Mary Frances Reynolds at age 8. Born in El Paso, Texas, during the Great Depression, Reynolds lived with her grandparents until her father, a railroad worker, saved enough to build a house for his family in Burbank, Calif. She moved west at age seven, where the willful child earned 47 merit badges as a Girl Scout.

But she told Mo Rocca she did not have childhood dreams of movie stardom, wanting instead to be a gym teacher when she grew up.

At age 16, attracted by the opportunity to obtain a free blouse and scarf, Debbie Reynolds entered the 1948 Miss Burbank contest -- and won. She also garnered the attention of talent scouts from Warner Brothers and MGM. They flipped a coin, and Warner Brothers won.

Reynolds described to Mo Rocca the screen test she was invited to make at Warner Brothers: “There was a camera there, and they said, ‘Look in the camera.’ And I said, ‘Okay.’ And they said, ‘Now just talk, just ad-lib.’ I said, ‘Why would I do that? I don’t know what I’m doing here. This is all so silly.’

“And they said, ‘Well, you wanna be a movie star, don’t you?’ And I said, ‘No. I don’t know anything about it. I’m just here ‘cause I won this contest, and I got a free blouse and scarf. I don’t know what you guys are doing wasting your time on me.’

“So Jack Warner saw the test, and he said, ‘Well, she’s funny. Let’s put her under contract, $65 a week.’”

She debuted at Warner Brothers with an uncredited bit part in the 1948 romantic comedy “June Bride,” starring Bette Davis and Robert Montgomery, and later appeared in “The Daughter of Rosie O’Grady.” But as the studio wound down its production of musicals, they decided not to renew Reynolds’ contract, and she auditioned at MGM.

There, Reynolds appeared in “Three Little Words” with Fred Astaire and Red Skelton (1950); “Two Weeks With Love,” in which she sang “Aba Daba Honeymoon” with Carleton Carpenter (1950); and “Mr. Imperium,” playing the niece of hotel owner Marjorie Main (1951).

Representatives of the motion pictures industry are greeted by President Harry Truman in Washington, D.C., October 8, 1951. Far left: Elizabeth Taylor and Paramount Pictures chairman Adolph Zukor; Far Right: Debbie Reynolds with Joyce O’Hara, acting president of the Motion Picture Association.

At age 19 Reynolds was cast opposite Gene Kelly in the musical “Singin’ in the Rain,” despite having no dance training.

It took three months of intensive dance lessons, but when the cameras rolled, Reynolds kept in step with co-stars Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor.

“We danced ten and 12 hours every day; there were no days off,” Reynolds told Mo Rocca. “Gene Kelly kind of scared me, because he was the boss, and he was brilliant. He had to teach me. To be given a little kitty cat, and expect it to be a lion, it didn’t happen overnight. And he would be very exacting. I knew nothing about making film. He took this young, virginal girl who knew nothing, and he put up with me.”

"But in the final product, you look like you're having so much fun," Mo Rocca told Debbie Reynolds.

"I think he would have killed me if I hadn't looked like that!" Reynolds laughed. "He scared me. But that's what I needed, I guess. I knew I had to be good, so I had to listen. I just love that I got through that movie."

And just like her character, Kathy Selden, Reynolds emerged from “Singin’ in the Rain” a bona fide movie star.

Debbie Reynolds re-teamed with Donald O'Connor in MGM's 1953 musical comedy, "I Love Melvin."

Debbie Reynolds in a musical number from "I Love Melvin" (1953).

Howard Hughes, then in charge at RKO Pictures, pursued Debbie Reynolds to star in the comedy "Susan Slept Here" (1954), playing the teenage ward -- and romantic interest -- of a Hollywood scriptwriter played by Dick Powell.

Frank Sinatra, Debbie Reynolds and Caroline Jones in "The Tender Trap" (1955).

At the time they were filming Debbie Reynolds had fallen for crooner Eddie Fisher and was thinking of marrying him. Sinatra (who was then in the second of his four marriages) took Reynolds to lunch and offered his sage advice: "You should think twice about this, schweetie. It's a hard life marrying a singer. I Know."

