David Copperfield - Biography - IMDb David Copperfield Jump to: Overview (4) | Mini Bio (1) | Trivia (13) | Personal Quotes (2) Overview (4) 5' 11¾" (1.82 m) Mini Bio (1) David Copperfield is the first living illusionist to be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: he won the star on April 25th, 1995, for the category "Live Performance" and the address is 7021 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California, USA. On October 2nd, 1994, he was knighted by the French government as Chevalier of Arts and Letters, and on May 22th, 1999, he received an honorary doctorate of Humane Letters from Fordham University. Along with Steven Spielberg , Martin Scorsese and Colin Powell , on April 24th, 2000, he received the Living Legend award from the United States Library of Congress.

In 1979 and 1986 he has been named "Magician of the Year" by the Academy of Magical Arts, in July 2000 he has been named "Magician of the Millennium" by the International Federation of Magic Societies (FISM), and on September 15th, 2011, he has been named "Magician of the Century" and "King of Magic" by the Society of American Magicians. His face graces the postage stamps of six different countries, making him the only living magician to receive this honor. 16 of his groundbreaking 19 TV specials were nominated for Emmy Awards 38 times between 1979 and 2001, and 10 of them have won 21 times between 1981 and 1995. Year after year he continues to tour sold-out arenas throughout the world. He holds 11 Guinness World Records, published in the 2006 edition of this book (pag. 179) and has sold more tickets than any other solo entertainer in history, with ticket sales in the billions, more than Frank Sinatra , Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley .

Sound impossible? David Copperfield built a reputation on making the impossible look easy. He singlehandedly redefined his art, and remains the most emulated illusionist in the history of magic. An only child, David was born in Metuchen, New Jersey, USA, on September 16th, 1956, as David Seth Kotkin. His father, Hyman Kotkin , son of Jewish immigrants from Russia, owned and operated in Korby's, a clothing/tailor shop for men and boys on Metuchen's Main Street. His mother, Rebecca Kotkin , a Jewish immigrant born in Jerusalem, Israel, worked in the insurance business. David was a shy and lonely kid who overcame his insecurity with the help of magic. He initially wanted to become a ventriloquist, being fascinated by Paul Winchell , seen in his show Winchell-Mahoney Time (1965). So he bought a ventriloquist's dummy to Macy's, a shop selling magic tricks owned by the American multinational corporation Macy's, founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy.

When he made a little show in front of his classmates, he realized he was a bad ventriloquist, despite receiving an applause. Then he returned to Macy's in search of a better dummy, and in that occasion there was a demonstrator, called Dan Tsukalas, who performed a magic trick with a little wooden board where a quarter would appear and disappear. David liked it so much that he decided to buy it. Thanks to that his first magic trick he realized he was better as a magician rather than as a ventriloquist. So, by the age of 10 he began practicing magic in his neighborhood, with the stage name "Davino the Boy Magician". At 12 (1968) he was invited to join the Society of American Magicians, so became its youngest member ever and began performing professionally. At 16 (1972) was an adjunct professor at New York University, where he taught a course called "The Art of Magic". At 18 (1974), he graduated from Metuchen High School and then enrolled at Fordham University, a Jesuit based school in New York City.

But after just a week he was cast as the lead in "The Magic Man", a new musical comedy created by the producers of Grease (1978), Allan Carr and Robert Stigwood , and written by mystery author Barbara Steketee with her husband Anthony D'Amato. So after three weeks David left Fordham to play in this show. It was for this occasion that, following the suggestion of a friend, he adopted the stage name "David Copperfield", inspired by the abandoned character of the homonymous Charles Dickens 's novel. The show opened in Chicago, Illinois, USA, to rave reviews. It went on to become the longest running musical in Chicago's history, and gave David the invaluable experience of performing daily in front of a live audience, allowing him to develop the spontaneity and love of live performance that has him performing up to four shows a day, and doing over 550 performances every year since 1983. When "The Magic Man" closed after a year, David returned to New York.

He continued to develop his singular approach to magic, which was strongly influenced by his love of classic MGM musicals, the dramatic storytelling exemplified by Orson Welles and Walt Disney (2 of the 4 David's idols, which also include Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire ) and the lyrical, muscular romanticism of a Sinatra ballad. At 19 (1975) he performed for several months at the Pagoda Hotel in Honolulu, Hawaii. David appeared on television for the first time on May 26th, 1976, in Magic at the Roxy (1976), a TV special dedicated to magic and filmed at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, on October 9th, 1975, then he made an "official" debut on September 7th, 1977, as illusionist conductor of The Magic of ABC (1977). Thanks to this ABC variety TV special he achieved top ratings and shared his unique style of magic with millions of viewers.

