Debbie Reynolods presented with Life Achievement honour at Screen Actors Guild Awards

The Singin' in the Rain actress is presented award by her daughter, Carrie Fisher.

Debbie Reynolds, left, and Carrie Fisher. Getty Images / AFP

Debbie Reynolds accepted the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award from her daughter Carrie Fisher on Sunday night and promptly embarrassed her with a story.

The 82-year-old entertainer recalled having "a big, ugly bun" in her best-known movie, Singin' in the Rain.

"I warned my daughter Carrie: 'Be careful of any weird hairdo,'" Reynolds said she advised Fisher, before Fisher played Princess Leia in George Lucas's Star Wars. "Luckily, George gave her two buns."

Reynolds initially told the audience at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles that her favourite movie was Singin' in the Rain, her first major co-starring role in 1952 with Gene Kelly.

But later she also called The Unsinkable Molly Brown her favourite. She received her only Oscar nomination for the 1964 film.

"I got to sing a song called I Ain't Down Yet," she said. "Well, I ain't."

The acerbic Fisher lovingly and bitingly celebrated her mother before turning over the mic.

“She has been more than a mother to me, not much, but definitely more,” Fisher said, noting her mother’s advice on interior decorating and her ­personal life.

Fisher narrated a video tribute to Reynolds, who has been in show business for 66 years. Her career began when she was signed by Warner Bros after being crowned Miss Burbank at 16.

“Admittedly, I found it difficult to share my mother with her adoring fans who treated her like a member of their family,” Fisher said.

Reynolds's most recent role was in 2013 when she played Liberace's mother in HBO's TV movie Behind the ­Candelabra.

“I had the best teachers,” Reynolds said in recalling her ­career. “God gave us talent, so we’re so fortunate.”