Member of illusion duo Siegfried & Roy
Siegfried Fischbacher, partner in the iconic entertainment duo Siegfried & Roy, has died in Las Vegas at age 81.
Fischbacher died Wednesday at his home from pancreatic cancer, said publicist Dave Kirvin of Kirvin Doak Communications. The news was first reported by German news agency dpa.
Fischbacher’s long-time partner on and off the Las Vegas Strip, Roy Horn, died last year at a Las Vegas hospital of complications from COVID-19. He was
75.
The duo astonished millions with their extraordinary magic tricks until Horn was critically injured in 2003 by one of the act’s famed white tigers.
In a statement announcing Horn’s death in May, Fischbacher said, “From the moment we met, I knew Roy and I, together, would change the world. There could be no Siegfried without Roy, and no Roy without Siegfried.”
He later told Germany’s weekly Bild am Sonntag newspaper his best friend would always stay by his side.
“For dinner, I will continue to have the table set for him, too. Like it always was the case. I’m not alone,” dpa quoted Fischbacher as telling the newspaper.
For years, Siegfried &
Roy was an institution in Las Vegas, where Fischbacher and Horn’s magic and artistry consistently attracted sellout crowds. The pair performed six shows a week, 44 weeks per year.
Horn and Fischbacher, both natives of Germany, first teamed up in 1957 and made their Las Vegas debut a decade later. Siegfried & Roy began performing at the Mirage in 1990.
The pair gained international recognition for helping to save rare white tigers and white lions from extinction. Their $10 million compound was home to dozens of rare animals over the years. The white lions and white tigers were the result of a preservation program that began in the 1980s.
Horn and Fischbacher met on a cruise ship in
1957. Fischbacher performed the magic tricks, while Horn became his assistant, eventually suggesting using the cheetah in the act.
They honed their animalmagic show in small clubs in Germany and Switzerland in the mid-1960s. Their break came in a Monte Carlo casino when an agent in the audience invited them to Las Vegas. The pair made their debut at the Tropicana hotelcasino in the late 1960s.
When they signed a lifetime contract with the Mirage in 2001, it was estimated they had performed 5,000 shows at the casino for 10 million fans since 1990 and had grossed more than $1 billion.