American crooner of the 1950’s. He was one of the world’s top singers but became virtually unknown by little more than a decade later. At the age of 14, he started performing in nightclubs, went on tours, recorded albums, appeared on television and in films. Fisher had 21 hit songs, including “Lady of Spain” and “Oh Mien Papa,” earning him more than $1 million a year at his peak. By the late 1960s, he was drinking and playing in small clubs overseas in order to pay for his drug habit. He gambled his way into bankruptcy and spent 20 years as a meth addict, carrying suitcases full of drug paraphernalia and injecting himself before each performance.
The son of a luggage salesman and Russian mother, Fisher was born into a poor family of seven children. At 11, he would sing at the family’s synagogue in Philadelphia, winning one amateur contest after another as well as singing regularly on a children’s radio program.
During WWII, his career was put on hold when he served two years in the military service. He later got work as a headliner at the Riviera Club in Fort Lee, NJ where he became a star within a year.
In 1981, he wrote an autobiography, “Eddie, My Life, My Loves,” a sorry recount of his failed marriages. Fisher has been divorced numerous times, first to actress Debbie Reynolds. Together they had a son, Todd, and a daughter who became a movie star, Carrie, best known for her role as Princess Lea in “Star Wars”. He left Reynolds to marry Elizabeth Taylor and then actress Connie Stevens. At 51, he divorced his fourth wife, Terry Richard, a 24-year old beauty pageant queen. Fisher married Betty Lin 7/14/1993.
In 1978, an eight-month U.S. tour of the show “Vaudeville” kept him active. After a 15-year absence, he recorded an album in 1984. By 1990, his drug habit was successfully behind him and he was celebrating a one-year anniversary of alcohol rehabilitation at the Betty Ford Clinic. Deeply regretting what he perceived as 37 lost years of drug abuse, he became heavily involved in community work in San Francisco, helping local organizations use a sports program to get six and seven-year olds away from drugs. A new and clean Fisher also released a compact disc titled, “I Want You With Me” as part of his 1990 mini-comeback. His autobiography was released 9/30/1999, “Been There, Done That,” which had his kids and ex-wives questioning some of the authenticity of what was written.
He died at his Berkeley, CA home on September 22, 2010 from complications of hip surgery.
Link to Wikipedia biography