Eddie Fisher

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Eddie Fisher (born August 10, 1928 as Edwin John Fisher in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , † September 22, 2010 in Berkeley , California ) was an American singer and entertainer .

Life

Eddie was born the fourth of seven children to Jewish-Russian emigrants Joseph Tisch and Kate Winokur, who changed their family name to Fisher after immigrating to the United States. Eddie, then only called "Sonny", discovered his talent for singing early on. He began singing in bands at the age of 16, was discovered by Eddie Cantor in New York and known nationwide through a radio broadcast in 1949. Cantor got him a record deal with RCA Records . In 1950 Fisher had his first hit parade with his second single Thinking of You , which climbed to number 5. In 1951 he was drafted, served temporarily in the army in Korea and performed with various military bands.

The 1950s was Fisher's decade. Between 1950 and 1956 - before rock'n'roll - he had no fewer than 50 hits in the top 30 of the Billboard charts, including Wish You Were Here (1952), Just Another Polka (1953), Oh! My Pa-Pa (1953) and I Need You Now (1954) four number one hits. He also had his own television show from 1953 to 1959 and numerous guest appearances in shows by colleagues such as Perry Como and Frank Sinatra . Eddie Fisher has given concerts in many major US houses and has shows in Las Vegas, New York and London.

Eddie Fisher was also represented in the cinema. He stood in front of the camera with two of his wives. In the film musical Bundle of Joy he played in 1956 with Debbie Reynolds ; In 1960 he starred in the drama Butterfield 8 with his second wife, Elizabeth Taylor , who won an Oscar for her role .

In the 1960s, Fisher's successes - also in the wake of his headline-grabbing divorces from Reynolds and Taylor - were falling in the singles charts. His RCA LP Games That Lovers Play, recorded in 1966 with Nelson Riddle , on the other hand, became the best-selling album of his career.

In the early 1970s, Fisher went broke because he gambled away most of his fortune (as he later confessed in his autobiography) in casinos and spent it on drugs. In 1984 he tried a comeback with the newly recorded album After All , but could not build on earlier successes.

In 1981 his autobiography Eddie: My Lives, my Loves was published, followed by a second in 1999 under the title Been There, Done That .

Eddie Fisher received two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in February 1960 , one in the music recordings category for his records (at 6241 Hollywood Boulevard ) and a second in the television category for his television shows (at 1641 Vine Street).

Fisher died at the age of 82 in a Berkeley, California hospital after complications from hip replacement surgery.

family

With his tumultuous private life, Fisher made headlines again and again; he was married five times and had four children. From his marriage to Debbie Reynolds (1955-1959) come the actress and author Carrie Fisher and the son Todd Fisher. In 1959 he divorced Reynolds in order to marry Elizabeth Taylor , the widow of his close friend Michael Todd, who had died the previous year , in the same year . The marriage to Taylor divorced in 1964 after Taylor fell in love with Richard Burton . From Fisher's third marriage to actress and singer Connie Stevens (1967-1969), the two actresses Joely Fisher and Tricia Leigh Fisher emerged. After a short marriage with the beauty queen Terry Richard (1975-1976) Fisher was married to the Chinese-born businesswoman Betty Lin († 2001) from 1993.

Fisher's daughter Carrie Fisher wrote the novel and script for the 2001 television movie These Old Broads , in which her mother Debbie Reynolds and stepmother Elizabeth Taylor starred.

Relationship to the "Rat Pack"

Fisher's reputation as a kind of “natural enemy” of Frank Sinatra is legendary, who from the 1950s onwards repeatedly mocked him publicly for his alleged lack of vocal talent and compared Fisher's working style as a singer with a snare drum . Later, other members of Sinatra's entourage of what the press called the Rat Pack joined these jokes and developed a running gag out of it ; Dean Martin, for example, said when he made fun of his own, mostly only acted, alcohol consumption on stage: “I need alcohol in order to believe I'm Dean Martin, a singer, a movie star. Without booze, I'm Eddie Fisher. ”-“ I need alcohol to believe I'm Dean Martin, a singer, a movie star. Without alk I'm Eddie Fisher. ”In 1965 Sinatra countered Fisher's LP release Eddie Fisher Today (Dot Records) with his similarly titled reprise album Sinatra '65: The Singer Today .

