Siegfried Fischbacher, half of large-animal magic team Siegfried Roy, dies at 81

Siegfried Fischbacher, half of the magician team of Siegfried & Roy known for their glittering costumes and extravagant illusions involving tigers, lions and other animals, which made them among the most popular and highest-paid entertainers in Las Vegas, died Jan. 13 at his home in that city. He was 81.

The cause was pancreatic cancer, his publicist Dave Kirvin said.

Fischbacher and his longtime partner, Roy Horn, were inseparable throughout their career, which lasted more than 40 years. They began working together as teenagers and ended up as headliners at their own 1,500-seat theater at the Mirage hotel in Las Vegas.

Their act came to an abrupt end on Oct. 3, 2003, when a 400-pound white tiger locked its jaws on Horn’s neck and dragged him from the stage. Horn almost died of blood loss, had a stroke and never fully recovered. He died in May of covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

Fischbacher, the blond half of the German-born duo, began performing magic tricks when he was 8 and was the chief illusionist. Horn, who had a close attachment to animals from childhood, was the principal trainer of a menagerie that came to include panthers, horses and elephants, as well as the signature white tigers and white lions highlighted in every Siegfried & Roy show.

The couple, who lived at a Las Vegas compound called Little Bavaria, had met when Fischbacher was a 17-yearold steward on a cruise ship.