LOS ANGELES—Debbie Reynolds, an actress who sang and danced her way into film history opposite Gene Kelly in the classic 1952 musical Singin’ in the Rain, a movie that helped turn her into a sweetheart of American film, has died. She was 84.

Her son, Todd Fisher, said Reynolds died Wednesday, a day after her daughter, Carrie Fisher, died.

“She’s now with Carrie and we’re all heartbroken,” Fisher said from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where his mother was taken by ambulance earlier Wednesday.

He said the stress of his sister’s death at the age of 60 “was too much” for Reynolds.

Between 1950 and 1967, she appeared in more than 30 movie musicals and light comedies, receiving her lone Oscar nomination for playing the title character in 1964’s The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Many critics considered it her most memorable early role, and it was a favourite — Reynolds related to a woman with tremendous zest for life.

Off-screen, she starred as the wronged woman in a love triangle that many in the late 1950s considered the Hollywood scandal of the century. Her first husband, singer Eddie Fisher, left Reynolds — perceived by moviegoers as the girl next door — for sultry actress Elizabeth Taylor.

Standing alone in her front yard in 1958, the abandoned Reynolds met the press. Fastened to her blouse was a diaper pin, a reminder of the couple’s two young children inside. The “nuclear-like split,” as a Times article from that era described it, proved disastrous to Fisher’s career.

The outpouring of public sympathy for Reynolds only served to increase her fame — the comedy The Mating Game that she co-starred in with Tony Randall was one of four movies she appeared in the next year.

She was just 18 when studio chief Louis B. Mayer cast her in Singin’ in the Rain over the objections of Kelly, who wanted a professional dancer for the part. Decades later, Reynolds said she could still recall the pain from three months of dance rehearsals that made her feet bleed.

“Singin’ in the Rain and childbirth were the hardest things I ever had to do in my life,” Reynolds wrote in her 1988 autobiography Debbie.

The movie about Hollywood’s transition to talkies was a box-office hit, and her portrayal of an up-and-coming spunky actress turned Reynolds into a star. It is widely considered one of the greatest movie musicals.

Her last role was Liberace’s mother in the 2013 HBO movie Behind the Candelabra. She received the 2014 Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.

Work was a necessity for the thrice-divorced Reynolds, whose public image was far more rosy than her private life.

After Reynolds married Fisher in 1955, they had two children, Carrie and Todd. Their daughter became an actress best known for playing Princess Leia in the Star Wars movies and, later, a successful writer. Their son was named for Fisher’s best friend, producer Mike Todd.

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Reynolds’ second and third husbands left her in financial ruin, she often said.

Husband No. 2, Harry Karl, was a shoe magnate who lost his millions and hers through gambling and bad investments, according to her autobiography. He left her with her two children and his three to raise when they divorced in 1973 after 14 years of marriage.

It took her 10 years to pay off Karl’s debts, “and I’ve never forgiven him for that,” Reynolds said in 1997. He died in 1985.

In 1997, the Las Vegas hotel and casino she opened in the early 1990s went belly up and she filed for bankruptcy. Reynolds blamed her third husband, real estate developer Richard Hamlett, for mismanaging the property. They divorced in 1996 after more than a decade together.

Carrie Fisher, who gained her own fame to rival her mother’s, died just one day before other on Tuesday, after suffering a medical emergency on a flight from London to Los Angeles.

In a November interview with for the NPR show Fresh Air, Fisher spoke of her admiration for her mother, whom she said had some recent health setbacks.

“She’s an immensely powerful woman, and I just admire my mother very much,” Fisher said. “There’s very few women from her generation who worked like that, who just kept a career going all her life, and raised children, and had horrible relationships, and lost all her money, and got it back again.

“I mean, she’s had an amazing life, and she’s someone to admire.”

In addition to her son, Reynolds is survived by a granddaughter, actress Billie Lourd.

More on thestar.com:

Outpouring of grief for Debbie Reynolds from Hollywood stars and fans

Carrie Fisher flashed her witty side with these quotes

Fans create a Hollywood Walk of Fame star for Carrie Fisher

With files from The Associated Press, Peter Goffin and Megan Dolski