LOS ANGELES — 1950s pop icon, husband to starlets
Eddie Fisher, one of the most popular singers of the 1950s who made headlines with marriages to - and divorces from - some of the most famous Hollywood starlets of that era, has died. He was 82.
Fisher died Wednesday at his home in Berkeley of complications from hip surgery, his daughter Tricia Leigh Fisher said.
Between 1950 and 1956, Fisher recorded dozens of songs that made theTop 40 and four that reached No. 1 on the pop charts.
Fisher’s boyish good looks and natural charisma also helped him land roles on television shows and in such feature films as Butterfield 8, Nothing Lasts Forever and Bundle of Joy.
But he may be best remembered for his failed marriages to Debbie Reynolds, Elizabeth Taylor and Connie Stevens.
Fisher was born in Philadelphia on Aug. 10, 1928.
In 1950 he recorded his first hit, “Thinking of You.” In 1951, he had his first million-seller, “Any Time.”
In 1955, Fisher married Reynolds, known as “America’s Sweetheart.” They had two children, including actress Carrie Fisher. However, it didn’t take long for the celebrated union to fall apart.
Fisher created a tabloid scandal in 1958 when he left Reynolds, then just 26, for Elizabeth Taylor.
The move, considered in Hollywood at the time to be one of the century’s biggest scandals, helped torpedo Fisher’s career and launch Taylor toward superstardom.
In 1962, he suffered a breakdown after the collapse of his marriage to Taylor, who then married Richard Burton.
He later married Stevens and they had two daughters. A divorce followed, and he married twice more.
Information for this article was contributed by The Associated Press.
Arkansas, Pages 14 on 09/25/2010