MovieChat Forums > Gun Crazy (1950) Discussion > Is Frances Irwin really Debbie Reynolds?

Is Frances Irwin really Debbie Reynolds?

posted 17 years ago by hipdadiddy
13 replies | jump to latest

Did a double take about fifteen minutes before the end of this movie, when the camera panned over to the female singer during the nightclub sequence. Called my wife in and without saying a word about who I thought it was, asked her, "Who's that?" Without hesitation she replied, "Debbie Reynolds, of course." We both were certain -- not only a dead ringer physically, but sounded exactly like her as well.

So imagine my surprise when I checked the credits and found her listed as "Frances Irwin", who, according to IMDb, made only this and one other movie and then disappeared from the face of the earth. At least, there's no other biographical information I can find about her either here on IMDb or elsewhere on the 'net. Seems a remarkably barren record for so strikingly beautiful and talented a performer, qualities that come across even in the few fleeting moments of screen time she gets here.

Anybody else think this might be a case of a future star performing under a pseudonym (for whatever reason -- maybe because a B grade potboiler wasn't considered an auspicious vehicle for her debut)? Granted, if it is Debbie, she would've been about 17 years old -- but she wasn't much older than that when she made her first impression in "Three Little Words" a year or so later.

UPDATE: The mystery deepens. Just checked Debbie's IMDb profile, and one of her nicknames is... "Frannie".

Hmmmmmm....

[–] AlanSquier 17 years ago

She sure looks like Debbie, and both Frances Irwin movies were made the year Debbie made her first credited appearance.

I killed him for money and for a woman. I didn't get the money... and I didn't get the woman.

[–] david-879 15 years ago

one of her nicknames is... "Frannie".

Her birth name was Mary Frances Reynolds. I can't believe that nobody has picked up on the fact that they are one and the same, if this is true.

[–] thistledown-2 15 years ago

I just watched that part on you.tube and the girl singer definatly is not
Debbie Reynolds..don't forget in 1950 she made 'Singing in the Rain'

[–] clive-ihd 15 years ago

Debbie Reynolds was only 17 when Gun Crazy was made, and only 20 when she made Singing in the Rain in 1952.

[–] sleepybone 14 years ago

Frances Irwin is actually Frances Irvin, her name misspelled in the credits.She was an actress from Texas who had been listed in the 1949 Academy Players Dictionary.
But she was young,only 19 at the time she appeared in Gun Crazy.

[–] carrps 9 years ago

And Debbie Reynolds is from Texas. It's possible they're distantly related, but I just saw this movie yesterday, and she didn't look like Debbie Reynolds AT ALL to me.

[–] KlutzyGirl 14 years ago

Unless there were two singers (which is possible as there were two songs and the voices on each were quite different), the girl in close-up is definitely NOT Debbie. I mean really, not even close!

[–] don-lockwood 14 years ago

Seriously, she may look and sound like Debbie Reynolds, but not enough to mistake them. This woman has a different facial structure, a square jaw and bigger nose. A simple Google search of Frances Irwin (with the "w," not the "v") led me to this woman, who looks more like the woman from the video than Debbie Reynolds does: http://leftthisyear.blogspot.com/2008_12_01_archive.html (Ctrl + F "Frances Irwin"). The bio and birth date make sense for who we're actually seeing in the film.

[–] evilbastard9 14 years ago

I might be mistaken, but I thought that Debbie's voice is used in the movie, and the girl shown is just lip synching.

[–] tsalagicelt 14 years ago

Wait a minute! I went to that site that you linked, and read about the "Frances Irwin" that you found there. That's "Violet Frances Irwin" (birth name), also known as Georgia Rosenbloom Frontiere, the recently late bimbo who in the 1970s married (her sixth marriage at that time) Carroll Rosenbloom, who owned the Los Angeles Rams NFL team. When he mysteriously died (probably a Mafia hit), she inherited the team. She was the Rams' owner for over 30 years. **This** is the woman singing in "Gun Crazy", according to you? That would be too interesting for words! It's also probably true.

[–] footsperry 13 years ago

This was Frances IRVIN, not Irwin - though she is listed otherwise in the credits. She was a Dorsey band singer, not so known in movies.

[–] alisotom 11 years ago

it vaguely resembles her... they both have two eyes.

[–] pt100 10 years ago

Mystery solved. Here is a photo of Frances Irvin. She bears only a passing resemblance to Debbie Reynolds:
http://www.historyforsale.com/html/prodetails.asp?documentid=203760&am p;start=4&page=59