Born Edwin John Fisher on August 10, 1928, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Eddie Fisher was the fourth of seven children born to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents. He had vocal talent at an early age and sang in amateur contests as a young man, winning several. Later, Fisher sang on Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts, a popular radio talent contest. In 1946 he began singing with bands and was discovered by Eddie Cantor in 1949. Cantor had him on his radio show, which yielded national recognition and a contract with RCA Victor for Fisher.

In 1953 Eddie Fisher was given a fifteen minute television variety show by the Coca-Cola Company, titled Coke Time with Eddie Fisher. The show was so successful that Coca-Cola offered Fisher a one million dollar contract to become the national spokesman for Coke. During the 1950s Eddie Fisher had seventeen top 10 songs and thirty-five songs in the top 40. RCA dropped Fisher in 1960, but he later went on to Dot Records to make the first recording of the Broadway classic "Sunrise, Sunset" from Fiddler on the Roof. Fisher later returned to RCA but his success of the previous decade was lost.

Eddie Fisher has had five wives, three of which were very famous. His first marriage was to Debbie Reynolds and lasted from 1955 to 1959. They had two children, Carrie Fisher, who would later become famous for her role in George Lucas’s Star Wars trilogy, and Todd Fisher. Fisher and Reynolds suffered a very public divorce when his affair with Elizabeth Taylor becoming equally public. Fisher married Elizabeth Taylor the same year he and Reynolds divorced. Eddie Fisher and Elizabeth Taylor divorced in 1964. In 1967, Eddie Fisher married Connie Stevens. They had two children together, Joely Fisher and Tricia Leigh Fisher.

After a brief marriage to Terry Richard, Fisher married his last wife, Betty Lin in 1993. The couple was married until her death in 2001. Though reported to be on friendly terms with Fisher, Reynolds and Taylor can be seen poking fun at him in the 2001 TV movie These Old Broads, which was written by Carrie Fisher and was the last acting role Taylor said she would take. Eddie Fisher has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

YUDDY