Siegfried Fischbacher, a German illusionist and surviving member of the duo Siegfried & Roy, has died in Las Vegas at age 81, according to reports.
Fischbacher’s sister, a nun who lives in Munich, confirmed his death, according to the German news agency dpa reported. Fischbacher had pancreatic cancer.
“He was at home in Las Vegas,” Sister Dolore told dpa. She said she talked to her brother on the phone before he died and they prayed together.
“I could pray with him and tell him that I will always be with him in my heart,” she said.
After the call, he lay down and fell asleep, she added.
Fischbacher’s long-time show business partner, Roy Horn, died last May of complications from COVID-19 at a Las Vegas hospital. 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.
After Horn’s death, Fischbacher 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.
The Siegfried & Roy show incorporated animal antics and magic tricks, featuring 20 white tigers and lions, the number varying depending on the night. The show also had other exotic animals, including an elephant.
Born on June 13, 1939 in Rosenheim in Bavaria, Fischbacher learned his first magic tricks as a young boy, dpa reported.
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 animal-magic 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 hotel-casino in the late 1960s.
The illusionists became popular in the 1970s, receiving their first star billing in 1978 as headliners of the Stardust’s “Lido de Paris.” Their show “Beyond Belief” opened in 1981 at the Frontier and played to thousands over seven years.
When Horn and Fischbacher became U.S. citizens in 1988, an elated Horn said, “Being an American means all the things we believe in.”
Edited by ArLuther Lee for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
