LORI NELSON: "I think Debbie's popularity stems from her outgoing personality, vibrancy and vitality. Debbie's the kind of girl who knows what she wants and goes after it."

FRANK SINATRA: "She is one of the most delightful persons you could ever meet. How she ever manages to be the provocative woman and the engaging little girl both at the same time I'll never know. And I have never heard her speak unkindly of another person. Also, she has one of the most difficult to acquire and one of the most enduring qualities a woman can have - happiness in her heart."

HARRIET PARSONS (Director): "She has sensitivity, fire and emotional warmth...she is so responsive, so quick to understand what is wanted of her and to project it for the camera. She is not only charming and appealing, she can act."

BETTE DAVIS: "In The Catered Affair, Debbie was in the same predicament I was in when I tackled Of Human Bondage with an all-English cast that didn't want me at all. We were afraid Debbie was just a cute girl. Well, you either have guts or you haven't. Debbie put aside her usual bounce and she spoke in a way that was strange to her and she used no trace of glamour. I found her a worker, not a daydreamer."

ROBERT WAGNER: "Debbie Reynolds is one girl who has managed to survive the various stages of a Hollywood career with good taste. She has never let herself be carried away by the fuss and furor and she has always been honestly natural."

PIER ANGELI: "When I came from Italy barely speaking English, Debbie became my best friend here. She saw right through my shyness and understood how anxious I was to make good. She was so generous in making me feel welcome and I have since observed that she is friendly to everyone. It is not an act. She is the busiest girl I've ever seen, but she isn't one bit self-centered. I think a real friend is one who is there not only when you're happy but also when you're sick or in trouble. That's the test. Debbie is always there."

HEDDA HOPPER: "Debbie is as shrewd as she is pretty."

CARRIE FISHER:  "When I was a child, my mother seemed to me to be something like a miracle. Not my mother, surely. Too beautiful to be any mother of mine. She has always had some . . . impish kind of poise that is so endlessly, effortlessly lovable. Yes, there was no other explanation. I was not the child of this darling beauty, but some end-of-shoot remembrance sent to her from the prop department. A put-together thing complete with parts spare and missing.

I worshipped my mother from the nearest possible side of afar. This woman smelling of White Shoulders, Albolene creme and El Paso. She's a force of nature; an undeniable fact, like gravity or Greenland. Unbiquitous, lovable, and as it turns out, my actual mother.

Thanks be to God and Louis B. Mayer."

ROY ROWLAND (Director): "She was so cute. So unaffected and refreshing and frisky as a kitten. She said exactly what she thought...I found her to have a sense of values unusual in such a young girl. A little perfectionist, she could do anything well, and she always wanted to do it better. She has great depth and a deep sensitivity she covers with laughter. She also has an indefinable amount of an indefinable thing called personality."

DONALD O'CONNOR: "On Singin' in the Rain, Debbie was a lot of fun and a sweet kid, just like a high school kid. She amazed me by the fact that she said she couldn't dance. She was wonderful."

GENE KELLY: "Debbie was strong as an ox and could work for hours.  Also she was a great copier, and could pick up the most complicated routines without too much difficulty."

SHIRLEY MacLAINE: "Debbie was pert, perky, precious, and punctual. She was bubbling with enthusiasm and right on the button with every comedic assessment she made."

AGNES MOOREHEAD:  "Debbie has an incredible sense of humor and it’s a good thing she has. You know, it’s really the only thing that keeps us actors going. If an actor either loses his sense of humor – or just doesn't have one to start with – he can eat himself up inside. Both Debbie and I manage to see the funny side of things – and so survive.

"Debbie is also a wonderful impersonator, as you may know. She spots a person’s weakness and immediately picks up on it. That’s the secret of mimicking, and she has a marvelous ear for it. Oh, yes, she does me, too. And she is simply hilarious at it. I tend to look rather austere, so here comes Debbie, very grand, very grand, like a dowager. I love it."

PATSY KELLY: "When Debbie was in Irene, she was the den mother. There wasn't a person in the cast who didn't go running into her dressing room with their problems. And when Janie Powell took over and Gower Champion wasn't available to direct her, it was Deb, who showed up every morning and coached her into the part...Jane has the same kind of spirit - and they are both April 1st babies. That's enough to make you believe in astrology."

EVA GABOR: "Debbie is one of the few women I know who can take a gown that might seem conservative and put sex into it."