Eddie Fisher RIP
September 24, 2010 10:15 AM Subscribe
Princess Leia's dad died l Carrie's tweet l Eddie Fisher RIP l [He] became one of the last great young crooners of the pre-rock and roll period, with 35 of his recordings reaching the Top 40 through the end of the decade l His career as a pop singer was overshadowed by his marriages to Debbie Reynolds and Elizabeth Taylor l When Eddie Fisher was with Debbie Reynolds.
On IMDB
Condolences to his children, Carrie, Todd, Joely (daughter of Eddie Fisher and Connie Stevens), and Tricia Leigh as well as his six grandchildren.
"By the time I was thirty-three years old I'd been married to America`s sweetheart and America`s femme fatale and both marriages had ended in scandal; I`d been one of the most popular singers in America and had given up my career for love; I had fathered two children and adopted two children and rarely saw any of them; I was addicted to methamphetamines and I couldn`t sleep at night without a huge dose of Librium. And from all this I had learned one very important lesson: There were no rules for me. I could get away with anything so long as that sound came out of my throat."
On IMDB
Condolences to his children, Carrie, Todd, Joely (daughter of Eddie Fisher and Connie Stevens), and Tricia Leigh as well as his six grandchildren.
"By the time I was thirty-three years old I'd been married to America`s sweetheart and America`s femme fatale and both marriages had ended in scandal; I`d been one of the most popular singers in America and had given up my career for love; I had fathered two children and adopted two children and rarely saw any of them; I was addicted to methamphetamines and I couldn`t sleep at night without a huge dose of Librium. And from all this I had learned one very important lesson: There were no rules for me. I could get away with anything so long as that sound came out of my throat."
By the time I was thirty-three years old I'd been married to America`s sweetheart and America`s femme fatale and both marriages had ended in scandal;
Carrie Fisher dedicates a portion of her one-woman show to explaining this (the picture includes part of the blackboard where she literally draws the audience a picture); she said, think of my dad as Brad Pitt, my Mom as Jennifer Aniston, and Elizabeth Taylor as Angelina Jolie. I hadn't understood the scandal until she explained it that way.
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posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 10:27 AM on September 24, 2010 [1 favorite]
Carrie Fisher dedicates a portion of her one-woman show to explaining this (the picture includes part of the blackboard where she literally draws the audience a picture); she said, think of my dad as Brad Pitt, my Mom as Jennifer Aniston, and Elizabeth Taylor as Angelina Jolie. I hadn't understood the scandal until she explained it that way.
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posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 10:27 AM on September 24, 2010 [1 favorite]
I hadn't understood the scandal until she explained it that way.
You just made me feel very, very old.
posted by briank at 10:28 AM on September 24, 2010 [3 favorites]
You just made me feel very, very old.
posted by briank at 10:28 AM on September 24, 2010 [3 favorites]
With all due respect to Carrie, in the early 1950s, Eddie Fisher was more the equivalent of Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Jon Hamm, and Gerard Butler wrapped up all in one package. Until Elvis came along, that is.
posted by blucevalo at 10:35 AM on September 24, 2010
posted by blucevalo at 10:35 AM on September 24, 2010
Princess Leia's dad
This is about as wrongheaded as referring to Hank Williams as "Hank Williams, Jr.'s dad."
posted by dhammond at 10:42 AM on September 24, 2010 [3 favorites]
This is about as wrongheaded as referring to Hank Williams as "Hank Williams, Jr.'s dad."
posted by dhammond at 10:42 AM on September 24, 2010 [3 favorites]
Sorry I borked the Todd Fisher link. Here is the correct one. Dear mods, please hope this pathetic member, who ought to know better by now.
Princess Leia's dad
This is about as wrongheaded as referring to Hank Williams as "Hank Williams, Jr.'s dad."
I know. *hangs head
Apologies to all who knew about Eddie Fisher any other way. But that's the only way I knew about Eddie Fisher, as her dad.
posted by nickyskye at 10:53 AM on September 24, 2010
Princess Leia's dad
This is about as wrongheaded as referring to Hank Williams as "Hank Williams, Jr.'s dad."
I know. *hangs head
Apologies to all who knew about Eddie Fisher any other way. But that's the only way I knew about Eddie Fisher, as her dad.
posted by nickyskye at 10:53 AM on September 24, 2010
Carrie Fisher has said that her parents' marriage was basically an arranged marriage cooked up by the studios and that it had all the romance of a press release. Elizabeth Taylor said at the time that "no one leaves a good marriage for someone else", and it was truer than in most cases where a spouse decamps to be with a third party.
posted by orange swan at 10:54 AM on September 24, 2010
posted by orange swan at 10:54 AM on September 24, 2010
Carrie Fisher dedicates a portion of her one-woman show to explaining this (the picture includes part of the blackboard where she literally draws the audience a picture)
I loved that part of the show; it just didn't translate well in the audio book.
