Siegfried & Roy’s illusionist Siegfried Fischbacher dies – WSVN 7News | St John Information, Climate, Sports activities

By Last updated Jan 14, 2021

Siegfried Fischbacher, the surviving member of the magic duo Siegfried & Roy, who entertained millions with illusions with rare animals, died in Las Vegas, his publicist tells The Associated Press. He was 81 years old.

Fischbacher died of pancreatic cancer at his home on Wednesday, Dave Kirvin of Kirvin Doak Communications said Thursday. The news was first reported by the German news agency dpa.

Fischbacher’s long-time show business partner Roy Horn died last year of complications from COVID-19 in a Las Vegas hospital. He was 75 years old.

The duo surprised millions with their extraordinary magic tricks until Horn was seriously injured by one of the act’s famous white tigers in 2003.

In a statement announcing Horn’s death in May, Fischbacher said, “From the moment we met, I knew that Roy and I would change the world together. Without Roy there could be no Siegfried, and without Siegfried there could be no Roy. “

He later told the German weekly newspaper Bild am Sonntag that his best friend would always be by his side.

“I’ll still have the table set for him for dinner. As always it was. I’m not alone, ”dpa Fischbacher quoted to the newspaper.

Siegfried & Roy was an institution in Las Vegas for years, where Fischbacher and Horns magic and art were repeatedly sold out. The couple played six shows a week, 44 weeks a year.

Horn and Fischbacher, both from Germany, merged in 1957 and made their debut in Las Vegas a decade later. Siegfried & Roy appeared in the Mirage in 1990.

The pair gained international recognition for helping save rare white tigers and white lions from extinction. Dozens of rare animals have lived on their $ 10 million compound over the years. The white lions and white tigers were the result of a conservation program that began in the 1980s.

The Siegfried & Roy Show included animal antics and magic tricks with 20 white tigers and lions, the number varying depending on the night. The show also had other exotic animals, including an elephant.

Fischbacher was born on June 13, 1939 in Rosenheim, Bavaria and learned his first magic tricks as a young boy, reported dpa.

Horn and Fischbacher met on a cruise ship in 1957. Fischbacher performed the magic tricks while Horn became his assistant and eventually suggested using the cheetah in the red.

In the mid-1960s they refined their animal magic show in small clubs in Germany and Switzerland. Her break was at a casino in Monte Carlo when an agent of the audience invited her to Las Vegas. The couple made their debut at the Tropicana Hotel-Casino in the late 1960s.

The illusionists became popular in the 1970s and received their first star bill in 1978 as the headliner of the Stardust’s “Lido de Paris”. Her show “Beyond Belief” opened on the Frontier in 1981 and played in front of thousands for over seven years.

When they signed a lifetime deal with the Mirage in 2001, they’d staged an estimated 5,000 shows at the casino to 10 million fans since 1990 and grossed over $ 1 billion.

“In Las Vegas history, no artist has contributed to the development of Las Vegas’ global reputation as the entertainment capital of the world than Siegfried and Roy,” said Terry Lanni, chairman of MGM Mirage, the parent company of the 2003 attack the horn was injured.

The funerals will be private and plan a public memorial in the future.