Immediately the producer Joseph Cates put David under contract for a series of yearly TV specials titled "The Magic of David Copperfield", broadcasted on CBS starting with The Magic of David Copperfield (1978), the first official Copperfield TV special. On television between 1976 and 2001 he has performed over 150 different illusions, covering practically all kinds of them. In each special he presented new illusions on a scale never before imagined or attempted, and always in front of a live audience, without any use of camera tricks, and rather filming in long take to demonstrate the absolute absence of manipulation of the shoot through video editing or inserting of special effects. In his 4th special, The Magic of David Copperfield IV: The Vanishing Airplane (1981), he vanished a 7 tonnes Lear Jet airplane surrounded by a ring of blindfolded spectators, and in his 5th one, The Magic of David Copperfield V (1983), he performed in front of a live audience on Liberty Island "the illusion of the century": the disappearance of the Statue of Liberty, the largest illusion ever performed by an illusionist, but especially the one that made Copperfield famous worldwide.

For the next two decades, until 2001, David continued to break new ground with his annual top-rated, Emmy Award winning TV specials, with which he continued to surpass himself, for example by "Walking Through The Great Wall Of China" (1986), making a daring "Escape From Alcatraz" prison (1987), surviving being locked in a safe on the 4th floor of an imploding building (1989), levitating and vanishing a 70 tonnes Orient Express dining car surrounded by a ring of spectators (1991), flying freely on the stage for several minutes, and also flying into an examined plexiglas container, and then flying again freely but with a girl held on to his arms (1992), escaping while hanging upside down from burning ropes in a strait jacket 10 stories above flaming steel spikes (1993), testing, in live (in USA only) broadcast, his endurance by surviving the deadly heat standing in the center of a 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit (or 1,093 degrees Celsius) "Tornado Of Fire" (April 3rd, 2001).

His TV specials have been broadcasted in over 40 countries worldwide, reaching an estimated audience of over 3 billion people. In 1996 David realized his lifelong dream of performing on Broadway: he created "Dreams and Nightmares", written by David Ives and developed with Francis Ford Coppola and Eiko Ishioka . This show, opened at Martin Beck Theatre for 25 days between December 5th and 29th, still holds the Broadway record for most tickets sold in a week, more than Cats, The Lion King, and The Producers. As historian of his art, in 1991 he purchased for $ 2,2 million the Mulholland Library of the Conjuring and the Allied Arts in Las Vegas, Nevada, to found The International Museum and Library of the Conjuring Arts, which houses the world's largest collection of historically significant magic memorabilia: thousands of graphic images, prints, posters, playbills, photographs, manuscripts, letters, props and artifacts.

It comprises of approximately 80,000 items of magic history, including 15,000 magic books, some of them from the 16th century, the Harry Houdini 's Water Torture Cell (purchased at a Las Vegas auction on October 30th, 2004, for $ 300,000), his Metamorphosis Trunk and also his death certificate, the Orson Welles 's Buzz Saw illusion designed for Rita Hayworth , the rifle that killed magician Chung Ling Soo , the third version of the Edgar Bergen 's Charlie McCarthy ventriloquism dummy (purchased at a Sotheby's auction on June 9th, 1995, for $ 112,500), and the automaton created by Robert-Houdin (December 6th, 1805 - June 13th, 1871), who is considered the father of modern magic. It also includes the only known recording of the original Houdini's voice, pressed in 1914 on the Thomas A. Edison 's wax cylinders.

However the museum is not open to the public, but reserved to colleagues, fellow magicians and serious collectors. On the literary front, Copperfield joined forces with Dean R. Koontz , Joyce Carol Oates , Ray Bradbury and others for "David Copperfield's Tales of the Impossible" (385 pages, published in December 1995), an anthology of original fiction set in the world of magic and illusion. This collection was so well received that a second volume was published: "David Copperfield's Beyond Imagination" (352 pages, published in December 1996). David has been featured on the cover of Vanity Fair, Esquire, Forbes, and Architectural Digest. The word "Copperfield" has become a part of popular culture, in a manner quite apart from anything envisioned by Charles Dickens . In today's literature and media, to "do a David Copperfield" or to "be the David Copperfield of" something has come to mean doing something magical or achieving the impossible. In August 2006 Copperfield found a unique platform on which to create his newest wonders: "Musha Cay and the Islands of Copperfield Bay".

Recognized by many as the most beautiful and spectacular destination in the world, Musha Cay is the ultimate private island paradise. Located in the Exumas, Bahamas, these 11 private islands, bought for $ 50 million, have 700 acres of lush natural beauty, 40 sugar sand beaches and a 3,218 meters (or 10,560 feet) long sandbar, truly paradise on earth. David has been developing unique magical adventures for island guests, including Dave's Drive-in, where a giant silver screen "appears" on the beach, a custom designed magical Treasure Hunt adventure, and the Secret Village, a hidden sanctuary of enchanted monkeys accessed only by entering beneath a giant rising statue and journeying through an ancient, underground passage. David's proudest achievement, however, is Project Magic, a therapy program conceived in 1981 and organized by Copperfield with Julie DeJean, O.T.R., until the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) formally approved it in March 1982.

Based in the Kansas Rehabilitation Hospital, this program, that uses magic as therapy, have been established in nearly every state in the USA and in 1,100 hospitals in 30 countries worldwide. This medically-certified program motivates patients to regain their dexterity, coordination and cognitive skills by learning simple magic and sleight of hand. It is also described and shown in his 6th special, The Magic of David Copperfield VI: Floating Over the Grand Canyon (1984). In February 2010, at the age of 53, he became a father: the French model Chloe Gosselin , his girlfriend since 2006, gave birth to their child, a daughter called Sky. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Lorenz-pictures Trivia (13) In 1993 he met supermodel Claudia Schiffer at a Berlin celebrity gala, and in January 1994 they became engaged. During this engagement, she sometimes used to appear in his stage shows as a special guest assistant in a number of illusions: first he would levitate her high in the air before making her vanish and reappear, then he would use a large guillotine to behead her.

