. Her granddaughter, actress Billie Lourd, accepted the statuette in her honor.
"I'm so sorry that I'm sick, but I am thrilled beyond words, shocked, and you couldn't be more amazed that a little girl from Burbank even came near this sort of accolade," she said in a pre-recorded statement.
She was recognized for her decades-long commitment to various charities, including the mental-health organization she founded, the Thalians.
