Actress and singer Irene Cara, who starred in the 1980 film “Fame” and then won an Oscar for co-writing the title track of the 1983 hit “Flashdance,” has died at the age of 63 at her Florida home.
Publicist Judith A. “It is with great sadness that I announce the passing of Irene Cara on behalf of her family,” Moose said. wrote, “The cause of his death is currently unknown and will be released as information becomes available.
Born Irene Cara Escalar in the Bronx borough of New York City to a Puerto Rican father and Cuban-American mother, she learned to play the piano by ear at an early age and was soon taking music and dance lessons. She soon began appearing on Johnny Carson’s “The Tonight Show” and became a regular on PBS’s “The Electric Company” in the early 1970s.
By 1976, he played the lead role in Warner Bros. In the musical drama “Sparkle”, a fictionalized version of the Supremes storyline, she played a Diana Ross-like diva who breaks away from her girl group for a solo career. He then had leading roles in the 1979 miniseries “Roots: The Next Generation” and 1980’s “Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones”.
But she achieved major fame in Alan Parker’s 1980 film musical titled “Fame”, starring aspiring actress-singer Coco Fernandez and singing both the title track as well as “Out Here on My Own,” both of which were chart hits. became. She earned Grammy nominations for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, as well as a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy.
Three years later, he co-wrote the lyrics to the 1983 hit “Flashdance… What a Feeling”, which starred Jennifer Beals as the dancer from Steelworker. The song became a breakout hit, earning Cara two Grammys – Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female as well as Album of the Year for the film’s soundtrack.
More notably, Cara won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, becoming the first Black-Hispanic woman to win an Oscar in a non-acting category.