Irene Cara was best known for her role as Coco Hernandez in the film Fame (1980). She sang the title track Fame in the movie which debuted at number 1 in various nations. She co-wrote and sang the song ‘Flashdance… What a Feeling’ in the film Flashdance (1983). She died aged 63 on November 25, 2022, according to a report from TMZ.
Cara’s family confirmed to the outlet that Cara died in November 2022 at her home in Florida. She was suffering from hypertension and high cholesterol, his family said. The medical examiner in Pinellas County has ruled that Cara’s death was due to Arteriosclerotic and Hypertensive Cardiovascular Disease and also stated that she was diabetic. She died at her Florida home.
Also read: Irene Cara: Cause of death, age, husband stuntman Conrad Palmisano, net worth
Irene Cara Escalera was an American actress, singer, and composer born on March 18, 1959, in the Bronx, New York. She gained fame for playing Coco Hernandez in the musical Fame from 1980 and for singing the title track “Fame,” which debuted at No. 1 in various nations.
Her mother, Louise Escalera, an usher at movie theatres, is Cuban, and her father, Gaspar Cara, a former saxophone and steel mill worker, is Puerto Rican. She had two brothers and two sisters.
She had early TV appearances on Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show and The Original Amateur Hour, where she sang in Spanish. She participated in the show’s band, the Short Circus, as a regular on the educational PBS program The Electric Company from 1971 to 1972.
Who was Irene Cara?
Cara rose to fame as a result of Alan Parker’s 1980 smash track Fame, in the film Fame. Her voice convinced producers David Da Silva and Alan Marshall and screenwriter Christopher Gore to rewrite the role of Coco Hernandez for her to portray after she was initially cast as a dancer.
With the title song for the film Flashdance, “Flashdance… What a Feeling,” which she co-wrote with Giorgio Moroder and Keith Forsey, Cara achieved the pinnacle of her musical career in 1983. While traveling to the recording studio in a car in New York, Cara, and Keith Forsey came up with the song’s lyrics. Moroder provided the music.
She earned the Best Female Pop Vocal Performance Grammy Award in 1984, the Best Original Song Golden Globe Award in 1984, and the Best R&B Female Artist and Best Pop Single of the Year American Music Award.
