Siegfried and Roy

Magicians

Names at birth: Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Uwe Ludwig Horn

Siegfried and Roy combined white tigers with magic in a famously glitzy act that was the toast of Las Vegas in the 1990s. The two men first met while working on an ocean liner called The Bremen in 1959; Siegfried was a steward and part-time magician, and Roy (unlikely as it seems) had smuggled a pet cheetah on board. The pair became companions and partners in magic, touring the world and featuring big cats in many of their acts. In 1982 they began to specialize in rare white tigers, which became their signature animal. They settled permanently at the Mirage Resort on the Las Vegas strip in 1990, in a showroom built especially for them, where their splashy and spectacular show featured disappearing tigers, pyrotechnics, and outlandish costumes. The pair remained a Vegas staple until 3 October 2003, when Roy was critically injured when a tiger grabbed him by the throat and dragged him offstage during a performance. Their show at the Mirage was closed permanently. Roy has not fully recovered from the attack, and the performing future of Siegfried and Roy remains unclear.

Extra credit: Montecore, the tiger which attacked Roy, was seven years old and weighed over 600 pounds... Siegfried and Roy were named Magicians of the Year in 1976 by the American Academy of Magical Arts... The phrase Sarmoti, sometimes used in greeting by Siegfried and Roy, is an acronym for "Siegfried and Roy, Masters of the Impossible"; a Saturday-morning cartoon by the same name debuted in 1993... Their first Las Vegas appearance was at the Tropicana in 1967.

Roy joins actress Jodie Foster and explorer David Livingstone in the loop Mauled By Lions.

Other entertainers associated with Las Vegas include Wayne Newton, Elvis Presley and The Rat Pack.