Eddie Fisher(1928-2010)
- Actor
- Soundtrack
In 1953 Eddie Fisher was given his own fifteen-minute TV show called
Coke Time (1953), sponsored by the
Coca-Cola company. This show proved to be so popular that Coke then
offered Eddie a $1 million contract to be their national spokesperson.
A deal of that magnitude was almost unheard of at this time and helped
push Fisher towards being one of the most popular singers by 1954. In
1955 Eddie married
Debbie Reynolds and daughter
Carrie Fisher was born a year later,
followed by son Todd Fisher in l958.
Later that year, the scandal of the decade broke when stories of
Eddie's affair with
Elizabeth Taylor were made
public. She had been widowed earlier that year when her husband
Mike Todd, Eddie's best friend,
died in a plane crash. The bad publicity that followed did a great deal
of damage to Eddie's career, while it actually increased the amount of
money Elizabeth was offered for films. He and Liz did the movie
Butterfield 8 (1960), which
actually earned Taylor an Academy Award, though it was received with
mixed reviews. From there Liz went on to star in
Cleopatra (1963), with
Richard Burton, another scandal
and divorce for Liz. With his TV show long gone and hit records a
thing of the past, his career in the sixties consisted mainly of stage
shows in Las Vegas, New York, and smaller venues as time went on. For a
few years he was married to
Connie Stevens and they had two
daughters, Joely Fisher and
Tricia Leigh Fisher before divorcing
in 1968. Eddie Fisher has written two autobiographies, the latest "Been
There, Done That" published with great controversy. It seems some of
the women in his past, including
Debbie Reynolds, did not care
for his portrayal of them. He must be given credit, however, for owning
up to his own actions, which led to the degradation of his career. His
fifth wife, Betty Lin, passed away from lung cancer on April 15, 2001.
