Celebrity Biographies
Irene Cara
It became a myth in the 80s, with “Flashdance” and “Fama”. The actress and especially singer Irene Cara died on November 25, 2022, at her home in Florida, at the age of 63, without the cause of death being disclosed. “Irene’s family has requested privacy while they process their grief. She was a beautifully gifted soul whose legacy will live on forever through her music and her films,” said Judith Moose, a close friend of the star.
Born in New York on March 18, 1959, Irene Cara Escalera –her full name– started singing and dancing as a child. She soon appeared on television shows like Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show . In the 1970s, she was a regular on the PBS small screen show The Electric Company . She also had roles in Broadway productions such as 1970’s The Me Nobody Knows and 1972’s Via Galactica opposite Raul Julia.
Irene Cara made her acting debut on the CBS soap opera Love of Life . She later participated in the feature films Aaron Loves Angela (1975) and Sparkle (1976), and in the series Roots: The New Generation (1979) and Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones (1980).
After becoming the aspiring star Coco Hernández one of the protagonists of Fame , by Alan Parker, where she also sang the title song, Irene Cara won the Oscar for her song “Flashdance… What a Feeling”, from the movie Flashdance . The theme was an unprecedented success.
Married in 1986 to stuntman and actor Conrad E. Palmisano, they divorced five years later. In addition, she participated in Very Hot City , along with Clint Eastwood . She had retired from acting after a chapter in the 1992 Hearts Are Wild series.