Princess Leia's Father Died

Eddie Fisher, whose huge fame as a pop singer was overshadowed by scandals ending his marriages to Debbie Reynolds and Elizabeth Taylor, has died. He was 85.
    
His daughter, Tricia Leigh Fisher of Los Angeles, told The  Associated Press Thursday that Fisher died Wednesday night of complications from hip surgery at a hospital in Berkeley.
    
The death was first reported by Hollywood website deadline.com.
    
Fisher's clear dramatic singing voice brought him a devoted  following of teenage girls in the early 1950s. He sold millions of  records with 32 hit songs including ``Thinking of You,'' ``Any  Time,'' ``Oh, My Pa-pa,'' ``I'm Yours,'' ``Wish You Were Here,'' ``Lady of Spain'' and ``Count Your Blessings.''
    
His fame was enhanced by his 1955 marriage to movie darling  Debbie Reynolds _ they were touted as ``America's favorite couple'' and the birth of two children.
    
Their daughter Carrie Fisher became a film star herself in the  first three ``Star Wars'' films as Princess Leia, and later as a  best-selling author of ``Postcards From the Edge'' and other books.
    
Carrie Fisher spent most of 2008 on the road with her  autobiographical show ``Wishful Drinking.'' In an interview with  The Associated Press, she told of singing with her father on stage  in San Jose. Eddie Fisher was by then in a wheelchair and living in  San Francisco.
    
When Eddie Fisher's best friend, producer Mike Todd, was killed  in a 1958 plane crash, Fisher comforted the widow, Elizabeth  Taylor. Amid sensationalist headlines, Fisher divorced Reynolds and  married Taylor in 1959.
    
The Fisher-Taylor marriage lasted only five years. She fell in  love with co-star Richard Burton during the Rome filming of  ``Cleopatra,'' divorced Fisher and married Burton in one of the  great entertainment world scandals of the 20th century.
    
Fisher's career never recovered from the notoriety. He married  actress Connie Stevens, and they had two daughters. Another divorce  followed. He married twice more.
    
Edwin Jack Fisher was born Aug. 10, 1928, in Philadelphia, one  of seven children of a Jewish grocer. At 15 he was singing on  Philadelphia radio.
    
After moving to New York, Fisher was adopted as a protege by  comedian Eddie Cantor, who helped the young singer become a star in  radio, television and records.
   
Fisher's romantic messages resonated with young girls in the  pre-Elvis period. Publicist-manager Milton Blackstone helped the  publicity by hiring girls to scream and swoon at Fisher's  appearances.
    
After getting out of the Army in 1953 following a two-year  hitch, hit records, his own TV show and the headlined marriage to Reynolds made Fisher a top star. The couple costarred in a 1956  romantic comedy, ``Bundle of Joy,'' that capitalized on their own  parenthood.
    
In 1960 he played a role in ``Butterfield 8,'' for which Taylor  won an Academy Award. But that film marked the end of his movie  career.
    
After being discarded by Taylor, Fisher became the butt of  comedians' jokes. He began relying on drugs to get through  performances, and his bookings dwindled. He later said he had made  and spent $20 million during his heyday, and much of it went to gambling and drugs.
    
In 1983, Fisher attempted a full-scale comeback. But his old  fans had been turned off by the scandals, and the younger generation had been turned on by rock. The tour was unsuccessful.
    
He had added to his notoriety that year with an autobiography,  ``Eddie: My Life, My Loves.'' Of his first three marriages, he wrote he had been bullied into marriage with Reynolds, whom he  didn't know well; became nursemaid as well as husband to Taylor, and was reluctant to marry Connie Stevens but she was pregnant and  he ``did the proper thing.''
    
Another autobiography, ``Been There, Done That,'' published in  1999, was even more searing. He called Reynolds ``self-centered,  totally driven, insecure, untruthful, phony.'' He claimed he  abandoned his career during the Taylor marriage because he was too  busy taking her to emergency rooms and cleaning up after her pets,  children and servants. Both ex-wives were furious, and Carrie  Fisher threatened to change her name to Reynolds.
    
At 47, Fisher married a 21-year-old beauty queen, Terry Richard.  The marriage ended after 10 months. His fifth marriage, to Betty  Lin, a Chinese-born businesswoman, lasted longer than any of the  others. Fisher had two children with Reynolds: Carrie and Todd; and  two girls with Stevens: Joely and Tricia.