How Old Is Irene Cara? Irene Cara Birthday
Irene Cara was born on March 18, 1959 and is 65 years old now.
Birthday: March 18, 1959
How Old - Age: 65
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Irene Cara - Biography
Irene Cara Escalera (born March 18, 1959) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She sang and co-wrote the international hit song 'Flashdance... What a Feeling' (from the movie Flashdance), for which she won an Academy Award for Best Original Song and a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1984. She is also known for playing the role of Coco Hernandez in the 1980 film Fame, and for recording the film's title song 'Fame', which became an international hit. Cara also played the title character Sparkle Williams in the 1976 film Sparkle.
The 1980 hit movie Fame, directed by Alan Parker, catapulted Irene Cara to stardom. Cara was originally cast as a dancer, but when producers David Da Silva and Alan Marshall and screenwriter Christopher Gore heard her voice, they re-wrote the role of Coco Hernandez. As Coco Hernandez, she sang both the title song "Fame" and the film's other single, "Out Here on My Own." These songs helped make the film's soundtrack a chart-topping, multi-platinum album.
Further history was made at the Academy Awards that year: it was the first time two songs from the same film were nominated in the same category and both sung by the same artist. Thus, Cara had the opportunity to be one of the few singers to perform more than one song at the Oscar ceremony; "Fame," written by Michael Gore and Dean Pitchford, won the award that year. Cara earned Grammy nominations in 1980 for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, as well as a Golden Globe nomination for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Musical. Billboard named her Top New Single Artist, while Cashbox Magazine awarded her both Most Promising Female Vocalist and Top Female Vocalist. Asked by Fame TV series' producers to reprise her role as Coco Hernandez, she declined so as to focus her attention on her recording career. As a result, Erica Gimpel assumed the role.
Cara married stuntman and film director Conrad Palmisano (who was 15 years her senior) in Los Angeles, California in April 1986 and they divorced in 1991.
