Eddie Fisher

Eddie Fisher — Edwin Jack Fisher — American pop singer and television host whose 1950s hits and tabloid marriages made him a mid-century celebrity, died at a Berkeley, California, hospital on September 22, 2010, after complications following hip surgery. He was eighty-two. Born August 10, 1928, in Philadelphia to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, he rose through radio and nightclubs to become one of the era's best-selling crooners before rock and roll remade the charts. Hits such as "Anytime," "I'm Walking Behind You," and "Oh! My Pa-Pa" kept him atop Billboard lists; NBC's Coke Time made his face as familiar as his tenor. Marriages to Debbie Reynolds, Elizabeth Taylor, and Connie Stevens kept gossip columns busy and eventually overshadowed the voice that had launched him. Later decades brought cabaret returns, memoirs, and a quieter California life as the teenage screamers of the 1950s became grandparents. Berkeley was the final medical chapter after years on the West Coast. Daughters Carrie Fisher and Joely Fisher carried performing craft into another generation; Eddie's own recordings remain documents of pre-rock pop polish. He died in Berkeley on September 22, 2010. Vinyl collectors still spin the early singles; Hollywood histories still argue about the fame that followed. Fisher's gift was clean romantic phrasing — a radio-ready voice that defined 1950s mainstream pop before the culture shifted. Notice Nearby keeps the death date so September 22 remembers the Philadelphia crooner who topped the charts and then learned how celebrity outlives a hit.