Lee Patrick

Patrick died suddenly from a heart seizure on the day before her 81st birthday, at Laguna Beach, California. Her foot and hand prints are immortalized in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood, and she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6654 Hollywood Boulevard. Starring George Segal as Sam Spade Jr., forced to continue his father's work, and to keep his increasingly sarcastic secretary, the film attempted to turn its revered predecessor into a comedy, and was a box office failure. Debbie Reynolds has done extensive work with charity and has headlined in major Las Vegas showrooms. Her final film role was a reprise of her Effie Perine character in a reworking of the Sam Spade story titled The Black Bird (1975). In 1997, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Comedy. Among her other films are Now, Voyager (1942), Mrs Parkington (1944), Mildred Pierce (1945), Caged (1950), There's No Business Like Show Business (1954), Vertigo (1958), Auntie Mame (1958), Pillow Talk (1959), and Summer and Smoke (1961). Reynolds was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964), a Golden Globe for The Debbie Reynolds Show on television (1970), a Golden Globe for the motion picture Mother (1997), and a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for In & Out (1997).

As Effie Perine, the loyal and quick-thinking secretary of Humphrey Bogart's Sam Spade, Patrick created one of her most enduring film characterisations. She is the mother of two children, actress Carrie Fisher and Todd Fisher. Over the next several years she played numerous supporting roles, without attracting much attention until she appeared in The Maltese Falcon (1941). Debbie Reynolds has been married three times: to singer Eddie Fisher (married 1955-divorced 1959), Harry Karl (married 1960-divorced 1973) and Richard Hamlett (married 1984-divorced 1994). She remained in Hollywood, and appeared in Border Cafe (1937). She is one of a very small group of actors from MGM's "golden age of musicals" who is still active in filmmaking. Her disappointments continued when she was considered and then rejected for the lead role in Stella Dallas in favour of Barbara Stanwyck. She went on to star in numerous motion pictures, and as of 2004 was still making acting appearances in film.

Patrick had made her film debut in 1929 but since that time had not appeared in a single film, and RKO Studios were reluctant to allow an unknown actress to take a part in a film which they were beginning to realise had great potential. She worked hard, however, and turned in a good performance along with Gene and Donald O'Connor. Her participation in the movie helped make it one of the greatest musicals ever produced. Eventually the part was rewritten and split from a single character into two characters which were played by Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers. Reynolds was inexperienced and did not know how to tap dance. Her success in Stage Door (1937) led her to Hollywood to reprise her role in the film version. She was chosen for the female lead in Singin' in the Rain despite the fact that Gene Kelly, the star of the musical comedy, was initially opposed to the casting. For more than a decade she was constantly employed and established herself as a popular actress. Imperium.

Born in New York, New York, Patrick began acting on Broadway in 1924. She then appeared in Mr. Lee Patrick (November 22, 1901 – November 21, 1982) was an American theater and film actress. Her appearance in her second movie at MGM, Two Weeks With Love, received strong notices. Her difficulties in establishing a career as a leading actress were often attributed to a long standing fued Patrick had with gossip columnist Louella Parsons, about whom Patrick's husband, a journalist, had written very unfavourably. She was cast in Three Little Words, which starred Fred Astaire. Shaving a decade off her age was a decision she made early in her career, and at the time of her death, many of her friends believed that she was in her early seventies. Reynolds then signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Warner: The Last Mogul (1993). Jack L. Heaven & Earth (1993). The Bodyguard (1992).

Singin' in the Rain (1952). Imperium (1951). Mr. Two Weeks with Love (1950).