Eddie Fisher, the 1950s singer whose career was overshadowed by his marriages to Debbie Reynolds and Elizabeth Taylor, died in Berkeley on Wednesday, according to new reports.
Fisher, 82, died as a result of complications from hip surgery, his daughter Tricia Leigh Fisher, told the Associated Press.
When his other daughter, Carrie Fisher, was performing her one-woman play at Berkeley Rep, Wishful Drinking, Eddie Fisher could often be spotted in the audience.
Fisher, who rose to prominence in the 1950s, had 32 hit songs.
“One of the greatest voices of the century passed away,” his family said in a statement. “He was an extraordinary talent and a true mensch.”
In 1955, Fisher married movie star Debbie Reynolds and the couple had two daughters. When Fisher’s best friend Mike Todd was killed in a plane crash in 1958, Fisher comforted his widow, Elizabeth Taylor. The two fell in love – which made international headlines – and married in 1959. They divorced five years later after Taylor fell in love with Richard Burton while making the movie Cleopatra. That was an even bigger scandal.
All this bed hopping became dramatic fodder for Carrie Fisher, who turned the romantic dealings of her parents and stepparents into Wishful Drinking. It was first produced as a play by Tony Taccone at Berkeley Rep in 2008 and later traveled successfully to New York.
Fisher died Wednesday night. His daughter told the Associated Press he passed away at home, but other articles say he died at a hospital following surgery. Presumably that would be Alta Bates Hospital.
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