Finally, he would saw her in half inside a glass-sided box in what has sometimes been voted by other magicians as one of the most baffling versions of the sawing in half ever performed. Claudia also appeared in David Copperfield: 15 Years of Magic (1994), a documentary in which she played the role of a reporter interviewing Copperfield in his Magic Warehouse. After a six-year engagement, in September 1999 they announced their separation. One of his schoolteachers New Jersey school days was ABC News correspondent Judy Muller . Has appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1993) where he presented his collection of turn-of-the-century prank devices. One, a paddle that when used to spank someone exploded powder, was used incorrectly by host O'Brien. Copperfield's pants (and behind) caught on fire, an accident from which he still carries a scar. He has said he likes roller coasters. His favorite movies are Citizen Kane (1941) and The Wizard of Oz (1939).

In The Magic of David Copperfield III: Levitating Ferrari (1980), during the "Record Album Prediction" illusion he tells the audience that Dumbo (1941) was his favorite movie when he was a kid. In 1993, David did an on-stage illusion in which he weightlessly flew with a lady from the audience in his arms. His flight illusion was considered by many experts and historians of magic to be the greatest illusion ever performed on stage. Owns the buzz saw version of the "sawing a woman in half" illusion that used to belong to Orson Welles . Welles used to saw Rita Hayworth , Marlene Dietrich and Marilyn Monroe in half. Copperfield maintains the illusion in full working order, and has occasionally used it to saw in half various celebrity assistants including Claudia Schiffer , Penélope Cruz and Cat Deeley . David Copperfield and Claudia Schiffer | Married Divorced Children Ex | FamousHookups.com No known children for this relationship. Add a child for this couple. Affairs Check out our New "Top 10 Greatest Celebrity Studs" Relationship Information, Quotes, and Trivia Where and/or how did David Copperfield and Claudia Schiffer meet?

Copperfield met Schiffer in 1993 at a Berlin celebrity gala. He brought Schiffer on stage to assist him during a mind reading act. She then also took part in his "Flying" illusion. Why did David Copperfield and Claudia Schiffer break up? According to Copperfield, he and Schiffer "grew apart." They broke up in the fall of 1999. Other Relationship Information about David Copperfield and Claudia Schiffer: Shortly after they first met, they met again when they appeared together on a German TV show. At the end of the show, Copperfield and the show's host sawed Schiffer in half. While she was split into two pieces, Copperfield asked her out on a date. Shortly after this, they began dating. Three months after meeting Schiffer, Copperfield asked her to marry him. When not otherwise occupied with her modelling work, Schiffer often joined Copperfield in his stage shows as a special guest assistant in a number of illusions. During the show, she would be levitated high into the air, made to vanish and re-appear, have her head chopped off by a guillotine, and finally be sawed in half.

Add other Relationship Information Classic Quotes by David Copperfield and Claudia Schiffer about their relationship: "David is one of my best friends. He was my first love, so he will always be very special to me." Claudia Schiffer 4/2001 "I really love working with David in his shows, especially being sawed in half. Feeling the saw go through me is such an amazing sensation, and it's always such a thrill to look over and see my legs on the other side of the stage and know I'm in two pieces..." Claudia Schiffer 1995 "If there is a potential down-side to being a magician's wife, it's that your husband does keep wanting to saw you in half, stick swords through you, and that sort of thing.

Fortunately, I really enjoy working with David as well as being married to him, so I don't mind at all when he does saw me in half, chop my head off or ask to do anything else like that to me." Claudia Schiffer David Copperfield shows off model fiancee Chloe Gosselin | Daily Mail Online Share this article Share The showman admits to being a perfectionist - spending ‘an average of five years’ in putting together his shows and the eye for detail is repeated in his tropical home. ‘Because of my work I have the privilege of living in extraordinary places around the world and I wanted to recreate the details of those experiences here - from the water pressure in the shower to the thread count in the towels,’ he said. Former relationship: David was previously involved with supermodel Claudia Schiffer Read the full interview in the latest edition of Hello! magazine Gosselin is full of praise for her fiance, saying: ‘I'm so lucky to have found David. There are very few people in the world like him. He's spent more than 30 years at the top of his profession.

He's achieved some extraordinary things.’ Copperfield's joy comes after he signed on for three more years with a new show at MGM Grand, plus they’ll be naming a theater in his honor. The veteran entertainer also has a string of recent behind-the-scenes movie credits under his belt and a second life in real estate, most notably with the chain of 11 Bahamas islands he’s now turned into an exclusive Caribbean resort. The island experience is the creation of every great place I’ve ever been combined with the imagination that I have in my theater work,’ Copperfield said in a recent Forbes interview. ‘People on the cover of your magazine come there a lot.’ Read more: David Copperfield (illusionist) - iSnare Free Encyclopedia David Copperfield (illusionist) This article contains content that is written like an advertisement . Please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links , and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view .

