Eddie Fisher pictured with his wife Debbie Reynolds (right) and future wife Elizabeth Taylor in a 1958 photo
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Long before the era of Brangelina, TMZ and around-the-clock celebrity obsession, Eddie Fisher had a leading role in arguably the most explosive sex scandal of Hollywood's golden age.
He was a music superstar and household name to millions of teenage girls who adored his crooning love songs. He was married to Debbie Reynolds — a megawatt movie star in her own right and the star of "Singin' in the Rain." They had a daughter Carrie who would one day go on to fame of her own.
Then Fisher left Reynolds for Elizabeth Taylor, and what resulted was a scandal that left no doubt about America's love of a good-old-fashioned Hollywood romance story. The affair became a national obsession — and an early forerunner of the scandals that are now so common in the current celebrity-crazed world.
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From Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Eddie Fisher was a very popular singer in the 1950's with several of his songs making the Top 10 list. He also acted in a few movies, notably in the 1960 movie Butterfield 8, for which his second wife Actress Elizabeth Taylor won the Best Actress Academy Award. Married five times, he was 82 years old upon his death.
An article in TIME magazine detailed his early successes in the 1950's
Eddie Fisher was the golden boychik of mainstream pop, the dimpled troubadour from Philadelphia. Pretty and poised, he had the packaging and the product: a clear, confident tenor that could turn powerful or intimate at will. In the 1950-54 prerock period — the most tepid five years in the history of 20th century music — he had 19 songs reach the Top 10, including four ("Wish You Were Here," "I'm Walking Behind You," "Oh! My Pa-Pa," "I Need You Now") that went to No. 1. When he was drafted into the Army during the Korean War, President Harry Truman proclaimed him "my favorite PFC." He transferred his vinyl popularity to a TV variety show and then to movies. Fisher's covenant with Hollywood mythology was sealed with his 1955 marriage to Debbie Reynolds, Hollywood's princess of pert. It marked the perfect merger of adorable and adorabler.
(Eddie Fisher and Elizabeth Taylor in a 1959 Picture - AP Photo)
Here's how the Washington Post remembered his later years
A decade later, after his romantic debacle with Reynolds and Taylor, his fame and its accouterments were almost gone. He married actress Connie Stevens in 1967 and had two more children, but they were divorced in 1969.
A year later, Mr. Fisher declared bankruptcy. He attempted occasional comebacks, but the last 40 years of his career were spent in sporadic engagements in Las Vegas and in second-tier concert halls.
In some ways, Mr. Fisher became better known as a onetime star fallen low than for his actual achievements. He lamented that Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett had built solid careers while he could never escape his past.
In two memoirs, Mr. Fisher revealed that he had been addicted to amphetamines and cocaine for more than 30 years and had spent $20 million on drugs and gambling during his life...
Asked to explain his peculiar appeal, as a faded pop star who romanced some of the most glamorous women in the world, Mr. Fisher said in 1999, "I wasn't the handsomest of men but I was adorable."
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Here's the complete list of Elizabeth Taylor Movies.