Irene Cara, who is best remembered for singing the themes for the iconic 1980s movies Fame and Flashdance, has passed away at age 63. Let’s see in detail about how did he die? what happened? and what was Irene Cara cause of death?.
How did Irene Cara die?
Publicist Judith A. Moose shared the passing of Irene Cara on Twitter page. No cause of death has been disclosed.
It is with profound sadness that on behalf of her family I announce the passing of Irene Cara. The Academy Award winning actress, singer, songwriter, and producer passed away in her Florida home. Her cause of death is currently unknown and will be released when information is available. Irene’s family has requested privacy as they process their grief. She was a beautifully gifted soul whose legacy will live forever through her music and films. Funeral services are pending and a memorial for her fans will be planned at a future date.
James Foster confirmed the news. No further details were given.
RIP Irene Cara.
How many times I’ve listened to ‘Out Here On My Own’.
What a talent.
Judith A. Moose shared his emotional note for Irene death
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.
Irene Cara cause of death
The reason of death has not yet been disclosed.
Irene Cara’s cause of death has not been disclosed by her publicist, Judith A. Moose, or by any family members.
However, it appears that little can be spoken at this moment until the family issues a formal statement regarding the situation. As always, once this news is verified, we will look into it and notify you.
We must thus wait till the family members have had the time and space to absorb this enormous loss.
Once we get enough data, we will update the page. We’ll soon provide more details regarding Irene Cara’s cause of death.
Who was Irene Cara?
American singer and actress Irene Cara Escalera passed away on November 25, 2022 (born March 18, 1959). For the song “Flashdance… What a Feeling” (from the movie Flashdance), which Cara both sung and co-wrote, she was honoured in 1984 with an Academy Award for Best Original Song and a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
Cara is also well-known for singing the movie’s theme song, “Fame,” as well as for her performance as Coco Hernandez in the 1980 film Fame. Prior to her success with Fame, Cara starred as Sparkle Williams, the title character, in the original musical drama Sparkle from 1976.
Early Life
The youngest of five children, Cara was born in the Bronx in New York City. Her mother Louise, an usher at a movie theatre, is Cuban-American, and her father, retired saxophone and factory worker Gaspar Escalera, is Puerto Rican. Irene Cara, who was three years old, was one of the “Little Miss America” pageant’s five finalists.
She started out learning the piano by ear before taking music, acting, and dance classes when she was five years old. Her professional singing and dance debut was on Spanish-language television.
She had early TV appearances on Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show and The Original Amateur Hour, where she sang in Spanish. She performed frequently as a member of The Electric Company’s band, The Short Circus, on PBS’s educational series The Electric Company in the years 1971–1972.
Cara recorded an English Christmas album and a Latin-market Spanish record when she was a young girl. She participated in a significant Duke Ellington tribute concert with Stevie Wonder, Sammy Davis Jr., and Roberta Flack.
In April 1986 in Los Angeles, California, Cara wed stuntman and director Conrad Palmisano; they divorced in 1991.
Singing career
Ain’t Misbehavin’, The Me Nobody Knows (which earned an Obie Award), Maggie Flynn with Shirley Jones and Jack Cassidy, and Via Galactica with Ral Juliá are just a few of the Broadway and off-Broadway productions in which Cara has acted. On the daytime drama Love of Life from the 1970s, Cara played the original Daisy Allen. The role of the title heroine in Sparkle came next, then she played Angela in the romance/thriller Aaron Loves Angela.
Cara received widespread recognition for her serious dramatic performances on television in the standout miniseries Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones and Roots: The Next Generations. One of the twelve “Promising New Actors of 1976,” according to John Willis’ Screen World, Vol. 28, she was also named Top Actress by Right On! magazine’s readers in the same year.
Alan Parker’s 1980 hit film Fame
Irene Cara rose to fame because to Alan Parker’s 1980 smash track Fame. When producers David Da Silva and Alan Marshall and screenwriter Christopher Gore heard Cara’s voice, they decided to change the character of Coco Hernandez from one in which she was originally cast as a dancer.
She sang the film’s other single, “Out Here on My Own,” as well as the title song, “Fame,” while playing Coco Hernandez. These tunes contributed to the soundtrack of the movie becoming a multi-platinum, number-one album. At that year’s Academy Awards, two songs from the same movie that were sung by the same performer were nominated in the same category for the first time.
Since “Fame,” written by Michael Gore and Dean Pitchford, won the award that year, Cara got the chance to be one of the few singers to perform more than one song at the Oscars. In addition to receiving nominations for a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Musical in 1980, Cara also received Grammy nominations for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
She received accolades from Cashbox Magazine for Most Promising Female Vocalist and Billboard for Top New Single Artist. Producers of the Fame TV series asked her to reprise her part as Coco Hernandez, but she turned them down in order to concentrate on her recording career. Erica Gimpel took on the position.
In 1981, NBC had plans for Cara to appear in her own sitcom, Irene. The network chose not to take up the pilot for its fall season even though it was broadcast and garnered positive reviews. Along with Julia Duffy and Keenen Ivory Wayans, it included experienced actors Kaye Ballard and Teddy Wilson as well as newbies. Cara made an appearance as herself in the 1983 movie D.C. Cab, which is about a gang of cab drivers. The film features Mr. T. Tyrone, portrayed by Charlie Barnett, is one of the characters. He is an ardent Cara fan who turned his Checker Cab into a shrine to her.
