A Tribute to Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds from the Crew!

Let's face it, 2016 was brutal. Besides having to endure a never-ending, divisive election campaign, we also lost so many great actors and other public figures. I dare you to look up the 2016 celebrity deaths timeline this year—it is staggering. It will also make you cry.  In fact, 2016 was so bad, the media is calling it the year of celebrity deaths.

It all started last January with David Bowie and Alan Rickman. The mid-year brought the Prince shocker along with many more celebrities including Gene Wilder. 2016 ended with the deadliest December ever, which included Carrie Fisher and her mother, Debbie Reynolds.

Debbie and Carrie had a tumultuous relationship until they didn't.

We honor the passing of all our celebrity heroes at Get Lost in a Story, but would like to pay a special tribute to Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds. Each of us have a favorite book or movie of theirs to share with our readers, and we encourage all of you to post your favorites in the comments section.

Carrie never liked her Princess Leia hair.
She called them space buns.

A few words about Princess Leia…I mean Carrie. 

One of Carrie's younger sisters had this say about her in a recent interview. "We had the coolest, badass, gun-toting sister in the world." What I loved most about Carrie Fisher was her honesty and humor, but she was also a kick-ass princess hero and powerful spirit. I loved her as Princess Leia in Star Wars, but I loved her books even more. I particularly loved her up and down relationship with her mother—I could relate, sigh. Mothers and daughters can be complicated, right? In fact, Carrie and Debbie were estranged for a decade before becoming so close they lived next door to each other. And if you've never read Carrie's books—do so—now! We all spark to different people in our lives, there's just something about this funny, complicated woman that will always be with me.  —Jillian Stone

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"All about a Mississippi gal who taught a sophisticated bachelor about Love."

Tammy and the Bachelor

(Universal CinemaScope-1957)

~Tammy and the Bachelor

One of my favorite movies is Debbie Reynolds in the 1957 movie, " Tammy and the Bachelor." (What a great year that was in many ways!)

Featured opposite of Ms.Debbie, is a handsome Leslie Nielsen and the cantankerous old grandfather played by Walter Brennan whom she lives with in a houseboat along the river in Louisiana. I love the colorful, eccentric variety of characters and the circumstances that bring them all together and how they have to flex and change to ultimately create their happily ever after. Not to mention the lovely Debbie singing, "Tammy's in Love" ~the innocence and purity of the discovery of love amid all the obstacles it must face is the stuff of great romantic storytelling! If you've not seen it, I encourage you to take a few moments and enjoy a story that reminds us that kindness, acceptance, and faith are part of our DNA, oft times shoved under the rug as archaic ideas. Not to this author~ thanks for the reminder, Ms. Debbie. ~Amanda McIntyre

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The deaths of Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds were particularly poignant for me and my mother. We're the same ages. These two stars were women of our eras.

Debbie Reynolds played many wonderful roles in the grand old MGM films. It's hard to name a favorite. The Unsinkable Molly Brown in some ways mirrors her loss of innocence and rags-to-riches rise to fame, as well as her spirit of determination. Debbie gave her all in this role and got an Oscar nomination (but lost to Julie Andrews for Mary Poppins. Here's a clip of her singing, "Belly Up To The Bar Boys."

I'm a big Star Wars fan and have always enjoyed the intelligence and toughness that Carrie brought to the role of Princess Leia. But here's one of my favorite scenes with Carrie, a brief one she has in The Blues Brothers with John Belushi. It always makes me laugh. ~E.E. Burke

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I loved Carrie as Lea in Star Wars but I thought to share my favorite Debbie Reynolds’ movie: How the West Was Won. In “the Plains” segment, she plays Lilith, who chooses to go to St. Louis, where she finds work performing in a dance hall. We get to hear her sing as she attracts the attention of professional gambler Cleve Van Valen (Gregory Peck) 

After overhearing that she has just inherited a gold mine, to avoid paying his debts Cleve tries to court her. But she isn’t interested. When she discovers her mine is worthless, Lilith returns to work as a singer, first in a dance hall and later, in the music salon of a riverboat. By chance, Cleve is a passenger. When he hears Lilith's voice, he leaves the poker table (and a winning hand) to propose to her. This time, she accepts his proposal. How could she turn away Gregory Peck? ~Regan Walker

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It is so hard to lose the stars that we watched grow up or grow old. But at least we can go back and catch them in their glory years. 

Since I spend years on stage, singing and dancing, my absolute favorite Debbie Reynolds movie was Singin' in the Rain. (With Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor--love the choreography!) And my morning radio station used to have callers sing along with the broadcasters the Good Morning song. ~Nan Dixon

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I was lucky enough to catch Debbie Reynold's show in her Las Vegas casino back in the day, and she was more brilliantly hilarious than I could ever have imagined. There are so many moments I could choose as a favourite memory, but I'm going with These Old Broads - partly because Carrie Fisher wrote the movie for her, and partly because it not only stars Debbie Reynolds, Shirley MacLaine and Joan Collins, but also Elizabeth Taylor as a Hollywood agent who once stole Debbie Reynolds's character's husband. 

The movie is about three former Hollywood stars who must overcome their dislike of each other to reunite for a TV special when their old 1960s musical is re-released. Here's the closing number of the movie... ~Avril Tremayne

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All of the above. Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher are long-time favorites of mine. As Jillian stated, I totally get the up/down relationship with her mother. I'm delusional if I think I can choose just one character they've portrayed over another. I particularly enjoyed Debbie's cameos in several fun films like CONNIE & CARLA.  People.com shared this photo which is particularly touching.

shared on: http://people.com/movies/carrie-fisher-watching-debbie-reynolds-on-stage-photo-story-photographer-lawrence-schiller/
LAWRENCE SCHILLER/COPYRIGHT POLARIS COMMUNICATIONS INC.

I've read so many tributes over the past week and discovered so much trivia about their roles. Did you know that Debbie was a gymnast and not a dancer? After landing the role in SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, Fred Astair gave her dance lessons on the movie lot when she wasn't filming. ~Angi Morgan

One of my very favorite Carrie Fisher moments is short, silly, and relatively recent, but it made me fall in love with her ability to laugh at herself and the world and just have fun.  This is Carrie in a cameo on the Big Bang Theory and what was so cool about this is that it was literally the first time she and James Earl Jones had ever met. On the set of Star Wars, JEJ was in a sound booth recording Darth Vader's voice and never appeared on film. In an interview he said it was "very sweet" to finally meet her!  ~Lizbeth Selvig

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Have a favorite Carrie Fisher or Debbie Reynolds movie to share with us? Please comment while enjoying this little snippet of song: