Celebrate Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds' Relationship on 1-Year Death Anniversary

Actresses died within one day of each other in December 2017

By Corinne Heller Dec 28, 2017 11:00 AMTags
Watch: In Memoriam: Fallen Stars of 2016

It has been one year since Carrie Fisher and her mother Debbie Reynolds passed away.

The 60-year-old Star Wars actress and her 84-year-old mom, a veteran Hollywood star, died within one day of each other on the last week of December last year. Carrie had gone into cardiac arrest while on a plane traveling from London to Los Angeles and passed away at the hospital five days later. Debbie suffered a fatal hemorrhagic stroke a day later, on Dec. 28, 2017.

The actresses were laid to rest together at a private funeral at the Hollywood Hills' Forest Lawn Memorial Park in January. Debbie's surviving son and Carrie's brother Todd Fisher hosted a public celebration of their lives at a reception hall at the cemetery in March. Carrie is also survived by 25-year-old daughter and actress Billie Lourd and half-sisters Joely Fisher and Tricia Fisher.

See photos of some of Debbie and Carrie's sweetest mother-daughter moments over the years:

Happy Family

Debbie and Carrie appear with her dad Eddie Fisher in a portrait taken in 1957. Debbie and Eddie divorced in 1959. He died in 2010 at age 82.

Going for a Ride

Debbie and Carrie, then 23 months old, leave their Los Angeles home in 1958.

Kisses

The two appear at a school benefit at the Town Hall in New York City in 1972.

'70s Chic

The two are pictured together in 1972.

It's Show Time

This throwback image of the two was used as a promo pic for their 2016 documentary Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds.

Liz's Party

The two arrive for Elizabeth Taylor's 75th birthday party at the Ritz-Carlton, Lake Las Vegas in Henderson, Nevada in 2007. Taylor was Debbie's friend and was also the second ex-wife of her ex-husband and Carrie's father, Eddie Fisher.

Hanging With Joely

The two appear with Carrie's sister Joely Fisher at a premiere of Carrie's HBO documentary Wishful Drinking, which is based on the hit stage production of the autobiographical tale of her life, in 2010.

Dynamic Duo

The two pose in the press room at the 2015 Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Three Generations

Carrie appears with her mother and daughter Billie Lourd at the 2015 Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Ladies Night

Debbie, Carrie and her daughter Billie Lourd appear in the press room at the 2015 Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Major Honor

Carrie presents Debbie with the SAG Life Achievement Award at the 2015 Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Carrie admired her mother, who rose to fame with movies such as Singin' in the Rain.

"I thought my mother was fabulous," Carrie said on the Today show in 1987. "Imagine having Debbie Reynolds as a mother? Wild idea! What a concept. It was great. She was great. She was fun, she was vivacious, she was beautiful. In those days, she would come home from the studio and she'd have all this, the wigs and the makeup...I just thought she was fabulous."

"I was in the car with her one day, and she started to sing," she said about her mom. "I said, 'I thought you could only do that at the studio.' I literally thought it like, came on. When I was sort of around her, she was 'Mom.' Then I knew she had this thing she did at work. But I just thought she punched it in. The voice came on, the hair went on, the makeup went on. I did understand this was the other life she had, that was work. And then there was 'Mommy.'"

Carrie and Debbie's relationship was documented in the 1990 film Postcards from the Edge, which is based on the Star Wars actress' 1987 semi-autobiographical novel, and the two had their fair share of turmoil. For about 10 years during the late '70s and '80s, after Carrie rose to fame with the first Star Wars trilogy, the two were largely estranged. Carrie also struggled at the time with addiction and bipolar disorder.

"We had a fairly volatile relationship earlier on in my 20s," Carrie told Oprah Winfrey in 2011 in a an interview. "I didn't want to be around her. I did not want to be Debbie Reynolds' daughter."

The pair later reconciled and their bond was as strong as ever. They collaborated on the 2016 documentary Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds.

"I believe my mother knows now...that I take her advice, that I follow her example, that I respect who she is and am glad that if that I'm like her in any way, I'm very, very happy that I am," Carrie told Winfrey.

"I would say that Carrie and I have finally found happiness. I admire her strength and survival. I admire that she is alive, that she has chosen to make it. It would have been easy to give up and to give in and to keep doing drugs. I always feel, as a mother does, that I protect her," Debbie told Winfrey. "Who will do that when I'm gone?"