Cara won Image Award for Best Actress
With Diahann Carroll and Rosalind Cash as her co-stars in the NBC Movie of the Week Sister, Sister, Cara won the Image Award for Best Actress in 1982. For Us the Living: The Medgar Evers Story, a PBS television film on the civil rights activist, featured Cara as Myrlie Evers-Williams. Cara was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Best Actress for her role.
She was also in the 1982 film Killing ’em Softly. Cara continued to perform in live theatre throughout this time in addition to her efforts in music and cinema. Stephanie Mills had originally played the part of Dorothy in the Broadway production of The Wiz, which she briefly played in the summer of 1980 while it was on tour.
With the title song for the film Flashdance, “Flashdance… What a Feeling,” which she co-wrote with Giorgio Moroder and Keith Forsey, Cara reached the pinnacle of her musical career in 1983. While travelling to the recording studio in a car in New York, Cara and Keith Forsey came up with the song’s lyrics. Moroder provided the music.
Later, Cara acknowledged that her initial reluctance to collaborate with Giorgio Moroder was a result of her desire to avoid further comparisons to another artist who collaborated with Moroder, Donna Summer. However, the partnership was successful and grew popular in many nations, earning Cara multiple prizes.
Academy Award for Best Song (Oscar)
She won the 1984 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, the 1984 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, the 1983 Oscar for Best Song, the 1983 American Music Awards for Best R&B Female Artist, and the 1983 American Music Awards for Best Pop Single of the Year.
Cara became the second Hispanic-black woman to be nominated outside of an acting category and the first to win an Oscar in a category other than acting as a result of her achievement. Cara re-recorded “Flashdance…” twice: the first time in 1997 for the soundtrack of the British movie The Full Monty, and the second time in 2002 for a duet with Swiss musician DJ BoBo.
Acting career and hit singles
She co-starred with Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds in the comedy-thriller City Heat in 1984, singing the standards “Embraceable You” and “Get Happy.” She also contributed to the composition of the “City Heat” theme song, performed by jazz singer Joe Williams. She achieved her final Top 40 success in May of that year with “Breakdance,” which peaked at No. 8.
She did not reappear on the Hot 100 despite the success of the follow-up, “You Were Made for Me,” which peaked at No. 78 that summer. In the 1985 film Certain Fury, Cara starred alongside Tatum O’Neal as two troubled young women who flee a court hearing and are mistaken for murderers. Cara made an appearance in the 1986 movie Busted Up.
In 1993’s Filmation’s Happily Ever After, an unofficial prequel to Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, she also provided the voice of Snow White. In the same year, she shared the stage with Ted Neeley, Carl Anderson, and Dennis DeYoung in a tour of Jesus Christ Superstar as Mary Magdalene.
Along with her successful acting career and numerous hits, Cara also released a number of albums, the most popular of which being What a Feelin’, in 1982, 1983, and 1987. She sang a solo section of the song “Cantaré, cantarás” with the Spanish opera singer Plácido Domingo in 1985 as a member of the Hispanic charity band Hermanos.
During her 1990s tour of Europe and Asia, Cara scored a few modest dance hits on European charts but no US chart successes. In the middle to late 1990s, she issued a collection of Eurodance singles under the name Precarious 90’s.
Additionally, Vicki Sue Robinson, Lou Reed, George Duke, Oleta Adams, and Evelyn “Champagne” King all utilised Cara as a backup vocalist.
Lifetime Achievement Award for cara
Induction into the Ciboney Cafe’s Hall of Fame and the sixth annual Prestige Awards’ Lifetime Achievement Award were given to Cara in March 2004. With her current all-female band, Hot Caramel, Cara won the third round of the NBC television competition Hit Me, Baby, One More Time in June 2005 by performing “Flashdance (What a Feeling)” and a cover of Anastacia’s song “I’m Outta Love.” Cara opened the pre-match entertainment at the 2006 AFL Grand Final in Melbourne with a performance of “Flashdance (What a Feeling)”.
In 2006, Cara contributed the dance song “Forever My Love” to the Gay Happening Vol. 12 compilation CD.
Cara lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico, as well as New Port Richey, Florida, as of 2016. She performs with her 1999-founded band Hot Caramel. On April 4, 2011, Irene Cara Presents Hot Caramel, their album, was made available. The second season of CMT’s reality series Gone Country featured Cara.
Tribute to Irene Cara from fans and followers
Cats said,
That’s very sad news…brings me back to my youth….1970’s best decade ever for music, Fame and Flashdance and aaaah those legwarmers remember them well. RIP and thanks for the happy memories.
TJ Davis said,
Such sad news. I absolutely loved Irene Cara, what an amazing talent
Shellane said,
I love that song. I remembered when I first heard it crying so hard because I felt all of those emotions through her vocals. Such a talented woman, #IreneCara
RosinaC said,
Another piece of our era has flown away…… Rest easy Irene Thanks for the memories #IreneCara #Fame
Craig Pinck said,
This is heartbreaking. Such an iconic presence. My deepest condolences go out to her family.
Natasha Deidre said,
The first thing I said out loud when I read this was No! Bronx Girl Irene Cara was a legend – Aaron Loves Angela, Sparkle, Sister Sister, Fame. RIP
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