Eddie Fisher

Eddie Fisher was one of the most successful pop singers of the 1950s and '60s with a string of hit singles that displayed his forceful and appealing voice in contrast to the mellower ballad singers that preceded him. Handsome and charismatic, Fisher won fame as a teenager and sustained his popularity as a performer, on records and on his own television show. His enormous fame was fanned when his marriage to musicals favourite Debbie Reynolds ended in scandal due to his love affair with actress Elizabeth Taylor. Fisher and Taylor's marriage ended abruptly within two years when the actress met Richard Burton on the set of 'Cleopatra' and they began a world famous affair. Born in Philadelphia, Fisher appeared on local radio programmes and sang with big bands as a teenager, releasing his first single, 'You Can't Be True, Dear' in 1948. After a stint with singer Eddie Cantor, he had a hit with an old song, 'Thinking of You' in 1950 and had five more hits the following year. Military service did not interrupt his career and in 1952 he had seven singles on the charts including the best-selling 'Tell Me Why', 'Wish You Were Here' and another revival, 'Lady of Spain'. Fisher released three albums that sold well and when he left the Army he began a 15-minute, twice-a-week television series and had more hit singles including 'I'm Walking Behind You', 'Oh! My Pa-Pa' and 'I Need You Now'. Marriage to movie sweetheart Debbie Reynolds cost him many female fans and he began to appear in Las Vegas. To capitalise on their idealised marriage and two children (one of them future 'Star Wars' star Carrie Fisher) they starred together in the musical comedy movie 'Bundle of Joy'. As pop music began to change, Fisher tried to adapt his singing style with the folk-influenced 'Cindy, Oh Cindy' and rock-oriented 'Dungaree Doll'. A new TV show, 'The Eddie Fisher Show', began in 1957 but ended after he abandoned Reynolds to marry Elizabeth Taylor. The singer acted in the 1960 drama 'Butterfield 8', for which Taylor won her first Academy Award. When his second marriage collapsed, Fisher's popularity began to slide although he continued to have hit records into the '60s. He married actress Connie Stevens and they had two children before divorcing after two years in 1969 and he had two more marriages as his career dwindled to club dates. He managed to defeat long addiction to drugs and gambling, which he wrote about along with his romantic affairs in two autobiographies. He died at his California home following complications from hip surgery aged 82.

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