Eddie Fisher

During an April 2007 Entertainment Tonight (1981) interview with Mary Hart, ex-wife Elizabeth Taylor revealed that she recently telephoned him and they spoke for the first time in over 40 years.

When he declared bankruptcy in 1970 in San Juan, Puerto Rico he listed $916,300 in debts and $40,000 in assets in municipal bonds held by the Bank of America as security on a loan.

For a few years he was married to Connie Stevens and they had two daughters, Joely Fisher and Tricia Leigh Fisher before divorcing in 1968. Eddie Fisher has written two autobiographies, the latest "Been There, Done That" published with great controversy. It seems some of the women in his past, including Debbie Reynolds, did not care for his portrayal of them. He must be given credit, however, for owning up to his own actions, which led to the degradation of his career.

From there Liz went on to star in Cleopatra (1963), with Richard Burton, another scandal and divorce for Liz. With his TV show long gone and hit records a thing of the past, his career in the sixties consisted mainly of stage shows in Las Vegas, New York, and smaller venues as time went on.

He and Liz did the movie BUtterfield 8 (1960), which actually earned Taylor an Academy Award, though it was received with mixed reviews.

In Suddenly, Last Summer (1959), he appeared uncredited as a street urchin begging for food from Catherine Holly, the character played by his wife at the time, Elizabeth Taylor.

Around 1956, Eddie Fisher and his agent Lew Wasserman were discussing roles for Fisher's acting debut. A project being discussed at the time was "What Makes Sammy Run?" by Budd Schulberg and Stuart Schulberg. Fisher wanted to play aggressive producer Sammy Glick, "the ultimate Jewish hustler. I knew a lot of real Sammy Glicks and I felt confident that was a character I could play." Lew Wasserman decided that the character was too much of a classic negative Jewish stereotype and that it would be bad for Fisher to play it. So Fisher went in the complete opposite direction (in retrospect, perhaps too far) with then-wife Debbie Reynolds in the squeaky clean comedy that Fisher hated, Bundle of Joy (1956), a film made to capitalize on the birth of their daughter, future Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) "Princess Leia" Carrie Fisher. The Schulberg project "What Makes Sammy Run?" was eventually produced in two parts for Sunday Showcase (1959): Sunday Showcase: What Makes Sammy Run?: Part 1 (1959) and Sunday Showcase: What Makes Sammy Run?: Part 2 (1959).

In 1955 Eddie married Debbie Reynolds and daughter Carrie Fisher was born a year later, followed by son Todd Fisher in l958. Later that year, the scandal of the decade broke when stories of Eddie's affair with Elizabeth Taylor were made public. She had been widowed earlier that year when her husband Mike Todd, Eddie's best friend, died in a plane crash. The bad publicity that followed did a great deal of damage to Eddie's career, while it actually increased the amount of money Elizabeth was offered for films.

A deal of that magnitude was almost unheard of at this time and helped push Fisher towards being one of the most popular singers by 1954.

In 1953 Eddie Fisher was given his own fifteen-minute TV show called Coke Time (1953), sponsored by the Coca-Cola company. This show proved to be so popular that Coke then offered Eddie a $1 million contract to be their national spokesperson.

In 1951, he was drafted into the United States Army where he was singing with the Army Band and touring bases overseas.

At the height of his popularity, during the 1950s, Fisher was, along with Perry Como and Elvis Presley, RCA Victor's top-selling pop vocalist. His many hits during this period, all well remembered, include: "Anytime" (his first big hit), "Oh, My Pa-Pa", "Wish You Were Here", "I Need You Now", "Dungaree Doll", "I'm Walking Behind You", "Heart", "Games That Lovers Play" and "Somebody Like You".