Hollywood Found the Girl Next Door

In 1948, a 16-year-old student at John Burroughs High School named Mary Frances Reynolds won the Miss Burbank beauty pageant. Warner Bros. scouted the young beauty queen, signed her to a contract and changed her name to Debbie Reynolds.

With that, the unassuming daughter of a carpenter from El Paso, Texas, went from girl next door to . . . The Girl Next Door, Hollywood-style.

The actress, known for her perky and wholesome demeanor, made her name opposite Gene Kelly in “Singin’ in the Rain” (1952). For the role, the inexperienced hoofer took a crash course in dancing to keep up with Kelly, practicing until her feet bled. She also garnered an Academy Award nomination for “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” (1964).

Reynolds, born April 1, 1932, moved to Burbank with her family at age 7. While attending Burroughs, she performed in school plays and was a bassoonist for the Burbank Youth Symphony Orchestra.

She married singer Eddie Fisher in 1955, but the marriage ended four years later when Fisher left her to marry actress Elizabeth Taylor.

Today she spends most of her time in Las Vegas, where she opened the Debbie Reynolds Hotel and Casino and the Hollywood Movie Museum in 1994. Her son, Todd, helps her with the Las Vegas operation. Reynolds and Fisher’s daughter Carrie is a well-known actress and author.

Last year, after being away from movie-making for more than 20 years, Reynolds won critical acclaim for her title role in the Albert Brooks film “Mother.”

“I was a simple little girl from Texas--Mary Frances Reynolds. I wanted to be a gym teacher,” Reynolds told Interview magazine earlier this year. “I’m living more dreams than I ever could have dreamed.”