Eddie Fisher's Son Said He 'Ruined His Career' By Leaving Ex-Wife Debbie Reynolds For Liz Taylor

From the outside, the marriage of crooner Eddie Fisher and actor Debbie Reynolds seemed like a modern day fairy tale. The two exchanged nuptials in 1955, becoming one of Hollywood's biggest couples. And, adding to the sense of fantasy, Fisher and Reynolds were best pals with another hot couple, Elizabeth Taylor and Mike Todd. In 1957, when Taylor and Todd tied the knot, Reynolds served as the maid of honor, and Fisher the best man. Within a year, both couples would be torn apart by tragedy and lies. As Todd Fisher explained to Yahoo!, it would derail his dad's future in Hollywood, saying, "It literally ruined his career. I mean, it just wiped him out."

The collapse of Reynolds and Fisher's marriage started in March 1958 when Todd was flying in his private plane, the "Lucky Liz," with three other men when the aircraft went down just outside of Grants, New Mexico, killing everyone onboard. Taylor was devastated, and turned to Reynolds and Fisher for emotional support. For Fisher and Taylor, that support turned into a romance, leaving Reynolds broken-hearted as she lost her husband and her best friend. To the outside world, Fisher's actions were unforgivable, and his career suffered for it. Before the affair, Fisher was as big as Frank Sinatra, but in 1959,  the same year Fisher and Taylor married, the singer was dropped by his record label, RCA Victor. 

After losing his record deal, Eddie Fisher tried to start his own label, Ramrod Records, but the experiment ended after the two singles and two albums he released on the label failed to reach the sales levels of his previous work. In 1960, he and Elizabeth Taylor starred in "Butterfield 8," and while Taylor's work in the film earned her an Academy Award, critics were unimpressed with Fisher's acting. In 1961, Fisher released a cover of the song "Tonight" from "West Side Story." While the movie was a massive hit, his version of the tune never cracked the top 40 charts. Three years later, Elizabeth Taylor would leave him for the only husband she would marry twice, Richard Burton. 

In 1966, Fisher re-signed with RCA Victor and, for a moment, his career seemed to be on the mend. His album, "Games That Lovers Play" sold 150,000 copies in 10 days, and Fisher found himself performing on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" five nights in a row. A year later, Fisher released "People Like You," which would become his last hit album. When Fisher passed away in 2010 at the age of 82, obituaries spent more time discussing the scandal than they did on his musical career. As for his two exes, Debbie Reynolds and Elizabeth Taylor ended their iconic feud when they both ended up on the same cruise. Speaking with HuffPost, Reynolds explained that she made the first move, sending Taylor a note. Then the two had dinner together and "we just said, 'let's call it a day.' And we got smashed. And we had a great evening, and stayed friends since then."