We bid adieu to two of Hollywood’s most iconic actresses, after they passed away in late December 2016, just one day apart. Mother and daughter duo Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher were both forces of nature, talented in song, dance, writing and humor. The two were also inseperable for much of their lives, living as neighbors for the last decade. After the tragic passing of Fisher, 60, from complications after a heart attack, mother Reynolds, 84, suffered a stroke and died the next day. According to a Variety reporter, Reynolds told son Todd Fisher, “I want to be with Carrie,” the morning before she went.
In what must be a very difficult time for the family and friends of Debbie and Carrie – especially for Todd and for Carrie’s young daughter, Billie Lourd – we’d like to look back at the beautiful moments these two shared together and with the world. We’ll miss their light.
Image: AP Photo
Baby Carrie with father Eddie Fisher and mother Debbie Reynolds, Jan. 2, 1957. Fisher would leave the family two years later for Reynolds’ best friend, Elizabeth Taylor, in a scandal that would rock the world.
Image: The Everett Collection
Another shot of baby Carrie with her parents in 1957. Fisher would later say of the pair, “My mother and father were America’s sweethearts. They literally received the tag. Even my parents sort of went along with the assumption that they were a good couple, but they probably weren’t a very good couple.”
Image: The Everett Collection
Brother Todd joins the family. Todd wrote earlier this year that he was very close with his mother and sister. “That’s why my mother had me. So Carrie would have someone to look after.”
Image: The Everett Collection
A four-year-old Carrie on the set of Say One For Me with her mother in 1959.
Image: AP Photo
Debbie and Carrie on their way to Madrid in 1972. Carrie is 15 years old here. “When we went out, people sort of walked over me to get to her, and no, I didn’t like it,” Carrie told The New York Times in 2010.
Image: AP Photo
Carrie and Debbie at Debbie’s show, Censored Scenes from King Kong, in New York, March of 1980. Carrie would appear in The Empire Strikes Back that summer. This was around the time the two would go through a difficult transition, as Carrie’s bipolar disorder and addictions took hold. In the end, the struggles would only deepen their bond. Debbie later told Oprah, “There have been a few times when I thought that I was going to lose Carrie. I’ve had to walk through a lot of my tears, but she’s worth it.”
Image: AP Photo
The mother and daughter pair at the 11th annual American Comedy Awards in 1997, where Reynolds won a lifetime achievement award.
Image: AP Photo
Debbie and Carrie at the Creative Arts Emmys in 2011. “She is still a little eccentric,” Carrie wrote of her mother. “Whenever she calls, she says: ‘Hello dear, this your mother, Debbie.'”
Image: AP Photo/Jordan Strauss
Carrie, Debbie and Carrie’s daughter, Billie Lourd, at the SAG Awards in 2015. Carrie presented a lifetime achievement award from the Screen Actors Guild to her mother that evening. “This is an extraordinarily kind, generous, gifted, funny woman who would give you the shirt off her back if Vivien Leigh hadn’t once worn it in Gone With the Wind,” Carrie joked about her mom, who was famous for her Hollywood costume collection, at the ceremony. Watch the entire speech here.