I read Carrie's blog for a while, and was always sort of tragically amused at the stories of her dad, smoking pot like crazy, still having the same attitudes towards women as he'd had 50 years ago. He sounded like a fun guy from a different time.
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posted by nomisxid at 11:02 AM on September 24, 2010
I loved that part of the show; it just didn't translate well in the audio book.
I read Carrie's blog for a while, and was always sort of tragically amused at the stories of her dad, smoking pot like crazy, still having the same attitudes towards women as he'd had 50 years ago. He sounded like a fun guy from a different time.
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posted by nomisxid at 11:02 AM on September 24, 2010
Pricess Leia's dad is not dead, that's just something that Obi-Wan says because the truth is too painful.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 11:03 AM on September 24, 2010 [4 favorites]
posted by Pater Aletheias at 11:03 AM on September 24, 2010 [4 favorites]
Am I the only one whose first thought was "Oh my God, James Earl Jones died!"
posted by justkevin at 11:09 AM on September 24, 2010
posted by justkevin at 11:09 AM on September 24, 2010
AND he died in Berkeley! My hometown. I wonder if he lived near Saul Bellow.
posted by parmanparman at 11:10 AM on September 24, 2010
posted by parmanparman at 11:10 AM on September 24, 2010
OK, sorry to hear he died.
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But really, some of these comparisons sound fishy to me. I'm a 40-year old man who grew up in the USA with the television always on, etc. I have seen Debbie Reynolds movies, and seen and heard various things about her many, many times over the years. I can vividly picture her face both young and old based on all the stuff I've seen and heard about her. Same goes for Elizabeth Taylor, who is probably even MORE famous.
But Eddie Fisher? Sure, I've heard of him. I've heard many times that he was Carrie Fisher's dad. And I remember hearing about him, seeing a picture of him way back at some point maybe, and that he was also a singer. But it seems like his fame is being exaggerated a bit here.
posted by jeff-o-matic at 11:14 AM on September 24, 2010
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But really, some of these comparisons sound fishy to me. I'm a 40-year old man who grew up in the USA with the television always on, etc. I have seen Debbie Reynolds movies, and seen and heard various things about her many, many times over the years. I can vividly picture her face both young and old based on all the stuff I've seen and heard about her. Same goes for Elizabeth Taylor, who is probably even MORE famous.
But Eddie Fisher? Sure, I've heard of him. I've heard many times that he was Carrie Fisher's dad. And I remember hearing about him, seeing a picture of him way back at some point maybe, and that he was also a singer. But it seems like his fame is being exaggerated a bit here.
posted by jeff-o-matic at 11:14 AM on September 24, 2010
.
It's really sad that Eddie Fisher had to die to get me to read Carrie Fisher's Twitter feed.
But now, suddenly the whole Twitter phenomenon makes sense.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 11:16 AM on September 24, 2010
It's really sad that Eddie Fisher had to die to get me to read Carrie Fisher's Twitter feed.
But now, suddenly the whole Twitter phenomenon makes sense.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 11:16 AM on September 24, 2010
But it seems like his fame is being exaggerated a bit here.
The 1950s had a lot of stars who burned white-hot for a couple of years but didn't hold onto fame. Fabian was another singer in the Eddie Fisher vein who was hotter than hot and then went cold forever.
So, I think it's fair to make the assertions about how hot-and-handsome he was, with the stipulation that he stopped being either a very long time ago.
posted by briank at 11:22 AM on September 24, 2010 [2 favorites]
The 1950s had a lot of stars who burned white-hot for a couple of years but didn't hold onto fame. Fabian was another singer in the Eddie Fisher vein who was hotter than hot and then went cold forever.
So, I think it's fair to make the assertions about how hot-and-handsome he was, with the stipulation that he stopped being either a very long time ago.
posted by briank at 11:22 AM on September 24, 2010 [2 favorites]
Am I the only one whose first thought was "Oh my God, James Earl Jones died!"
s/James Earl Jones/Hayden Christensen/
also
s/"Oh my/"Praise/
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:25 AM on September 24, 2010
s/James Earl Jones/Hayden Christensen/
also
s/"Oh my/"Praise/
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:25 AM on September 24, 2010
But it seems like his fame is being exaggerated a bit here.
Eddie Fisher pretty much dropped out of the fame vortex once Liz Taylor dropped him. After that it was pretty much tabloid fodder the rest of his life -- or nothing.