(March 2015) Copperfield in backstage at the America's Got Talent season 5 finale rehearsal Born Chloe Gosselin (2006–present) [2] Children David Seth Kotkin (born September 16, 1956), known professionally as David Copperfield, is an American illusionist , described by Forbes as the most commercially successful magician in history. [3] Copperfield's television specials have won 21 Emmy Awards of a total 38 nominations. Best known for his combination of storytelling and illusion, Copperfield's career of over 40 years has earned him 11 Guinness World Records , [4] a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame , [5] a knighthood by the French government, [6] and he has been named a Living Legend by the US Library of Congress . [7] Copperfield has so far sold 33 million tickets and grossed over $4 billion, which is more than any other solo entertainer in history.

[3] [4] [8] [9] In 2015, Forbes listed his earnings at $63 million for the previous 12 months and ranked him the 20th highest earning celebrity in the world. [10] When not performing, he manages his chain of eleven resort islands in the Bahamas, which he calls "Musha Cay and the Islands of Copperfield Bay". [8] [11] Contents 15 External links Early years Copperfield was born David Seth Kotkin in Metuchen, New Jersey , [12] [13] the son of Jewish parents, Rebecca, an insurance adjuster, and Hyman Kotkin, who owned and operated a men's haberdashery in Metuchen called Korby's. [12] Copperfield's mother was born in Jerusalem while his paternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from USSR (present-day Ukraine ). [14] [15] In 1974, Copperfield graduated from Metuchen High School .

[16] When Copperfield was 10, he began practicing magic as "Davino the Boy Magician" in his neighborhood, As a teenager, Copperfield became fascinated with Broadway and frequently sneaked into shows, especially musicals featuring the work of Stephen Sondheim or Bob Fosse . [23] By age 16, he was teaching a course in magic at New York University . [24] Career and business interests At age 18, Copperfield enrolled at New York City's Jesuit based school Fordham University . However, three weeks into his freshman year he left Fordham to play the lead role of the musical The Magic Man in Chicago. It was on this occasion that he adopted the stage name "David Copperfield", taken from the famous Charles Dickens novel because he liked the sound of it. Copperfield sang, danced and created most of the original illusions used in the show. The Magic Man became the longest running musical in Chicago's history. [25] [26] At age 19, he was headlining at the Pagoda Hotel in Honolulu, Hawaii for several months.

[19] Copperfield performing for the 1977 ABC special Copperfield's career in television began in earnest when he was discovered by Joseph Cates, a producer of Broadway shows and television specials. [27] Cates produced a magic special in 1977 for ABC called "The Magic of ABC" hosted by Copperfield, [20] as well as several of "The Magic of David Copperfield" specials on CBS between 1978 and 2001. [27] There have been 17 Copperfield TV specials and 2 documentaries between September 7, 1977, and April 3, 2001. Copperfield also played the character of "The Magician" in the 1980s horror film Terror Train and an uncredited appearance in the 1994's film Prêt-à-Porter . Most of his media appearances have been through television specials and guest spots on television programs.

His illusions have included the disappearance of a seven- ton Learjet (1981), the vanishing and reappearance of the Statue of Liberty (1983), levitating over the Grand Canyon (1984), walking through the Great Wall of China (1986), escaping from Alcatraz prison (1987), the disappearance of a 70-ton Orient Express dining car (1991) and Flying on stage for several minutes (1992). One of his most famous illusions occurred on television on April 8, 1983: a live audience of 20 tourists was seated in front of a giant curtain attached to 2 lateral scaffolding built on Liberty Island in an enclosed viewing area, and Copperfield, with help by Jim Steinmeyer [28] and Don Wayne , raised the curtain before lowering it again a few seconds later to reveal that the space where the Statue of Liberty once stood was in that moment empty. A helicopter hovered overhead to give an aerial view of the illusion and the statue appeared to have vanished and only the circle of lights surrounding it was still present and visible.

Before making the statue reappear, Copperfield explained in front of the camera why he wanted to perform this illusion. He wanted people to imagine what it would be like if there were no liberty or freedom in the world today and what the world would be like without the freedoms and rights we enjoy. Copperfield then brought Lady Liberty back ending the illusion by saying that "our ancestors couldn't (enjoy rights and freedoms), we can and our children will". Both the disappearance and the reappearance of the statue have been filmed in long take to demonstrate the absence of camera tricks. [29] [30] In 1996, in collaboration with Francis Ford Coppola , David Ives , and Eiko Ishioka , Copperfield's Broadway show Dreams & Nightmares broke box office records in New York at the Martin Beck Theatre . [31] Reviewer Greg Evans described the sold-out show in Variety magazine: "With a likable, self-effacing demeanor that rarely comes across in his TV specials, Copperfield leads the audience through nearly two hours of truly mind-boggling illusions. He disappears and reappears, gets cut in half, makes audience members vanish and others levitate.

