On December 28th 2016, the world was shocked and saddened when the much loved Hollywood icon Debbie Reynolds died, just one day after the death of her daughter, the actress and writer Carrie Fisher. Did the shock of her daughter’s death play a part, or was Debbie’s death so soon after Carrie’s, simply a tragic coincidence? Debbie Reynolds became Hollywood’s golden girl after rising to fame in the 1952 musical Singing In The Rain. Over the next 6 decades she starred in over 40 movies, including How The West Was Won, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Tammy and Mother. She also toured extensively and performed in Vegas. In later years she found a new generation of fans with TV appearances such as Grace’s mom in Will & Grace. She worked for 40 weeks a year, only retiring at 82. She used to say “I went through three sets of luggage, you can imagine what happened to my body”. Debbie’s personal life was plagued with difficulties. In 1955 she married Eddie Fisher, one of the biggest singing stars of the decade. They were the media darlings of the day, famous all over the world. They had two children, Carrie and Todd. But Debbie’s world was rocked when Eddie left her for her good friend Elizabeth Taylor. Two subsequent marriages, to Harry Karl and Richard Hamlett failed. Both of them ruined her financially. The other big heartache for Debbie was her daughter Carrie’s bipolar disorder and drug addiction. There was much speculation that Debbie had died of a broken heart, but the official cause of death given is a stroke. Strokes can be caused by many things, and grief alone isn’t one of them. Dr Hunter’s investigation needs to build up a picture of her overall health if he’s to understand how Debbie Reynolds died.