You're 40. You wouldn't have seen or heard him at the peak of his fame. It's a temporal impossibility. Neither would I. Doesn't mean he didn't have major fame. It was a different time. There are tons of celebrities who are dead or on the verge of dying whose fame makes little sense to us. I'm sure people in the fifties would find little sense in the people we idolize either.
posted by blucevalo at 11:41 AM on September 24, 2010 [2 favorites]
Eddie Fisher pretty much dropped out of the fame vortex once Liz Taylor dropped him. After that it was pretty much tabloid fodder the rest of his life -- or nothing.
You're 40. You wouldn't have seen or heard him at the peak of his fame. It's a temporal impossibility. Neither would I. Doesn't mean he didn't have major fame. It was a different time. There are tons of celebrities who are dead or on the verge of dying whose fame makes little sense to us. I'm sure people in the fifties would find little sense in the people we idolize either.
posted by blucevalo at 11:41 AM on September 24, 2010 [2 favorites]
This is like my fantasy father-in-law dying.
have I said too much?
posted by Rumple at 11:43 AM on September 24, 2010
have I said too much?
posted by Rumple at 11:43 AM on September 24, 2010
briank and blucevalo:
Upthread he's being compared to Brad Pitt, and also "...Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Jon Hamm, and Gerard Butler wrapped up all in one package."
I'd say that's a bit exaggerated.
posted by jeff-o-matic at 12:00 PM on September 24, 2010
Upthread he's being compared to Brad Pitt, and also "...Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Jon Hamm, and Gerard Butler wrapped up all in one package."
I'd say that's a bit exaggerated.
posted by jeff-o-matic at 12:00 PM on September 24, 2010
Upthread he's being compared to Brad Pitt, and also "...Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Jon Hamm, and Gerard Butler wrapped up all in one package."
I'd say that's a bit exaggerated.
It certainly doesn't jibe with the explanation that his fame was short-lived, because Pitt (for example) has been a high-profile actor for nearly 20 years if you count Thelma & Louise as his starting point; Clooney a decade and a half if you count ER as his.
posted by rodgerd at 12:48 PM on September 24, 2010
Upthread he's being compared to Brad Pitt, and also "...Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Jon Hamm, and Gerard Butler wrapped up all in one package."
I'd say that's a bit exaggerated.
People, he married Debbie Reynolds and then dumped her for Elizabeth Taylor.
Brad Pitt's got nothing on him. If this doesn't make any sense to you, then it's because you know Debbie Reynolds from "Will & Grace" and Elizabeth Taylor because she was married to Larry Fortensky.
That is NOT how you should know these two women! (I should know them like Eddie Fisher knew them. O be still my beating heart....)
posted by chavenet at 12:58 PM on September 24, 2010
I'd say that's a bit exaggerated.
People, he married Debbie Reynolds and then dumped her for Elizabeth Taylor.
Brad Pitt's got nothing on him. If this doesn't make any sense to you, then it's because you know Debbie Reynolds from "Will & Grace" and Elizabeth Taylor because she was married to Larry Fortensky.
That is NOT how you should know these two women! (I should know them like Eddie Fisher knew them. O be still my beating heart....)
posted by chavenet at 12:58 PM on September 24, 2010
Brad Pitt's got nothing on him.
Except in terms of, you know, having a long-term career apart from being someone's spouse, apparently, which is what I'm getting from these explanations.
posted by rodgerd at 1:13 PM on September 24, 2010
Except in terms of, you know, having a long-term career apart from being someone's spouse, apparently, which is what I'm getting from these explanations.
posted by rodgerd at 1:13 PM on September 24, 2010
Except in terms of, you know, having a long-term career apart from being someone's spouse
The man had a recording career that lasted 20 years. He was an early star of TV, Radio & Film.
He had his own TV show.
Maybe it was before your time, it surely was before mine. But he was a star of the golden age. Brad Pitt will be so lucky to remembered thus when his star fades.
posted by chavenet at 1:28 PM on September 24, 2010
The man had a recording career that lasted 20 years. He was an early star of TV, Radio & Film.
He had his own TV show.
Maybe it was before your time, it surely was before mine. But he was a star of the golden age. Brad Pitt will be so lucky to remembered thus when his star fades.
posted by chavenet at 1:28 PM on September 24, 2010
Except in terms of, you know, having a long-term career apart from being someone's spouse, apparently
Even a cursory glance at his Wikipedia page would tell you that he had more significance than "being someone's spouse."
But yeah, we all know that anybody who lived way back in the Pleistocene before Brad Pitt and George Clooney can be pretty much dismissed on his face.
posted by blucevalo at 1:40 PM on September 24, 2010
Even a cursory glance at his Wikipedia page would tell you that he had more significance than "being someone's spouse."
