Irene Cara

At 63 years old, Irene Cara has this physical status:

Career

Cara appeared in on-and-off Broadway performances including Ain't Misbehavin', The Me Nobody Knows (which received an Obie Award), Maggie Flynn opposite Shirley Jones and Jack Cassidy, and Via Galactica with Ral Juliá. Cara was the original Daisy Allen on Love of Life, the 1970s daytime serial Love of Life. Angela is the first character in Sparkle to appear as Angela in romance/thriller Aaron Loves Angela. Cara International Acclaim for her performance in two of the best mini-series Roots: The Story of Jim Jones. Vol. 1 of John Willis' Screen World, Vol. 28 women was selected one of the 12 "Promising New Actors of 1976" by a poll taken by a readers' poll in Right On! The magazine named her as the best actress in the world. Cara graduated from the Professional Children's School in Manhattan.

Irene Cara's 1980 hit film Fame, directed by Alan Parker, launched Irene Cara to fame. Cara was initially cast as a dancer, but as producers David Da Silva and Alan Marshall and screenwriter Christopher Gore heard her voice, they re-wrote the role of Coco Hernandez. Coco Hernandez performed both the title song "Fame" and the film's other single, "Out Here on My Own" in the film. These songs made the film's soundtrack a chart-topping, multi-platinum album. This year, more history was made when two songs from the same film were nominated in the same category and both performed by the same artist. Cara had the opportunity to appear more than one song at the Oscar ceremony; Michael Gore and Dean Pitchford's "Fame" was one of the two nominees that year; however, she had the opportunity to perform more than one song at the ceremony. Cara received Grammy awards for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1980, as well as a coveted Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Musical. Billboard named her as the Best New Single Artist and Most Promising Female Vocalist, while Cashbox Magazine named her both the Most Promising Female Vocalist and Top Female Vocalist. She was not asked by Fame TV series' producers to reprise her role as Coco Hernandez, but she refused to do so in order to refocus her attention on her recording career. Erica Gimpel was given the job.

On NBC in 1981, Cara was supposed to appear in her own sitcom, Irene. Despite the fact that the pilot aired and received rave reviews, the network did not select it up for its fall season. Kaye Ballard and Teddy Wilson, as well as newcomers Julia Duffy and Keenen Ivory Wayans, appeared on the show. Cara appeared in the film D.C. Cab, which is a film about a group of cabbies, in 1983. Mr. T. Carney, one of the movie's main characters, is an obsessive Cara fan who dressed his Checker Cab as a shrine to her. "The Dream (Hold on to Your Dream)," her contribution to the film's soundtrack, was a minor success, peaking at No. 26. In February 1984, Billboard Hot 100 reached 37 positions.

Cara won the Image Award for Best Actress in 1982 when she co-starred with Diahann Carroll and Rosalind Cash in the NBC Movie of the Week, Maya Angelou's Sister, Sister. Cara appeared in The PBS TV film about civil rights king Medgar Evers, "For Us the People" is a film by Heather Graham and others. She appeared in 1982's Killing 'em Softly', a female actress who appeared in 1982's Killing 'em Softly'. Cara continued to appear in live theater during this period in addition to her recording and film work. She appeared in The Wiz on tour for a brief period of time in 1980, when Stephanie Mills first appeared in the original Broadway production. Coincidentally, Cara and Mills were sharing the stage together as children in the original 1968 Broadway musical Maggie Flynn, starring Shirley Jones and Jack Cassidy, in which both young girls played American Civil War orphanages.

Cara co-wrote with Giorgio Moroder and Keith Forsey in 1983, marking the pinnacle of her musical career: "Flashdance... What a Feeling" was the title song for the film Flashdance: "Flashdance... What a Feeling," her third album in 1983. Cara wrote the lyrics to Keith Forsey's song while riding in a car in New York; Moroder composed the song. Cara confessed later that she was initially reluctant to work with Giorgio Moroder because she had no desire to bring further comparisons with another artist who worked with Moroder, Donna Summer. However, the partnership paid off and became a hit in a number of countries, winning numerous awards for Cara. She received the 1983 Academy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (Oscar), 1984 Grammy Award for Best Original Song, and Best R&B Female Artist and Best Pop Single of the Year — respectively. Cara's win made her the first hispanic-black woman to win an Oscar in a category other than acting, as well as the second to be nominated outside of an acting category. Cara's "flashdance" was re-recorded twice by the 1998 soundtrack for British film The Full Monty, the second time in 2002 as a duet with Swiss artist DJ BoBo.

She appeared in City Heat, co-starring Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds, and singing "Embraceable You" and "Get Happy" in 1984. She also co-wrote the theme song "City Heat," which was performed by jazz vocalist Joe Williams. With "Breakdance" falling to No. 1 in May of that year, she became her third Top 40 hit in May. 8. "You Were Made for Me" the sequel to "You Were Made for Me" has topped No. 1 in the world. She was 78 this summer, but she did not appear on the Hot 100 for the second time this year. Cara appeared in Certain Fury, 1985, about two troubled young women who fled from a court hearing and are mistaken for murderers. Cara appeared in the film Busted Up in 1986. Snow White appeared in the unofficial sequel to Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, filmation's Happily Ever After in 1993. In the same year, she appeared as Mary Magdalene in a Jesus Christ Superstar tour opposite Ted Neeley, Carl Anderson, and Dennis DeYoung.

Cara released several albums throughout her career, including "Anybody Can See" in 1982, What a Feelin' in 1983, and Carasmatic in 1987, the most popular of which was "What a Feelin." In 1985, she collaborated with the Hispanic charity supergroup Hermanos in the album "Cantaré, cantarás," in which she performed a solo segment with Spanish opera singer Plácido Domingo.

During the 1990s, Cara toured Europe and Asia, achieving several minor dance hits on European charts but no US charts were established. In the mid-to-late 1990s, she published Predictable 90's, a series of Eurodance singles.

Cara has also appeared as a backup vocalist for Vicki Sue Robinson, Lou Reed, George Duke, Oleta Adams, and Evelyn "Champagne" King.

Cara received two awards in March 2004 for her induction into the Ciboney Cafe's Hall of Fame and the Lifetime Achievement Award at the sixth annual Prestige Awards. Cara won the third round of the NBC television series Hit Me, Baby, One More Time in June 2005, with her new all-female band Hot Caramel covering Anastacia's song "I'm Outta Love" and reporting "What a Feeling" with her new all-female band, Hot Caramel. Cara performed "Flashdance (What a Feeling)" as an opener to the pre-match entertainment at the 2006 AFL Grand Final in Melbourne.

Cara contributed "Forever My Love" to the compilation album titled Gay Happening Vol. In 2006, Cara contributed a dance single titled "Forever My Love." 12.

Cara had resided in both New Port Richey, Florida, and Santa Fe, New Mexico, as of 2016. Hot Caramel, she formed in 1999, is she reunites with her band Hot Caramel. Irene Cara Presents Hot Caramel, the group's album, was announced on April 4, 2011. Cara appeared in season 2 of CMT's reality show Gone Country.

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