Carrie with her daughter Billie: Though Carrie and HER mother Debbie Reynolds went through a period during which they didn’t speak to one another, before their deaths, they’d grown particularly close again.
In a cruel twist of fate, Debbie Reynolds, a very popular actress, dancer and singer, passed away one day after her only daughter Carrie Fisher, actress and author, died of complications from a heart attack suffered on December 23rd on a flight back to Los Angeles from London. Millions of tributes for both have come in for the family. We cannot imagine the grief that Debbie’s son / Carrie’s brother Todd Fisher and Carrie’s daughter Billie Lourd must be experiencing – who now must set up a funeral for two of Hollywood’s most popular actresses. We won’t go into more here since so much has been said in other media formats. We send our sincerest condolences to the family and to all the fans and friends of Ms. Reynolds and Ms. Fisher. Our hearts go out to all.
Note: Debbie’s song, “Tammy” (from the movie “Tammy and the Bachelor”), knocked a song by Elvis out of the top spot back in 1957.
For quick bios on both go to:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debbie_Reynolds
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrie_Fisher
This is not meant to be disrespectful but, according to Carrie’s own humorous wishes, she wanted the following quote in her obituary (from something that George Lucas said to her during the filming of “Star Wars”): The beloved actress drowned in moonlight, strangled by her own bra.
14/19 SLIDES © FilmMagic
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Carrie Fisher’s Musical Connections, From Mother Debbie Reynolds to Ex Paul Simon
Carrie Fisher, the legendary actress of stage and screen best known for her iconic starring role as Princess Leia in the Star Wars film series, died on Tuesday (Dec. 27), four days after suffering a heart attack on an L.A.-bound flight. She was 60 years old.
While Fisher’s film and theater work occasionally involved singing — one of her earliest roles came at age 15 in the 1973 Broadway revival of musical Irene, she sang an untitled “Life Day” theme in 1978’s infamous Star Wars Holiday Special and she even landed a Grammy nod once in 2010 (though it was for Best Spoken Word Album, for the audiobook adaptation of memoir Wishful Drinking) — her own career was mostly kept separate from the music industry. However, Fisher was tied to music throughout her life, due to her myriad relationships (professional, personal, familial and otherwise) with numerous fixtures of the pop and rock worlds.
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Other Notable Musicians’ Deaths…
December 2016
28: Pierre Barouh, 82, French actor, writer and musician (A Man and a Woman), infarction; Knut Kiesewetter, 75, German jazz musician, singer-songwriter and producer; Debbie Reynolds, 84, American actress (Singin’ in the Rain, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Irene) and singer, stroke.
27: Carrie Fisher, 60, American actress (Star Wars, When Harry Met Sally…), novelist and screenwriter (Postcards from the Edge), complications from a heart attack.
25: Aghakhan Abdullayev, 66, Azerbaijani folk singer; George Michael, 53, British singer (Wham!) and songwriter (“Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”, “Careless Whisper”, “Faith”), suspected heart failure; Alphonse Mouzon, 68, American jazz drummer (Weather Report, The Eleventh House) and record label owner, neuroendocrine carcinoma; Notable Russian people killed in the Russian Defence Ministry Tupolev Tu-154 crash (including 60+ members of the Russian Army Choir): Valery Khalilov, 64, military band conductor.
24: Rick Parfitt, 68, British singer, songwriter and guitarist (Status Quo), infection; Jirí Smetana, 71, Czech musician and producer; Carole Smith, 94, American songwriter (“Don’t Keep Me Hangin’ On”).
23: Heinrich Schiff, 65, Austrian cellist; Mick Zane, 57, American guitarist (Malice), brain cancer.
22: Carlos Averhoff, 69, Cuban jazz saxophonist; Ruud Merx, 47, Dutch musical composer and trombonist (Johann Strauss Orchestra); Frank Murray, 66, Irish band manager (Thin Lizzy, The Pogues), suspected heart attack.
21: Abdul Gafur Hali, 87, Bangladeshi singer, composer and lyricist; Sam Leach, 81, British concert promoter and talent agent (The Beatles); Weston Noble, 94, American music educator and conductor, complications from a fall; Betty Loo Taylor, 87, American jazz pianist.