‘Debbie died of a broken heart’

London. – Screen icon Debbie Reynolds has died at the age of 84. The news comes just one day after her daughter, actress Carrie Fisher, 60, died of a heart attack.Reynolds was thinking of her daughter in her final moments.

“I miss her so much, I want to be with Carrie,” she said shortly before passing, her son Todd told TMZ.

Reynolds was at her and Fisher’s property when she had to be rushed to the hospital for a possible stroke on Wednesday afternoon, PEOPLE confirmed .

On Tuesday, Reynolds had taken to social media to thank fans for their support in the wake of her daughter’s death.

“Thank you to everyone who has embraced the gifts and talents of my beloved and amazing daughter,” Reynolds said on Facebook. “I am grateful for your thoughts and prayers that are now guiding her to her next stop.”

Among the last legends from Hollywood’s golden age, Reynolds – an actress, singer, dancer, entrepreneur, humanitarian and historian – achieved fame that was bigger than the parts she played – from “Singin’ in the Rain” to her off-screen role in one of the most famous scandals in celebrity history when her husband, Eddie Fisher, left her for her friend Elizabeth Taylor.

Reynolds had one of those classic Hollywood discovery stories. Born Mary Frances Reynolds in El Paso, Texas, to parents Maxine and Raymond, she moved with the family around age seven to Burbank, California. It was in the Miss Burbank beauty pageant, when Reynolds was 16, that a talent scout from Warner Bros discovered her and signed her to a contract with the powerhouse studio.

Asked what the turning point was in her career, Reynolds told PEOPLE in 2011, “Winning this contest, which was unusual. My suit came from the Salvation Army . . . I didn’t have high heels. There were talent scouts, and they thought I was a funny little kid. They took me to Warner Brothers and signed me up.”

She made five films in three years with luminaries like Lana Turner and Fred Astaire, but it was her sixth that turned Reynolds from just another ingénue into America’s Sweetheart: “Singin’ in the Rain”.

The 1952 musical-comedy about the death of silent films and rise of the talkies starred Reynolds as Kathy Selden, a chorus girl who meets cute with silent movie star Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly). Thanks to Selden’s golden pipes, she winds up as the stand-in for the imperious (but squeaky-voiced) Lina Lamont, played by Jean Hagen.

There are a couple of ironies in the fact that Singin’ turned Reynolds into a star. The first is that before filming, Reynolds couldn’t dance. She learned, and hoofed until her feet bled for the “Good Morning” scene with Kelly and costar Donald O’Connor. – theguardian.