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A sk film buffs what their favorite Debbie Reynolds role is and responses will run the gamut of her 65-plus year acting career. From spunky Kathy Selden in Singin' in the Rain to love-struck Tammy, and from sassy Bobbi Adler on Will & Grace to that unsinkable Molly Brown, Reynolds' roles are beloved and in a class of their own. With those famous roles have come many honors and awards and, in January, Reynolds will be adding one more to the mantle as she is honored with the 51st SAG Life Achievement Award. The award will be presented on Jan. 25 during the 21st annual Screen Actors Guild Awards ® telecast. "She is a tremendously talented performer with a diverse body of screen and stage work, live performances and several hit records," SAG-AFTRA President Ken Howard said of Reynolds' artistry. "Her generous spirit and unforgettable performances have entertained audiences across the globe, moving us all from laughter to tears and back again." With more than 50 motion pictures, two Broadway shows, two television series and dozens of television, cabaret and concert appearances, the 82-year-old Reynolds really has done it all. "If you stay at home in a closet, nothing will happen to you and you won't get hurt," Reynolds told The Daily Mail in 1995. "But you also won't experience anything about life. You have to expose yourself to life and everything there is in life." And that's exactly what she did. Born Mary Frances Reynolds in El Paso, Texas, Reynolds and her family moved to Burbank in 1939. As a young teen, she performed in the Burbank Youth Orchestra, high school plays and became Miss Burbank at age 16 — which started the wheels turning in her career. Talent scouts from Warner Bros. and MGM saw the young Miss Burbank and flipped a coin to see who would give her a screen test. Warner Bros. won, and under the guidance of Jack Warner himself she gained a studio contract and a new name. Reynolds made her screen debut as June Haver's younger sister in the 1950 musical The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady. A successful audition at MGM landed her the role of the "Boop-Boop-A-Doop" girl Helen Kane in the biopic Three Little Words and a contract at the studio, known for its spectacular musicals. Her breakout role was in one of the greatest musicals of all time, Singin' in the Rain, starring opposite Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor. Reynolds worked for three months, eight hours a day, with multiple teachers to develop the dancing skills needed for the film. For the next 10 years, Reynolds made more than 25 films, including The Unsinkable Molly Brown, which garnered her an Academy Award nomination; How the West Was Won; and Tammy and the Bachelor, which included the Oscar- nominated title song Tammy, a No. 1 smash hit that earned Reynolds a gold record. Over the course of her career, Reynolds has sung with Frank Sinatra, danced with Fred Astaire and starred opposite Tony Curtis, Walter Matthau, Dick Van Dyke, Jason Robards and James Garner, to name just a few. But musicals were not Reynolds' only forte. In 1956, her first non-musical dramatic role was as a bride-to-be in The Catered Affair, starring Bette Davis and Ernest Borgnine. The performance earned her a Best Supporting Actress Award from the National Board of Review. And, 40 years later, Reynolds' dramatic chops in Albert Brooks' Mother landed her a Golden Globe nomination, a Golden Satellite Award and an Online Film & Television Award nomination. Mother was just one of many later roles in which Reynolds has played a matriarch. On television's Will & Grace, she played Bobbi Adler, a character she has described as one of her favorites; Katherine Heigl's grandmother in 2012's One for the Money; and in 2013, Liberace's mother Frances in the award-winning Reynolds in The Pleasure of His Company, 1961. ALBERTO E. RODRIGUEZ/GET T Y IMAGES