Copperfield climaxes his show with a flying routine, seven years in the making, that defies both logic and visual evidence, he could probably retire just by selling his secrets to future productions of Peter Pan ". [32] Also during 1996, Copperfield joined forces with Dean Koontz , Joyce Carol Oates , Ray Bradbury and others for David Copperfield’s Tales of the Impossible, an anthology of original fiction set in the world of magic and illusion. A second volume was later published in 1997, called David Copperfield's Beyond Imagination. In addition to the 2 books, David also wrote an essay as part of the " This I Believe " series from NPR and the This I Believe, Inc. [33] In May 2001, Copperfield entertained guests at a White House benefit for UNICEF by performing an illusion in which he sawed singer and actress Jennifer Lopez into six pieces. [34] This illusion was an update of one he performed in one of his early TV specials on actress Catherine Bach .

In 2002, he was the subject of an hour A&E Television network biographical special on his life & career, aired on A&E's "Biography" channel . On April 5, 2009, Copperfield made his first live TV appearance for some time when he entertained the audience at the 44th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards with two illusions. First, he made singer Taylor Swift appear inside an apparently empty translucent-sided elevator as it was lowered from the ceiling, and then sawed her in half in his Clearly Impossible illusion. [35] On May 7, 2009, Copperfield was dropped by Michael Jackson from Jackson's residency at the O2 Arena after an alleged disagreement over money. Copperfield wanted $1 million (£666,000) per show. [36] Copperfield denied the reports of a falling out, saying "don't believe everything you read." [37] News of Copperfield's collaboration with Jackson first surfaced on April 1, 2009, and has since been reported by several websites as a possible April Fool's prank.

[38] [39] In August 2009, Copperfield took his show to Australia. [40] [41] In January 2011 David Copperfield joined the cast of the new feature film Burt Wonderstone with Steve Carell , Jim Carrey , James Gandolfini , and Olivia Wilde . Copperfield and his team developed illusions used in the film, [42] while Copperfield also coached Carell and Wilde on how to perform the 'Impossible Sawing' illusion, in which Wilde's character is sawed in half and her halves separated without the use of any covering or camera tricks. In July 2012, OWN-TV network aired a one-hour special and interview with Copperfield as part of the network's " Oprah's Next Chapter " series. The show featured many aspects of Copperfield's personal life and family—with tours of his island home and Las Vegas conjuring museum—and a sampling of his illusions and magic effects. During the interview, he and his girlfriend Chloe Gosselin, a French fashion model, announced their engagement and appeared together briefly with their young daughter strolling down the beach on the island.

[43] Copperfield notes that his role models growing up were not magicians, that "My idols were Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire and Orson Welles and Walt Disney ... they took their individual art forms and they moved people with them... I wanted to do the same thing with magic. I wanted to take magic and make it romantic and make it sexy and make it funny and make it goofy... all the different things that a songwriter gets to express or a filmmaker gets to express... " [44] This approach, despite its obvious popularity with audiences, has its share of detractors within the profession. One magician, for example, has described Copperfield's stage presentations as “resembling entertainment the way Velveeta resembles cheese”. [45] International Museum and Library of the Conjuring Arts Copperfield owns the International Museum and Library of the Conjuring Arts, which houses the world's largest [46] collection of historically significant magic memorabilia, books, and artifacts.

Begun in 1991 when Copperfield purchased the Mulholland Library of Conjuring and the Allied Arts, which contained the world's largest collection of Houdini memorabilia, [3] the museum comprises approximately 80,000 items of magic memorabilia, including Houdini's Water Torture Cabinet and his Metamorphosis Trunk, the Orson Welles' Buzz Saw illusion and automata created by Robert-Houdin . [46] [47] [48] Copperfield's 1991 Mulholland purchase, which formed the core of his collection, engendered criticism from some detractors within the magician community. One critic told a reporter, “David Copperfield buying the Mulholland Library is like an Elvis impersonator winding up with Graceland.” [45] The museum is not open to the public; tours are reserved for "colleagues, fellow magicians, and serious collectors".

[46] Located in a warehouse at Copperfield's headquarters in Las Vegas , the museum is entered via a secret door in what was described by actor Hugh Jackman as a "sex shop" [49] and by Forbes as a "mail-order lingerie warehouse" [3] "'It doesn't need to be secret, it needs to be respected,' he said. 'If a scholar or journalist needs a piece of magic history, it's there.'". [48] [50] [51] Musha Cay and the Islands of Copperfield Bay In 2006, Copperfield bought eleven Bahamian islands called Musha Cay . [52] Renamed "The Islands of Copperfield Bay", [52] the islands are a private resort. [53] Guests have reportedly included Oprah Winfrey and John Travolta , and Google co-founder Sergey Brin was married there. [54] Copperfield has stated that the islands may contain the Fountain of Youth , a claim which resulted in him receiving a Dubious Achievement Award from Esquire Magazine in 2006.