Singer Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds married in 1955. They had two children: Carrie, born in 1956, who would grow up to play Princess Leia in "Star Wars"; and Todd, born in 1958.

Debbie Reynolds was pregnant with her daughter Carrie during filming of "Tammy and the Bachelor" (with Leslie Nielsen). Though the film initially did poorly at the box office, the subsequent release of the hit theme song "Tammy," sung by Reynolds, prompted a re-release, and the movie did a brisk business. By the time a sequel was put into production, Reynolds was pregnant again, and so the role was taken over by Sandra Dee.

One year into their marriage, Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher spoke to Edward R. Murrow from their Pacific Palisades, Calif., home, for the CBS News program "Person to Person." They had just worked together on a romance titled "Bundle of Joy" (1956).

Left: Elizabeth Taylor, Eddie Fisher, and Debbie Reynolds at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas, June 19, 1958.

Reynolds and Eddie Fisher were close to Taylor and her husband, Mike Todd. When Todd died in a plane crash in 1958, Fisher rushed to comfort Taylor ... and never came back.

Reynolds' off-screen role as the wronged wife became front page news.

Reynolds said she told Fisher his relationship with Taylor would not last because he wasn't enough for her. "'You'll last a year and a half,'" she told him, "'and she'll throw you out as soon as she meets somebody really funny.' Elizabeth liked men that were really terrifically funny.

"He laughed -- of course, he thought it was not true. But he found out, when she threw him out, that it WAS true."

Left: Reynolds with her second husband, Harry Karl, dining with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, c. 1967.

"The Mating Game" (1959), co-starring Tony Randall as an IRS auditor, was the first film Reynolds shot following the breakup of her marriage to Eddie Fisher.

The scandal over Reynolds' marriage turned out to be a professional boom, at least for MGM, which loaned her out to other studios.

In 1959 Reynolds appeared in "Say One for Me" with Robert Wagner (left) and Bing Crosby.

Dick Wessel and Martin Landau play mobsters who blackmail Debbie Reynolds and husband Glenn Ford in the black comedy "The Gazebo" (1959).

Debbie Reynolds with Curt Jurgens in "This Happy Feeling" (1958), directed by Blake Edwards.

After a small role in "Three Little Words," Debbie Reynolds co-starred with Fred Astaire again in "The Pleasure of His Company" (1961).

Debbie Reynolds played Lilith Prescott, a member of a family settling the American frontier, in the Cinerama epic "How the West Was Won" (1962). Her role expanded as director Henry Hathaway (with whom she had a stormy relationship on set) kept writing new scenes for her, expanding her character from age 17 into her nineties.

A musical number which Lilith Prescott (Debbie Reynolds) performs on a riverboat in "How the West Was Won."

Debbie Reynolds and Gregory Peck in "How the West Was Won" (1962).

Debbie Reynolds starred in the film version of the Meredith Willson-Richard Morris musical "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" (1964), opposite Harve Presnell, who originated his role on Broadway.

Reynolds received a Best Actress Oscar nomination -- her only one -- for her performance, playing a saloon singer who works her way into the upper echelons of society, and ultimately survives the sinking of the Titanic.

Debbie Reynolds starred as "The Singing Nun" (1964), which was loosely based on the French nun "Sister Smile," who had an international hit with her recording of "Dominique." The movie co-starred Greer Garson, Agnes Moorehead and Ricardo Montalban.

Dick Van Dyke and Debbie Reynolds in the satire "Divorce, American Style" (1967), written by Norman Lear and Robert Kaufman and directed by Bud Yorkin. At the time of production Reynolds was going through difficulties with her second husband, Harry Karl; their marriage ended in 1973.

Debbie Reynolds and James Garner in the comedy "How Sweet It Is!" (1968), as an American couple in Paris.

In the psychological horror film "What's the Matter With Helen?" (1971), Debbie Reynolds played a dance teacher opposite the murderous Shelley Winters. At one point Reynolds, a co-producer on the film, fired Winters over the actress' on-set behavior, but was forced to hire her back when re-filming her scenes would have proved too costly.

Debbie Reynolds on stage with her son Todd Fisher and daughter Carrie Fisher.

