Irene Cara who skyrocketed to fame thanks to her hit songs in the films Flashdance and Fame died in her home in Florida on Nov 25. The reason for her death is still unknown.
“It is with profound sadness that on behalf of her family I announce the passing of Irene Cara,” her publicist Judith A. Moose tweeted on Nov 26.
“Irene’s family has requested privacy as they process their grief. She was a beautifully gifted soul whose legacy will live forever through music and films. Funeral services are pending and a memorial for her fans will be planned at a future date,” said Moose.
Cara won an Oscar for the Best Original Song What a Feeling from the movie Flashdance, a super hit in the 80s.
Cara co-wrote What a Feeling which stayed at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 charts for six weeks in 1983.
Irene Cara: Career
Cara also won Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 56th Academy Awards in 1984. The song won Grammys for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female in the same year.
She first became a sensation in the film Fame in 1980 in which she sang the title song as well as held a starring role. Cara played Coco Hernandez, one of several students at a New York City performing arts high school. The song earned her two Grammy nominations for Best New Artist and Best Pop Vocal Performance in 1981.
Born in New York, Irene Cara Escalera could play the piano at 5 just by listening to the notes. She went to the Professional Children’s School in Manhattan, a school for child performers and children studying the arts. Her mother was a cashier and her father was a saxophonist at a steel factory.
She also appeared in the Electric Company, a popular children’s show in 1971 and 1972. She then landed a role in the film Sparkle in 1976 a story inspired by the group The Supremes.
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