[55] "Magic Underground" restaurant Photo of illusionist David Copperfield, taken in March 2014, on Musha Cay and the Islands of Copperfield Bay David Copperfield's Magic Underground was planned to be a restaurant based on Copperfield's magic. [56] At Walt Disney World in Orlando Florida, there was a sign on Hollywood Boulevard during the late 90s indicating the restaurant was coming soon. Signs were also located around Pleasure Island and signs outside Disney-MGM Studios . [57] A Magic Underground restaurant was also going to open in New York's Times Square. [56] Plans also included eventual expansion into Disneyland in Anaheim, California, as well as Paris and Tokyo. [58] The restaurants were to have magic props and other items on the walls of the restaurants while magicians would go around to tables doing sleight of hand tricks. There was also to be a larger stage for larger stunts. [59] The restaurant in Times Square was 85 percent completed, [58] but, amid disputes between the creative team and the financial team and enormous cost overruns, finances dried up from the investors, the project was cancelled, and Disney cancelled the lease.

[60] Copperfield was not an investor in the project; the investors reportedly lost $34 million on the project, and subcontractors placed $15 million in liens . [58] [61] Recorded message for expanded gambling in Maryland In October 2012, Maryland residents received a robocall from Copperfield, supporting a Maryland ballot initiative that would expand gambling in the state. [62] Accidents and injuries On March 11, 1984, while rehearsing an illusion called "Escape From Death" where he was shackled and handcuffed in a tank of water, Copperfield became tangled in the chains and started taking in water and banging into the sides of the tank. [44] He was pulled from the water after 1 minute 20 seconds, hyperventilating and in shock , and taken to a Burbank hospital, and found to have pulled tendons in arms and legs. He was in a wheelchair for a week and used a cane for a period thereafter. [63] While doing a rope trick[ when? ], Copperfield accidentally cut off the tip of his finger with sharp scissors.

[64] He was rushed to the hospital and the fingertip was re-attached. [65] On December 17, 2008, during a live performance in Las Vegas, a 26-year-old assistant named Brandon was sucked into the spinning blades of a 12 feet (3.7 m) high industrial fan that Copperfield walks through. [66] The assistant sustained multiple fractures to his arm, severe bleeding, and facial lacerations that required stitches. [66] Copperfield canceled the rest of the performance and offered the audience members refunds. Litigation On July 11, 1994, Copperfield sued magician and author Herbert L. Becker in order to prevent publication of Becker's book which reveals how magicians perform their illusions. [67] Becker won the lawsuit. [68] However, the book was published without exposing any of Copperfield's secrets. [69] Because of a secrecy agreement Becker had signed with Copperfield, and an independent finding that Becker's description of Copperfield's methods was inaccurate, the publisher removed the section on Copperfield from the book before publication.

[69] In 1997, Becker sued Copperfield and Lifetime Books for US$50 million for causing breach of contract between himself and Lifetime Books, the publisher of his book All the Secrets of Magic Revealed. Becker won this lawsuit when Copperfield settled at the last moment and the publisher lost during the court trial. [70] In 1997, Copperfield and Claudia Schiffer sued Paris Match for US $30 million after the magazine claimed their relationship was a sham, [71] that Schiffer was paid for pretending to be Copperfield's fiancée and that she didn't even like him. [72] [73] In 1999, they won an undisclosed sum and a retraction from Paris Match. [74] Herbert L. Becker, whom Copperfield asked to give testimony regarding the validity of the relationship, gave convincing testimony that the relationship was real. Copperfield's publicist confirmed that while Schiffer had a contract to appear in the audience at Copperfield's show in Berlin where they met, she was not under contract to be his "consort".

[75] On August 25, 2000, Copperfield unsuccessfully sued Fireman's Fund Insurance Company for reimbursement of a $506,343 ransom paid to individuals in Russia who had commandeered the entertainer's equipment there. [76] [77] [78] In 2004, John Melk, co-founder of Blockbuster Inc. , and previous owner of Musha Cay , sued Copperfield for fraud after Copperfield's purchase of the island chain, alleging that Copperfield had deliberately obscured his identity during the purchase and that he would not have sold the island to Copperfield. [79] Copperfield claimed that Melk had agreed to sell the property to Copperfield's Imagine Nation Company, and that Copperfield negotiated the deal through a third party because he feared Melk was "seeking to exploit" Copperfield's celebrity status by demanding an unrealistic price. [80] The case was settled in 2006. The terms of the settlement are undisclosed. [79] On November 6, 2007, Viva Art International Ltd and Maz Concerts Inc.

sued Copperfield for nearly $2.2 million for breach of contract [81] [82] and the Indonesian promoter of David Copperfield's canceled shows in Jakarta held on to $550,000 worth of Copperfield's equipment in lieu of money paid to Copperfield that had not been returned. [83] Copperfield countersued. [84] The dispute was resolved in July 2009. [85] Copperfield was accused of sexual assault in 2007 by Lacey L. Carroll. [86] A federal grand jury in Seattle closed the investigation in January 2010 without bringing charges against Copperfield. [87] [88] In January 2010, the Bellevue City Prosecutor's Office brought misdemeanor charges against Carroll for prostitution and allegedly making a false accusation of rape in another case. [89] Carroll filed a civil lawsuit against Copperfield, [90] which was dropped in April 2010.

