Margie Duncan, dancer, actress, studio director, and stand-in for Debbie Reynolds, has died at 92

Margie Duncan, 92, formerly of Philadelphia, dancer, actress, stand-in for Debbie Reynolds, and retired executive director of the Debbie Reynolds Dance Studio in North Hollywood, died Tuesday, Jan. 3, of failure to thrive at her home in the Porter Ranch section of Los Angeles.

A lifelong entertainer, show business executive, and personal dynamo, Ms. Duncan first took to the stage as a teenage dancer in Philadelphia in the 1940s. She made herself a tap-dancing sensation and earned performances at the Academy of Music and nightclubs such as the Latin Casino and Palumbo’s, and later at the famous Versailles cabaret in New York.

She knew Eddie Fisher, James Darren, Bernie Rich, and other Philadelphia singers, dancers, and actors of that era. Through Rich, she met Reynolds over dinner in New York.

She spent the next six decades, from the 1950s to 2016, working on major films as Reynolds’ stand-in during dance rehearsals, in movie roles of her own, as director of the Debbie Reynolds Dance Studio, and as a film producer and costume designer.

“When I’m there, I feel at home,” choreographer Michael Peters told the Los Angeles Times in 1988, referring to Reynolds’ dance studio. “Because of Debbie’s and Margie’s love for dancers and dance, it really turned into this family place.”

Ms. Duncan and Reynolds became close friends and colleagues in the 1950s, and Ms. Duncan often refined a show’s dance routines with choreographers before Reynolds performed them on film. They practiced dances together for such movies as The Singing Nun and The Unsinkable Molly Brown, got married within months of each other in 1955, and had their first child on back-to-back days in 1956.

“We were never mad at each other for more than a minute,” Ms. Duncan told journalist Kristyn Burtt of Dance Dish with KB in 2017.

“You can take the girl out of Philly, but you can’t take Philly out of the girl,” longtime director and friend Dorian Hannaway said in a tribute. “Her love of life and adventure was contagious.”

Ms. Duncan also played roles of her own in The Second Time Around in 1961, Single Room Finished in 1966, How Sweet It Is in 1968, and several other films. In 1979, Reynolds created her dance studio and asked Ms. Duncan to run it.

So Ms. Duncan hired celebrated set designer Jerry Wunderlich to configure the nine-studio building, and he came up with roomy spaces, comfortable floors, and a pleasant ambience. Ms. Duncan kept the budget in line, managed the choreographers, and courted clients.

Over the years, Michael Jackson, Ann-Margret, Bette Midler, John Travolta, Shirley Jones, Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke, Olivia Newton-John, Madonna, and countless other performers rehearsed, auditioned, and collaborated at the studio. Ms. Duncan retired at 86, and the studio closed after Reynolds died in 2016 at 84.

“At first the place went bananas,” Ms. Duncan told the Times in 1988 about Madonna’s rehearsal sessions. “But [she] was working here so often that she soon became part of the scenery, and people let her alone.”

Ms. Duncan also worked earlier as an assistant to costume designers Ret Turner, Bob Mackie, and Ray Aghayan, and coproduced productions for the Thalians charity that benefits mental health causes.

“She was a positive person, very energetic,” said her son Mark Rich. “She liked to help young dancers. She didn’t have a mean bone in her body.”

Born Sept. 4, 1930, Margaret Joan Duncan grew up in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia and graduated from John W. Hallahan Catholic Girls’ High School. She and her family often spent summers on the beaches at Wildwood, and she refined her dance and acting skills in high school by performing wherever she could.

She married Rich in 1955, and they had sons Michael and Mark, and daughter Elisa. After a divorce, she married Sheldon Kaufman. They later divorced, and she lived in California. Both former husbands died earlier.

Ms. Duncan’s children met up with Reynolds’ son and daughter, Todd and Carrie, on movie sets and accompanied their mother on visits to her parents in Philadelphia. She was Catholic and often thanked St. Anthony, the patron saint of lost things. “She lived her faith,” Hannaway said.

She enjoyed ballroom dancing, yoga, and Pilates, worked crossword puzzles, and roller skated. She never stopped going to nightclubs and the theater, and she recently toured many western national parks in a recreational vehicle with her son Mark.

“Her kindness and humor,” Hannaway said, “were only matched by her devotion to her faith and family.”

In addition to her children, Ms. Duncan is survived by three grandchildren, a sister, and other relatives.

A celebration of her life was Feb. 6 and 7.

Donations in her name may be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, Tenn. 38105.