She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer with her portrayal of Helen Kane in the 1950 film Three Little Words.

Her other successes include The Affairs of Dobie Gillis (1953), Susan Slept Here (1954), Bundle of Joy (1956 Golden Globe nomination), The Catered Affair (1956 National Board of Review Best Supporting Actress Winner), and Tammy and the Bachelor (1957), in which her performance of the song "Tammy" topped the Billboard music charts.

Reynolds also had several business ventures besides her dance studio, including a Las Vegas hotel and casino; she was also an avid collector of film memorabilia, beginning with items purchased at the landmark 1970 MGM auction.

[5][6] Reynolds died following a hemorrhagic stroke on December 28, 2016, one day after the death of her daughter, actress Carrie Fisher.

[citation needed] She was of Scottish-Irish and English ancestry[9] and was raised in a strict Nazarene church of her domineering mother.

[17] It co-starred Gene Kelly, whom she called a "great dancer and cinematic genius," adding, "He made me a star.

[20] Reynolds was one of 14 top-billed names in How the West Was Won (1962) but she was the only one who appeared throughout, the story largely following the life and times of her character Lilith Prescott.

In the film, she sang three songs: What Was Your Name in the States?, as her pioneering family begin their westward journey; Raise a Ruckus Tonight, starting a party around a wagon train camp fire; and, three times, Home in the Meadow – to the tune of Greensleeves with lyrics by Sammy Cahn.

It was adapted from George Axelrod's play Goodbye, Charlie and also starred Tony Curtis and Pat Boone.

Although she was television's highest-paid female performer at the time, she quit the show for breaking its contract:[24] I was shocked to discover that the initial commercial aired during the premiere of my new series was devoted to a nationally advertised brand of cigarette (Pall Mall).

I fully outlined my personal feelings concerning cigarette advertising ... that I will not be a party to such commercials, which I consider directly opposed to health and well-being.

"[27] The dispute would have been rendered moot and in Reynolds' favor anyway had she not resigned; by 1971, the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act (which had been passed into law before she left the show) would ban all radio and television advertising for tobacco products.

[31] She played a recurring role in the Disney Channel Original Movie Halloweentown film series as Aggie Cromwell.

[32] In 2000, Reynolds took up a recurring voice role on the children's television program Rugrats, playing the grandmother of two of the characters.

In 2001, she co-starred with Elizabeth Taylor, Shirley MacLaine, and Joan Collins in the comedy These Old Broads, a television movie written for her by her daughter, Carrie Fisher.

[6] According to USA Today, the film is "an intimate portrait of Hollywood royalty ... [it] loosely chronicles their lives through interviews, photos, footage, and vintage home movies...

It culminates in a moving scene, just as Reynolds is preparing to receive the 2015 Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award, which Fisher presented to her mom.

[38] Reynolds also scored two other top-25 Billboard hits with "A Very Special Love" (number 20 in January 1958) and "Am I That Easy to Forget" (number 25 in March 1960)—a pop-music version of a country-music hit made famous by Carl Belew (in 1959), Skeeter Davis (in 1960), and several years later by singer Engelbert Humperdinck.

[46] She toured with Harve Presnell in Annie Get Your Gun,[47] then wrapped up the Broadway run of Woman of the Year in 1983,[48][49] while Fisher was appearing in Agnes of God.

The museum was to relocate to be the centerpiece of the Belle Island Village tourist attraction in the resort city of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, but the developer went bankrupt.

[60] Among the "more than 3500 costumes, 20,000 photographs, and thousands of movie posters, costume sketches, and props" included in the sales were Charlie Chaplin's bowler hat and Marilyn Monroe's white "subway dress," whose skirt is lifted up by the breeze from a passing subway train in the film The Seven Year Itch (1955).

[64] In June 2010, she replaced Ivana Trump on the Globe weekly's advice column[65] but many of the published letters were plagiarized from Slate's Dear Prudence and possibly others.

[68] In a 2014 interview with The Daily Telegraph, Reynolds revealed that she had helped several closeted actors conceal their homosexuality by dating them.

[76] In 2011, Reynolds stepped down after 56 years of involvement in The Thalians,[77] a charitable organization devoted to children and adults with mental-health issues.

[80] The following day, December 28, Reynolds was taken by ambulance to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, after suffering a "severe stroke," according to her son.

[85] Todd Fisher later said that Reynolds had been seriously affected by her daughter's death, and that her grief partially contributed to her stroke, noting that his mother had stated, "I want to be with Carrie," shortly before she died.

"[90] Reynolds was entombed with a portion of her daughter's ashes at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills during a memorial service held on January 6,[91][92] while the remainder of Carrie Fisher's ashes are held in a giant, novelty Prozac pill.

[95] In keeping with the celebrity tradition of the Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival of Winchester, Virginia, Reynolds was honored as the Grand Marshal of the 2011 ABF that took place from April 26 to May 1, 2011.

[96] On November 4, 2006, Reynolds received the Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award from Chapman University (Orange, California).

[97][98] On May 17, 2007, she was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Nevada, Reno, where she had contributed for many years to the film studies program.