Legendary Hollywood actress Debbie Reynolds died in Los Angeles at the age of 84.  She was rushed to hospital suffering a suspected stroke one day after her daughter Carrie Fisher, an accomplished actress and author in her own right, died after a heart attack on an intercontinental flight.

"Debbie Reynolds was one of the last of Hollywood Royalty," tweeted William Shatner.  "It breaks my heart that she is gone.  I'd hoped that my grieving was done for 2016," he wrote alluding to the incredible loss of beloved talent from music, film, and other fields.

"How shocked we were to learn that Debbie Reynolds passed away just a day after her daughter Carrie," tweeted Carl Reiner. "I loved and worked both of these icons."

"Debbie Reynolds, a legend and my movie mo," said actor and filmmaker Albert Brooks, who cast Reynolds in his 1996 comedy "Mother", in which Ms. Reynolds received glowing reviews.  "I can't believe this happened one day after Carrie.  My heart goes out to Billie," referring to her granddaughter actress Billie Lourd, daughter of Carrie Fisher.

Reynolds began her incredible run in Hollywood at the age of 18, starring opposite Gene Kelly in "Singin' in the Rain" - cast by studio chief Louis B. Mayer himself.  She went on to star in more than 30 lighthearted musicals and romantic comedies from 1950 through 1967, and was nominated for an Oscar for playing the title character in 1964's "The Unsinkable Molly Brown". 

But she was equally famous for the real-life part of the wronged woman when her husband Eddie Fisher left her and their two children for Elizabeth Taylor.  Reynolds spoke with reporters about the split, standing on the front lawn of their home with a diaper pin on her blouse - reminding audiences what was at stake.  Audiences turned on Eddie Fisher, whose career never recovered.  But Reynolds rode the outpouring of public sympathy and threw herself into her work, starring in four movies in the next year including "The Mating Game" with co-star Tony Randall.

Her next marriages were even worse.  Reynolds blamed husband number two, show magnate and problem gambler Harry Karl, with mismanaging their money and leaving her with his three kids from a previous union to raise.  Third husband and property developer Richard Hamlett fouled up the books so bad that she had to declare bankruptcy.  

But Debbie Reynolds proved to be as unsinkable as the relentlessly cheerful characters she played on screen.  She continued to work in film, TV, and on stage. And she had purchased a ton of Hollywood memorabilia from the 1970s, assembling a 4,000 piece collection of iconic film goodies - sets and costumes, including the headpiece worn by one-time romantic rival Elizabeth Taylor in "Cleopatra".  Some of the pieces were displayed in Reynolds' short-lived Las Vegas casino before eventually being auctioned off for north of US$25 Million.

"I still have a lot of my things, but I decided to become rich, and I had all of this that I'd invested my money in, millions over the years," she told the Los Angeles Times in 2010.  "I decided to pull some money out so that Carrie (Fisher) and (son) Todd and I could do whatever we wanted to do."