STATS: Real Name: Irene Escalera Occupation: singer/actress/dancer /composer Birthday: March 18 Birth Place: Bronx, NY Sign: Contact Address: no address

A Little Bit About... I've loved Irene Cara ever since she was 13 and I was about 15, when she appeared on a local children's program, "The Everything Show", on WNBC-TV Channel 4, New York. I saw her on TV on The Electric Company, saw her films Aaron Loves Angela and Sparkle when she was about 15, and her challenging dramatic role in Roots: The Next Generation as Bertha Palmer Haley, Alex's mother. (And boy, was I disappointed when the Sparkle album was sung by Aretha Franklin instead of Irene!) Irene's theater roles as a child include The Me Nobody Knows and Via Galatica (off- Broadway) and Maggie Flynn (Broadway). As a teenager she appeared in the Off- Broadway production of Ain't Misbehavin' with Nell Carter. Charlayne Woodard replaced Cara for the Broadway run; I don't know why. Cara's budding career was also profiled on a WABC-TV program, when she was 15. I met her backstage of Got 2 Go Disco in 1979, a "turkey" where she played a Cinderella- based girl named Cassette. She would have been around 20 years old. She chatted with me some chatted with me some ten minutes and encouraged me to write good roles for Black women. (Sorry, Irene, I'm trying, but I haven't sold any screenplays yet!) Then came 1980--and Fame! Irene Cara's Links Total Recall: music mail order. A list of Irenes hits, with prices. Movie Guide: Irene Cara film credits. Links to Mr. Showbiz at www.celebsite.com. Use their search engines Irene Cara: more facts (some of them wrong!) The Irene Cara Club: Yahoo's new club in honor of the singer/actress. Come join! iMusic: search for "Irene Cara", follow links to her Bulletin Board and Discography. iMusic: Irene Cara Message Board: Irene's fans speak up! Leave a message. Irene Cara: her OWN website, at last! Began Dec 1999/Jan 2000. mnl, Queens, NY: creator of this page! More Stuff About... Well as you all know, Fame was Cara's breakthrough role--her voice finally on the soundtrack album, and a Golden Globe nomination. (Best Lead Actress in a Comedy or Musical; she lost to Sissy Spacek in Coal Miner's Daughter.) Flashdance gave her the Oscar as co-writer of Best Song, and the Grammy for Female Pop Vocal. ("Are you sure?" she laughed, as she accepted the Grammy.) She had the "honor" of being satirized by Gail Matthias on Saturday Night Live in 1981. ("For me it's the same--same!/I'll sing this same song forever...") A few years later MAD Magazine mentioned her in a mock movie awards show on its pages: "Thank God, it (a movie) does NOT have a theme song sung by Irene Cara!" She did an NBC-TV pilot, "Irene", about an aspiring singer and her roommates. She played a doomed young newlywed in the movie Guyana Tragedy, about the Jim Jones cult. She also played opposite Howard Rollins as Megdar Evers' wife Myrlie in a PBS-TV film, For Us, The Living. Her star faded in the mid-1980s, though around 1992 she toured with Jesus Christ Superstar; I supposed she played Mary Magdalene. Where is she today? Last I heard she'd married a few years ago and moved to California. I've read she's putting together her own band and composing her own songs. Irene, if you need a backup alto singer, call me. One of my fantasies is singing a duet of Laura Nyro's "Eli's Coming" with you!