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Roy Horn never really recovered from the tiger attack in 2003. The incident on stage ended the career of the two magicians Siegfried and Roy. Horn has already died of Covid disease 19.
It was “a miracle” for doctors that Roy Horn survived the serious injuries after the attack by his white tiger Montecore. The tamer and magician had celebrated their 59th birthday in Las Vegas on October 3, 2003. A few hours later, he was seriously injured on stage at the “Siegfried & Roy” night show. After severe blood loss, strokes, and brain surgery, she never fully recovered. His former partner Siegfried Fischbacher became a supervisor.
Now Covid-19 Roy Horn lung disease has cost him his life. He died Friday at the age of 75 in Las Vegas from the consequences of a coronavirus infection, as spokesman Dave Kirvin told the German Press Agency. “Today the world has lost one of the greats of magic, but I have lost my best friend,” Fischbacher said in a message. The two had also been lovers until the late 1990s, after which they remained close friends and professional partners.
Half paralysis after the tiger attack
The tragic tiger accident forced award-winning “masters of the impossible” into early retirement almost 17 years ago. It was the abrupt end to the famous magician duo “Siegfried & Roy”, which in Las Vegas delights millions of fans with illusions and animal tricks. had. Roy Horn was paralyzed on one side after the accident.
The artist slowly learned to walk again, albeit slowly and leaning on a stick. In rare public appearances, he was also seen in a wheelchair. In May 2019, the duo still visited Siegfried’s house in Munich and Lake Tegernsee. Horn did autologous blood stem cell therapy there. “We hope the therapy will allow him to move better again,” Fischbacher said at the time.
But outside of his Las Vegas foster home, Horn has seen less and less in recent years. Exceptions were the traditional barrel sweep for the Oktoberfest at the Hofbräuhaus in the casino town or a visit to exotic big cats in the Mirage Casino “Secret Garden” compound, which long ago became a tourist attraction.
On Facebook, Horn occasionally posted photos for his fans at the “Little Bavaria” retirement home outside Las Vegas, a large property with numerous cats and other animals, but these images were also quite rare.
Breakthrough in the 1960s
Uwe Ludwig Horn, born on October 3, 1944 in Nordenham, near Bremen, discovered his love for exotic animals from the beginning. In the post-war years, he fled to a world of animal dreams: a cheetah named “Boy” at the Bremen Zoo became his best friend. After dropping out of school, he hired him as an administrator on a cruise ship, where he met Fischbacher.
Together, they played magic tricks and animals through smaller theaters until they made their international breakthrough in Monaco in the 1960s. They came to Las Vegas for the first time in 1967, since 1970 they were there for three years at Stardust. In 1988, they negotiated with the Hotel Mirage the largest deal in the history of the city of casinos, which was the thickest of all. The duo watched over millions of fans between 1989 and 2003 with an explosive mix of magic and exotic animals, including rare white tigers.
Roy Horn and Siegfried Fischbacher 1987: A little later his long career began in Las Vegas. (Source: Scott McKiernan / AP / dpa)
“Tiger Montecore got me out of there”
Roy’s love for wildcats was uninterrupted, even after the Montecore attack. He did not blame the white tiger, on the contrary. After the cat’s death in 2014, the trainer wrote on Facebook that his “dear 17-year-old white tiger, friend and brother” had died. “He was the one who took me to safety after I got dizzy on stage because of low blood pressure. He took me out of there so emergency doctors could help me.” Montecore just wanted to come to his aid and take him away, he said in interviews.
Roy Horn: The magician appears in 2008 with a baby tiger. The photo was taken on stage five years after the attack. (Source: Louie Traub / AP / dpa)
With one last magic trick, the duo finally took their leave of business in March 2009. The magic show at a charity event at the Bellagio Hotel Casino in Las Vegas lasted just ten minutes. With slow steps, Horn took the stage in a black cape and mask. The white-clad Fischbacher entered one of the two hanging empty glass cages. When Horn removed the towels, the Tiger Montecore was in place in the container, Fischbacher was in the other cage. In the end, Siegfried and Roy took off their masks, greeted the audience, and kissed their hands. There were no big parting words.
Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn: Here on the red carpet in 2012. (Source: Steve Marcus / Reuters)
Siegfried’s public parting words to his longtime companion Roy now fell so much more emotional outside “When we first met, I knew that Roy and I would change the world together. There would have been no Siegfried without Roy or Roy without Siegfried,” says his statement, which is available, among other things, from the “New York Times.”
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