[91] [92] Personal life In 1993 at a Berlin celebrity gala Copperfield met German supermodel Claudia Schiffer when he brought her on stage to participate in a mind reading act and in his flying illusion, and in January 1994 they became engaged. During this engagement, Schiffer sometimes appeared on stage with Copperfield to act as his special guest assistant in illusions including being sawn in half . [93] [94] [95] She also appeared alongside Copperfield in David Copperfield: 15 Years of Magic (1994), a documentary in which she played the role of a reporter interviewing him, and at the end of which they reprised their performance of the "Flying" illusion. After a nearly six-year engagement, in September 1999 they announced their separation citing work schedules. [96] In April 2006, he and two female assistants were robbed at gunpoint after a performance in West Palm Beach, Florida . [97] His assistants handed over their money, passports, and a cell phone.

According to his police statement, Copperfield did not hand over anything, claiming that he used sleight of hand to hide his possessions, [98] although later admitting that doing so was "very stupid. It was a reflex that could have got me shot". [99] One of the assistants wrote down most of the license plate number, and the suspects were later arrested, charged, and sentenced. [100] Copperfield and his girlfriend Chloe Gosselin, a French fashion model who is 28 years his junior, had a daughter named Sky in February 2010. The news did not break publicly until over a year later, when The New York Post reported it in August 2011, and it was confirmed by Copperfield's publicist. [8] In July 2016, he purchased a mansion in Las Vegas 's affluent Summerlin community for $17.55 million USD. [101] Earnings 80 50 Forbes magazine reported that Copperfield earned $55 million in 2003, making him the tenth highest paid celebrity in the world (earnings figures are pre-tax and before deductions for agents' and attorneys' fees, etc.).

[103] He earned $57 million in 2004 and 2005, and $30 million in 2009 in entertainment earnings, according to Forbes. [104] [105] Copperfield performs over 500 shows per year throughout the world. [106] Charitable activities Project Magic In March 1982, Copperfield founded Project Magic , In 2007, he organized and performed at a charity show for UNICEF in Los Angeles, along with a number of celebrity guests. During the show, he used his ex-Orson Welles Buzz Saw illusion to saw British TV presenter Cat Deeley in half. [109] Achievements and awards First living magician to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame . [5] Recognized by the French government, receiving the Chevalier of Arts and Letters , the first one ever awarded to a magician.[ citation needed ] Named "Magician of the Year" in 1979 and 1986 by the Academy of Magical Arts .

[112] Forbes's "The Celebrity 100" for 2009 ranks Copperfield as the 80th most powerful celebrity, with earnings of $30 million.

[104] Topped The Onion's annual list of the World's Most Powerful People, 2013 [113] Inducted into New York City's Ride of Fame on September 11, 2015 [114] Guinness World Records The Magic of David Copperfield XV: Fires Of Passion (March 30, 1993) (With special guest Wayne Gretzky ) Filmed in part at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center in Tampa Bay, Florida 3 Emmy Win: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Art Direction for a Variety or Music Program; Outstanding Individual Achievement in Editing for a Miniseries or a Special – Multi-Camera Production; Outstanding Individual Achievement in Technical Direction/Camera/Video for a Miniseries or a Special David Copperfield: 15 Years of Magic (May 12, 1994) (With special guest Claudia Schiffer as "The Reporter", and appearances of various guests from previous specials via archive footage, as James Earl Jones and Joanie Spina ).

In the international version, in addition to reprising their "Flying" illusion, Copperfield and Schiffer also reprised the performance of the Clearly Impossible illusion from Copperfield's stage shows in which Schiffer was sawed in half inside a transparent box.

1 Emmy Win: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Editing for a Miniseries or a Special – Multi-Camera Production The Magic of David Copperfield XVI: Unexplained Forces (May 1, 1995) – Filmed at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center in Tampa Bay, Florida 3 Emmy Wins: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Editing for a Miniseries or a Special – Multi-Camera Production; Outstanding Individual Achievement in Lighting Direction (Electronic) for a Drama Series, Variety Program, Miniseries or a Special; Outstanding Technical Direction/Camera/Video for a Miniseries or a Special 2 Emmy Nominations: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Art Direction for a Variety or Music Program; Outstanding Individual Achievement in Sound Mixing for a Variety or Music Series or a Special David Copperfield: the great escapes (April 26, 2000) Copperfield - Tornado of Fire (April 3, 2001) (With special guests Carson Daly and, only in the international version, Whoopi Goldberg .

Carson Daly was replaced by Hans Kazàn in the Dutch version and Marco Berry in the Italian version) – Filmed in January 2001 in a surrounded stage at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, Tennessee , and a live (in USA only) tornado stunt performed at Pier 94 in New York City, NY [117] (North America version 60 minutes, European version 90 minutes) 1 Emmy Nomination: Outstanding Art Direction for a Variety or Music Program Worldwide tours David Copperfield was engaged to Claudia Schiffer - Dating and Relationships - Zimbio Prev 1 of 1 Next 1. David Copperfield was engaged to Claudia Schiffer 1994 - 1999 Claudia Schiffer started dating magician David Copperfield after she appeared in one of his stage shows. She served as his special assistant during many of his acts, when he'd saw here in half. They became engaged but ultimately broke it off in 1999. Sign Up for Our Newsletter Thanks for signing up!