But yeah, we all know that anybody who lived way back in the Pleistocene before Brad Pitt and George Clooney can be pretty much dismissed on his face.
posted by blucevalo at 1:40 PM on September 24, 2010
This is silly, but go and compare Brad Pitt's IMDB page with Eddie Fisher's. Brad Pitt has been a big, big star since since the early '90s and barring some tragedy or voluntary retirement he'll continue being a huge star for a couple more decades. As for Fisher's recording career, without using Google, how many songs of his can you name?
Whatever. Sad to hear of anyone dying.
posted by jeff-o-matic at 1:42 PM on September 24, 2010
Whatever. Sad to hear of anyone dying.
posted by jeff-o-matic at 1:42 PM on September 24, 2010
blucevalo: No one here is "dismissing" him. I was simply pointing out that his fame is being exaggerated. Sheesh.
posted by jeff-o-matic at 1:45 PM on September 24, 2010
posted by jeff-o-matic at 1:45 PM on September 24, 2010
I buy the bigger-than-Brad Pitt comparison. It's not a direct comparison, of course, because times are different and Pitt is an actor who one goes out to see, while Eddie Fisher's voice came to you, in the privacy of your own home. People's relationship to radio stars was different than their relationship to movie stars then or now, and I'm struggling to find a way to describe it - it was intimate, it required more listener imagination, it felt more personal.
He was a chart-topping singer and a radio/tv personality at a time when radio and TV had significant primetime audiences - and he made the transition from the intimate voice of the radio to the visual spectacle of TV well (unlike a lot of his contemporaries). He rode the top of the wave for a decade before he left his wife for her (then-former) friend, and lost a big portion of his fanbase who thought of him as an ideal lover; he was always trying to climb back up to the top afterwards, at a time where his style of music was rapidly going out the window. His string of beautiful dates and wives continued, but it seemed less impressive in light of his history.
He was young, handsome, and brash, and alternately courted and fled the media. The media at that time was splitting between being still susceptible to entertainment industry PR influence/direction and more independent, but celebrity-oriented. Both groups found his persona interesting, and the string of (semi- and) famous Hollywood beauties he dated.
I think of him as being more like Kim Kardashian meets Madonna meets John Mayer - a mixture of Kardashian's ability to find a camera and a date, Madonna's chart-dominance and musical draw, and Mayer's style.
posted by julen at 1:47 PM on September 24, 2010 [2 favorites]
He was a chart-topping singer and a radio/tv personality at a time when radio and TV had significant primetime audiences - and he made the transition from the intimate voice of the radio to the visual spectacle of TV well (unlike a lot of his contemporaries). He rode the top of the wave for a decade before he left his wife for her (then-former) friend, and lost a big portion of his fanbase who thought of him as an ideal lover; he was always trying to climb back up to the top afterwards, at a time where his style of music was rapidly going out the window. His string of beautiful dates and wives continued, but it seemed less impressive in light of his history.
He was young, handsome, and brash, and alternately courted and fled the media. The media at that time was splitting between being still susceptible to entertainment industry PR influence/direction and more independent, but celebrity-oriented. Both groups found his persona interesting, and the string of (semi- and) famous Hollywood beauties he dated.
I think of him as being more like Kim Kardashian meets Madonna meets John Mayer - a mixture of Kardashian's ability to find a camera and a date, Madonna's chart-dominance and musical draw, and Mayer's style.
posted by julen at 1:47 PM on September 24, 2010 [2 favorites]
Brad Pitt has been a big, big star since since the early '90s
Yes, as you keep reminding us.
posted by blucevalo at 1:49 PM on September 24, 2010 [1 favorite]
Yes, as you keep reminding us.
posted by blucevalo at 1:49 PM on September 24, 2010 [1 favorite]
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000093/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0279472/
posted by jeff-o-matic at 1:59 PM on September 24, 2010
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0279472/
posted by jeff-o-matic at 1:59 PM on September 24, 2010
One of the things Carrie Fisher brought up in her one woman show was that her daughter dated Elizabeth Taylor's grandson.
posted by brujita at 9:21 PM on September 24, 2010
posted by brujita at 9:21 PM on September 24, 2010
The comparison with Brad Pitt has to do with the women he was married to, not the quality of his own career. In terms of the stardom of the women, Eddie Fisher way outplayed Brad Pitt. Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie just cannot compare with Debbie Reynolds and Elizabeth Taylor.
posted by bardophile at 10:20 PM on September 24, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by bardophile at 10:20 PM on September 24, 2010 [1 favorite]
No one compares, to Elizabeth Taylor.
posted by Goofyy at 8:44 AM on September 25, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Goofyy at 8:44 AM on September 25, 2010 [1 favorite]
I'm such a nerd that my first reaction was "Bael Organa!? No!"
posted by cowbellemoo at 10:30 PM on September 25, 2010
posted by cowbellemoo at 10:30 PM on September 25, 2010
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posted by lordrunningclam at 10:27 AM on September 24, 2010 [3 favorites]