Siegfried Fischbacher, the other half of the famed Siegfried and Roy attraction that dazzled Las Vegas and the world for so long, has passed away at the age of 81, from cancer as it must be announced. The famed illusionist had been battling cancer for a while, and following the passing of his partner, Roy, the act wasn’t bound to continue as it had been since not only had the two become quite old and not entirely capable of the act as they had been in the past, the attack on Roy in 2003 by one of their tigers nearly derailed everything since it left Roy paralyzed and in serious need of recovery. While they did stage a comeback that lasted for a while, they finally called it quits in 2010, and in May of 2020 Roy passed away from COVID-19-related issues. Siegfried announced that he had terminal pancreatic cancer just this month, and it’s been a shock to many ever since. Quite a few people were hoping that 2021 would be a reprieve from the struggle that 2020 became early on in the year, but the reality is that there is no magical reset button that was bound to take everything away and make things right again. Many of those that we’ve grown up admiring and watching with great interest are getting older and things tend to happen as age settles in and the acts we enjoyed for so long begin to wane and the people that entertained us for so long pass on and leave behind an uncertain legacy.
Las Vegas was home to the Siegfried & Roy act for so many years that one couldn’t step into the town without seeing their likeness somewhere given that they were such a popular act and were in a sense part of the bedrock that held the entertainment scene together. Things have changed since they were brought in obviously and there are so many different shows and entertainers now that it’s hard to decide who to watch and if any have the same force of presence that Siegfried and Roy had in their day. While there was plenty of controversy over the course of their career, such as the treatment of the tigers they utilized in their acts and many other things that came along, it would appear that no matter what was said that people enjoyed the show and made a trip to Vegas at times just to see the duo and what they could accomplish. It’s been established that Siegfried was enamored of magic from a young age, which is true of many individuals since let’s be honest, magic and illusions are a great deal of fun when they’re performed in a manner that mystifies people since it’s so hard to figure out how the magician does the things they do.
Seigfried made a decent living doing this for a long time and met Roy during a cruise. In fact, they were kicked off of that cruise after using a live cheetah for a part of their act, but they were picked up by someone else when they were seen performing, so things worked out in the end. If you can believe it, the duo started off in Las Vegas back in 1967 and became one of the longest-running acts in the city after several years, as Vegas became synonymous with Siegfried & Roy at one point, and vice versa. The performers remained together longer than many acts have managed to do over the years, and it was fairly obvious that people would come from far and wide to see their show. Their names did incite controversy now and then in one form or another, from their sexual orientation to the manner in which they treated the tigers they used in their shows. But throughout the long run, they enjoyed they maintained that everything they did was on the up and up and that they took good care of everyone in their employ, including the tigers. Many people might have questioned, but few ever bothered to take issue with the duo to the point that they would claim that their show needed to be canceled. Those that did were the minority most times since the truth of it was that many people knew Siegfried and Roy as two of the greatest performers that Vegas had ever seen. Their fame, which they claimed they did not care about, was a worldwide phenomenon since there weren’t that many people that had never heard of the pair.
But as one might surmise, everyone has to get old eventually unless a tragedy occurs far sooner, and one way or another, we all have to pass on at some time. 2021 isn’t bound to be any kinder in this regard than 2020 was, which means that people will need to make peace with the fact that we’ll continue to lose some of our brightest and best. Rest in peace sir, you will be missed.
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