Debbie Reynolds poses with daughter Carrie Fisher in these undated photographs.

Debbie Reynolds joined the cast of the sitcom "Will & Grace," playing Debra Messing's mother.

Left: Reynolds with costar Sean Hayes.

After many years off movie screens (she made brief appearances in "The Bodyguard" and "Heaven and Earth," and guest appearances on TV), Reynolds starred with Albert Brooks in the 1996 comedy, "Mother."

She said the decision to take the starring role was difficult, as she was performing on stage regularly in Las Vegas, trying to keep her hotel and casino out of bankruptcy.

Debbie Reynolds played the mother of Kevin Kline, a high school drama teacher who is (mistakenly?) outed on national television in the 1997 comedy, "In & Out."

Actress Debbie Reynolds walks with her son, Todd, as they arrive for the funeral of Frank Sinatra, her co-star in "The Tender Trap," at the Good Shepard Catholic Church in Beverly Hills on May 20, 1998.

Carrie Fisher wrote the script of the 2001 TV movie "These Old Broads," about aging Hollywood actresses and their agent. In addition to Shirley MacLaine and Joan Collins, the cast included Elizabeth Taylor and Debbie Reynolds.

From left: Actresses Rita Moreno, Cyd Charisse and Debbie Reynolds attend the 50th anniversary screening of "Singin' in the Rain," at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Sept. 5, 2002, in Beverly Hills, California.

Debbie Reynolds played herself in the 2004 film "Connie & Carla."

Singer Debbie Reynolds performs at a concert for the Salvation Army Nancy Painter Home Benefit, at Wilshire Ebell Theater Nov. 23, 2003, in Los Angeles, Calif.

Actress Debbie Reynolds performs on stage during the WOMEN ROCK! Songs from the Movies, the fourth annual concert for the fight against breast cancer, at the Kodak Theatre Sept. 30, 2003, in Hollywood, California.

Actress Debbie Reynolds poses backstage during the 7th Annual Costume Guild Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, Feb. 19, 2005, in Beverly Hills, California.

Clint Eastwood and Debbie Reynolds arrive at the Thalians' 53rd Annual Ball held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Nov. 2, 2008, in Los Angeles.

Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher attend the 2011 Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards at Nokia Theatre on Sept. 10, 2011 in Los Angeles.

Actress Debbie Reynolds arrives at The Paley Center For Media's reception For "Debbie Reynolds: The Exhibit," Aug. 16, 2011, in Beverly Hills, California. The exhibition featured costumes, posters and other movie memorabilia from Reynolds' collection.

In this June 10, 2011, file photo, Debbie Reynolds looks up at the dress she wore for the "Good Mornin'" sequence in "Singin' in the Rain" at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills, Calif., from her collection of movie memorabilia. In 2011 hundreds of items from her collection were sold at two auctions by Profiles in History, pulling in more than $25 million.

Debbie Reynolds as Grandma Mazur, with Katherine Heigl in the comedy "One for the Money" (2012).

Actress Debbie Reynolds arrives at the TCM Classic Film Festival’s opening night premiere of the 40th anniversary restoration of “Cabaret,” at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on April 12, 2012, in Hollywood, California.

Reynolds, along with actress Gena Rowlands and writer-director Spike Lee, was honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences with its Governors Award for lifetime achievement on Saturday, November 14, 2015.

Actress Debbie Reynolds accepts the Life Achievement Award from actress Carrie Fisher onstage at the 21st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium on January 25, 2015 in Los Angeles, Calif.

Debbie Reynolds with daughter Carrie Fisher at the Screen Actors Guild Awards at The Shrine Auditorium on January 25, 2015 in Los Angeles, California.

Fisher died on December 27, 2016, after suffering an apparent heart attack three days earlier on a London-to-L.A. flight. 

Reynolds died the next day, on December 28, 2016. She was 84 years old. 

For more info:
debbiereynolds.com
Debbie Reynolds on Facebook
“Unsinkable: A Memoir” by Debbie Reynolds and Dorian Hannaway (William Morrow)
Debbie Reynolds Studio Store

By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan