Irene Cara obit

 

‘Fame’ and ‘Flashdance’ singer Irene Cara has died aged 63

Her publicist confirmed that Cara had died at her Florida home

She was not on the list.

Irene Cara, best known for singing the title tracks of the classic 1980s films Fame and Flashdance, has died at the age of 63.

The news was confirmed by her publicist Judith A. Moose on Twitter, who revealed that Cara died at her Florida home. The cause of death is currently unknown and will be released “when information is available”. A memorial for fans is set to be held in due course.

Moose wrote: “This is the absolute worst part of being a publicist. I can’t believe I’ve had to write this, let alone release the news.

“Please share your thoughts and memories of Irene. I’ll be reading each and every one of them and know she’ll be smiling from Heaven. She adored her fans.”

Cara first shot to fame when she was cast in the 1980 musical Fame. After being initially cast as a dancer, the role of Coco Hernandez was written for her and she sang the title track. Her performance won her two Grammy awards for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Artist.

She later sang and co-wrote ‘Flashdance… What A Feeling’ for the soundtrack of the 1983 blockbuster Flashdance, for which she also won a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance as well as an Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Cara’s publicist praised her as a “beautifully gifted soul whose legacy will live forever through her music and films”.

Cara was set to star in her own sitcom, Irene, on NBC in 1981. The cast had veteran performers Kaye Ballard and Teddy Wilson as well as newcomers Julia Duffy and Keenen Ivory Wayans. However, even though the pilot aired, it was not picked up by the network for the fall season. In 1983, Cara appeared as herself in the film D.C. Cab, about a group of cabbies. One of the characters, Tyrone, played by Charlie Barnett, is an obsessed Cara fan who decorated his Checker Cab as a shrine to her. Her contribution to the film's soundtrack, "The Dream (Hold On to Your Dream)" played over the closing credits of the film,[21] and was a minor hit, peaking at No. 37 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1984.

In 1982, Cara earned the Image Award for Best Actress when she co-starred with Diahann Carroll and Rosalind Cash in the NBC Movie of the Week, Maya Angelou's Sister, Sister. Cara portrayed Myrlie Evers-Williams in the PBS TV movie about civil rights leader Medgar Evers, For Us the Living: The Medgar Evers Story, and earned an NAACP Image Award Best Actress nomination. She also appeared in 1982's Killing 'em Softly. Cara continued to perform in live theater. In 1980, she briefly played the role of Dorothy in The Wiz on tour, in a role that Stephanie Mills had first portrayed in the original Broadway production. Coincidentally, Cara and Mills had shared the stage together as children in the original 1968 Broadway musical Maggie Flynn, starring Shirley Jones and Jack Cassidy, in which both young girls played American Civil War orphans.

In 1983, Cara reached the peak of her music career with the title song for the movie Flashdance: "Flashdance... What a Feeling", which she co-wrote with Giorgio Moroder and Keith Forsey. Cara penned the lyrics to the song with Keith Forsey while riding in a car in New York heading to the studio to record it; Moroder composed the music. Cara admitted later that she was initially reluctant to work with Giorgio Moroder because she had no wish to invite further comparisons with another artist who worked with Moroder, Donna Summer. Despite this, the collaboration paid off, and became a hit in several countries, attracting several awards for Cara. She won the 1983 Academy Award for Best Song (Oscar), 1984 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, 1984 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, and American Music Awards for Best R&B Female Artist and Best Pop Single of the Year.

She was the first Hispanic-black woman to win an Oscar in a category other than an acting category, as well as the second to be nominated outside an acting category. "Flashdance..." was re-recorded by Cara twice: in 1997 as a track in the original soundtrack for the British film The Full Monty; the second time in 2002, as a duet with Swiss artist DJ BoBo.

In 1984, she was in the comedic thriller City Heat, co-starring with Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds and singing the standards "Embraceable You" and "Get Happy". She also co-wrote the theme song "City Heat", which was sung by the jazz vocalist Joe Williams. In May of that year, she scored her final Top 40 hit with "Breakdance" going to No. 8. The follow up, "You Were Made for Me" reached No. 78 that summer but she did not appear on the Hot 100 again. In 1985, Cara co-starred with Tatum O'Neal in Certain Fury, about two troubled young women who flee a court hearing and are mistaken for killers. In 1986, Cara appeared in the film Busted Up. She also provided the voice of Snow White in the unofficial sequel to Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Filmation's Happily Ever After, in 1993. That same year, she appeared as Mary Magdalene in a tour of Jesus Christ Superstar opposite Ted Neeley, Carl Anderson, and Dennis DeYoung.