Sinatra and Fisher had a good relationship offstage, however, and also performed joint vocal appearances in front of the camera in March 1958 on the Frank Sinatra Show ( ABC ). As early as 1953, Sinatra had recorded a cover version of Fisher's hit I'm Walking Behind You on his first recording session for Capitol Records ; In 1962, Sinatra Fisher brokered an engagement at the Casino Cal Neva Lodge in Lake Tahoe . For his part, Fisher made various appearances on Dean Martin's television show in the 1960s.

Discography

Singles (US top 30 hits only)

  • 1948: You Can't Be True, Dear
  • 1950: Thinking Of You
  • 1951: Bringing Back the Thrill; Unless; I'll hold you in my heart; Turn back the hands of time; Any time
  • 1952: Tell Me Why; Trust In Me; Forgive me; That's the chance you take; I'm Yours; Just a Little Lovin '; Maybe (duet with Perry Como ); Watermelon Weather (duet with Perry Como); I Remember When; Wish You Were Here; The Hand of Fate; Lady of Spain; Outside of Heaven; Everything I Have Is Yours
  • 1953: You're All I Want for Christmas; Even Now; Downhearted; How Do You Speak To an Angel ?; I'm Walking Behind You; Just Another Polka; With These Hands; Many Times; Just to Be with You; Oh! My Pa-Pa
  • 1954: A Girl, a Girl; Anema e core; Green years; My friend; The Little Shoemaker (with Hugo Winterhalter ); The Magic Tango (with Hugo Winterhalter); Heaven Was Never Like This; I need you now; Count your blessings; Fanny
  • 1955: A Man Chases a Girl; (I'm Always Hearing) Wedding Bells; Heart; Song of the Dreamer; Dungaree Doll; Everybody's Got a Home But Me
  • 1956: On the Street Where You Live; Cindy, Oh Cindy

Albums

Original albums
  • 1952: Eddie Fisher Sings (RCA Victor)
  • 1952: I'm In The Mood For Love (RCA Victor)
  • 1952: Christmas with Eddie Fisher (RCA Victor)
  • 1954: Irving Berlin Favorites (RCA Victor)
  • 1954/55: May I Sing To You? (RCA Victor)
  • 1955: I Love You (RCA Victor)
  • 1955: Academy Award Winners (RCA Victor)
  • 1956: Bundle Of Joy (Soundtrack) (RCA Victor)
  • 1958: As Long As There's Music (RCA Victor)
  • 1960: Scent Of Mystery (Soundtrack) (Ramrod)
  • 1963: Eddie Fisher At The Winter Garden (Ramrod)
  • 1965: Eddie Fisher Today! (Dot)
  • 1965: When I Was Young (Dot)
  • 1966: Games That Lovers Play (RCA Victor)
  • 1967: People Like You (RCA Victor)
  • 1968: You Ain't Heard Nothing Yet (RCA Victor)
  • 1984: After All (Bainbridge)
Compilations (selection)
  • 1954: The Best of Eddie Fisher (RCA Victor)
  • 1957: Thinking Of You (RCA Victor)
  • 1962: Eddie Fisher's Greatest Hits (RCA Victor)
  • 1988: The Very Best Of Eddie Fisher (MCA)
  • 2001: Eddie Fisher: Greatest Hits (RCA)

Filmography

movie theater
watch TV
  • 1953–1957: Coke Time with Eddie Fisher (on NBC)
  • 1957–1959: The Eddie Fisher Show (on NBC)

Autobiographies

  • Eddie Fisher: Eddie. My life, my loves. Harper & Row, New York 1981. ISBN 0-060-14907-8 .
  • Eddie Fisher: Been There, Done That. St Martin's Press, New York 1999. ISBN 0-312-20972-X .

Web links

Commons : Eddie Fisher  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ US star of the fifties: Eddie Fisher is dead . Spiegel Online , September 24, 2010, accessed December 27, 2016.
  2. ↑ Richard Havers: Sinatra . Dorling Kindersley , London, 2004, ISBN 1-4053-0089-2 , p. 187 (box).
  3. ^ So for the first time as part of a "Summit" engagement in Miami in March 1960.
  4. ↑ Richard Havers: Sinatra . Dorling Kindersley, London, 2004, ISBN 1-4053-0089-2 , pp. 186 f., 263 and 267.
personal data
SURNAME Fisher, Eddie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fisher, Edwin John (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American singer and entertainer
DATE OF BIRTH August 10, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia , Pennsylvania, USA
DATE OF DEATH September 22, 2010
Place of death Berkeley