A Lift Out of Life A Lift Out of Life Email David Copperfield has risen 55 stories above the streets of Manhattan, but he didn’t do so by levitating as he once appeared to across the Grand Canyon. No, this time he simply took the elevator to his sumptuous penthouse where he stands in front of a fortune-telling machine, one of some 100 vintage arcade games he owns. Slipping a coin into the slot, Copperfield receives an orange card that reads, “Devote yourself carefully to what you undertake.” If only he needed a reminder. In some three decades as the world’s most famous magician, Copperfield’s single-minded pursuit of his craft has prompted new talk from the 44-year-old about pulling off an entirely different kind of trick: juggling his career with a satisfying home life that would include a wife and kids to share his four-floor Manhattan apartment. For the first time since his well-publicized breakup with German-born supermodel Claudia Schiffer, 30, he has found love again—this time with Belgian model Ambre Frisque, 22. “I’m trying to balance my life a little bit,” says Copperfield.

“I need a form of escape even when I’m working really hard.” It’s easy to understand why he would need one. Last year, Copperfield’s touring schedule had him performing 512 shows around the world. For his latest television special, Copperfield! Tornado of Fire (airing April 3 on CBS), the master showman spent seven years preparing for a physical challenge that has him walking through gusts strong enough to tear a house from its foundation and flames as hot as 2,000°F. Still, despite earning $60 million last year according to Forbes, placing him fifth on the magazine’s list of the world’s richest entertainers (ahead of Steven Spielberg and Julia Roberts ), Copperfield says he has “a fear of ending up with just a bunch of plaques and awards.” The legacy he now seeks is less about raising comely assistants and more about raising children. “And not someday,” he says. “Soon.” Even so, Copperfield and Frisque, who have been together for five months now, are not rushing into marriage. The couple’s first encounter took place in Brussels, when Copperfield picked Frisque out of an audience to assist him during a performance.

She then agreed to have dinner with him—even though she had a boyfriend at the time. “It was the way David looked at me,” she says. “No one had ever looked at me like that before.” They have been inseparable ever since, the age difference notwithstanding. “I act like I’m 14, if you haven’t figured that out yet,” he says with a laugh, adding that the two of them like to go bowling and “to a lot of movies.” It helps that Frisque, who recently shot a commercial for Dentyne Ice, is scaling back on modeling so she can accompany Copperfield on tour. “David is my priority,” she says. That’s a striking change from Copperfield’s last serious romance, with Claudia Schiffer. Copperfield met Schiffer the same way he met Frisque—at a 1993 Berlin celebrity gala, he brought Schiffer onstage to assist him during a mind-reading act—and proposed to her three months later on the Caribbean island of Little St. James. But during their six-year engagement, the couple never set a wedding date—partly because they had difficulty scheduling time to be together. “We got busier and busier,” Copperfield says.

“It’s hard when you have two people who are very driven.” And there were other difficulties, including relentless rumors about Copperfield’s sexual orientation. “If I was gay, why would I hide it?” he says. “It’s okay for me to be gay, but God didn’t make me that way.” There were also claims that the romance was a sham. In 1997 the magazine Paris Match wrote that Schiffer—whose modeling career reportedly earns her $9 million a year—had been paid to front as Copperfield’s girlfriend. “What amazed us was the number of really intelligent people who believed it,” he says. Schiffer responded by filing a $30 million lawsuit in France. In 1999 a French court declared the story false and defamatory and ordered Paris Match to pay undisclosed damages. By then, however, the two of them were already “growing apart,” Copperfield says. They broke up in the fall of 1999, though amicably enough that Schiffer says she still considers Copperfield “one of my best friends,” adding, “He was my first love, so he will always be very special to me.” Copperfield’s own first love has always been magic.

By age 10, the only child of Hyman Kotkin, 78, a retired men’s-clothing-store owner, and Rebecca, 77, a former insurance adjuster, was already working his Metuchen, N.J., neighborhood as “Davino, the Boy Magician” and striving to improve his skills. “He did things over and over again,” his mother recalls, “until he absolutely felt he couldn’t do them any better.” At 17, Copperfield adopted his stage name, suggested by friends who thought, as a boy, he had resembled the waiflike title character of Dickens’s novel, and a year later scored his first big gig: the lead in a 1974 Chicago musical, The Magic Man. In 1977 ABC tapped Copperfield to introduce its fall lineup on a show called The Magic of ABC, which led to a 1978 deal with CBS to produce a series of magic specials. Since then Copperfield’s numerous shows for the network have focused on feats like walking through the Great Wall of China.

“The way he thinks, the illusions he creates—David is 10 years ahead of everyone else,” says Warren Kaps, president-elect of the Society of American Magicians. “He’s advanced magic more than anyone.” And he has the trappings to prove it, from his penthouse’s fourth-floor swimming pool to the second-floor screening room that’s being created. But as he looks around at all he’s accumulated, there’s one item—a question—that Copperfield is trying to make disappear. “I find myself asking,” he says, “is this all there is?” Galina Espinoza Fannie Weinstein in New York City Show Full Article

Question: The magician David Copperfield broke off his engagement to whom in 1999?
Answer: Claudia Schiffer