Along with her career in acting and hit singles, Cara released several albums: Anyone Can See in 1982, What a Feelin' in 1983, and Carasmatic in 1987, the most successful of these being What a Feelin'. In 1985, she collaborated with the Hispanic charity supergroup Hermanos in the song "Cantaré, cantarás", in which she sang a solo segment with the Spanish opera singer Plácido Domingo. Cara toured Europe and Asia throughout the 1990s, achieving several modest dance hits on European charts, but no U.S. chart hits. She released a compilation of Eurodance singles in the mid to late 1990s entitled Precarious 90's. Cara also worked as a backup vocalist for Vicki Sue Robinson, Lou Reed, George Duke, Oleta Adams, and Evelyn "Champagne" King.

n March 2004, Cara received two honors with an induction into the Ciboney Cafe's Hall of Fame and a Lifetime Achievement Award presented at the sixth annual Prestige Awards. In June 2005, Cara won the third round of the NBC television series Hit Me, Baby, One More Time, performing "Flashdance (What a Feeling)" and covered Anastacia's song "I'm Outta Love" with her all-female band, Hot Caramel. At the 2006 AFL Grand Final in Melbourne, Cara performed "Flashdance (What a Feeling)" as an opener to the pre-match entertainment.

In 2005, Cara contributed a dance single, titled "Forever My Love", to the compilation album titled Gay Happening Vol. 12.

As of 2016, Cara had residences in both New Port Richey, Florida and Santa Fe, New Mexico. She was in Hot Caramel, a band which she formed in 1999. Their album, called Irene Cara Presents Hot Caramel, was released on April 4, 2011. Cara appeared in season 2 of CMT's reality show Gone Country.

Cara married stuntman and film director Conrad Palmisano in Los Angeles in April 1986. They divorced in 1991.

Cara was born in The Bronx, New York City, the youngest of five children. Her father, Gaspar Cara, a factory worker and retired saxophonist, was Puerto Rican, and her mother, Louise Escalera, a movie theater usher, was Cuban. Cara had two sisters and two brothers. At the age of three, she was one of five finalists for the "Little Miss America" pageant. She began to play the piano by ear, studied music, acting and dance seriously, and began taking dance lessons when she was five. Her performing career started with her singing and dancing professionally on Spanish-language television. She made early TV appearances on The Original Amateur Hour (singing in Spanish) and Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show.

In 1971–1972, she was a regular on PBS's educational program The Electric Company as a member of the show's band, the Short Circus. As a child, Cara recorded a Spanish-language record for the Latin market and an English-language Christmas album. She also appeared in a major concert tribute to Duke Ellington, which featured Stevie Wonder, Sammy Davis Jr. and Roberta Flack.

 

Cara died at her home in Largo, Florida, on November 25, 2022, at the age of 63.

Television

Year       Title       Role       Note

1970–71               Love of Life         Daisy Allen          Daytime drama

1971–72               The Electric Company     Iris          Band member of the Short Circus

1976      Kojak     Amy       Episode: "A Hair-Trigger Away"

1977      What's Happening!!        Maria    Episode: "Rerun Gets Married"

1979      Roots: The Next Generations      Bertha Palmer Haley       Miniseries (3 episodes)

1980      Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones Alice Jefferson Movie

1981      Irene     Irene Cannon     Sitcom pilot

1983      For Us the Living: The Medgar Evers Story             Myrlie Evers       American Playhouse movie

1988      Bustin' Loose      Herself Episode: "What's a Nice Girl Like You...?"

1991      Gabriel's Fire      Celine Bird          Episode: "Birds Gotta Fly"

1992      Hearts Are Wild                Dorah    Episode 1.8

Film

Year       Title       Role       Note

1975      Aaron Loves Angela         Angela

1976      Sparkle Sparkle Williams              

1976      Apple Pie             Dancer

1980      Fame     Coco Hernandez              

1982      Killing 'em Softly               Jane      

1982      Sister, Sister       Sissy Lovejoy     

1983      D.C. Cab               Herself

1984      City Heat              Ginny Lee           

1985      Certain Fury        Tracy    

1986      Busted Up           Simone Bird       

1989      Caged in Paradiso             Eva        

1989      Happily Ever After            Snow White        Voice role

1992      Beauty and the Beast      Beauty Voice role

1992      The Magic Voyage           Marilyn                 Voice role

1994      The Jungle King Leonette              Voice role; direct-to-video

1995      Beyond Awareness to Action: Ending Abuse of Women   Herself/host       Documentary short

1996      The Hunchback of Notre Dame   Melody                 Voice role; direct-to-video

2004      Downtown: A Street Tale              Neighbor             Cameo