Entertainer Eddie Fisher Dies at 82

Singer’s affair with Elizabeth Taylor and divorce from Debbie Reynolds was a tabloid sensation

Singer and entertainer Eddie Fisher has died. He was 82.

The cause was complications from hip surgery, his daughter Tricia Leigh Fisher told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Best known for his hit song "Oh! My Pa-Pa" and his NBC variety series "Coke Time with Eddie Fisher" (1953-57), Fisher achieved his biggest fame for jilting wife Debbie Reynolds for Elizabeth Taylor.

Taylor was the widow of Fisher's good friend, producer Mike Todd, who died in a plane crash in 1958. Comforting Mrs. Todd eventually led to something more. Soon after, Fisher and Reynolds became embroiled in a highly public divorce.

The tables turned on Fisher just a few years later when Taylor left him for Richard Burton, who she met on the set of "Cleopatra."

He co-starred with Reynolds in the musical comedy "Bundle of Joy" (1956) and alongside Taylor in the drama "Butterfield 8" (1960).

His daughter with Reynolds, the actress and humorist Carrie Fisher, would go on to achieve cinematic immortality as Princess Leia in "Star Wars."

Fisher would marry five times in total. After the divorce from Taylor, he wed Connie Stevens when she became pregnant with his child; he had a 10 month marriage to beauty queen Terry Richard, who was 20 years his junior; and a fifth and final marriage to Chinese-born businesswoman Betty Lin.

Besides his romantic foibles, Fisher rose to fame on his strength as a singer. His tenor voice and good looks made him a teen idol in the pre-rock n' roll days of the forties and fifties.

Like so many clean cut crooners, however, Fisher found himself swept out of the cultural zeitgeist with the advent of Elvis and the Beatles. He remained on the periphery of the public eye by headlining Vegas nightclubs throughout the sixties, seventies, and beyond.

In addition to "Coke Time," Fisher starred on NBC's "The Eddie Fisher Show" (1957-59). He was also a recording star with hit songs such as "Games That Lovers Play," "I'm Yours," "Count Your Blessings," and a cover of "Sunrise, Sunset" from the Broadway musical "Fiddler on the Roof."

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