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The entertainment community is mourning the death of 70s and 80s icon Irene Cara, who has died at the age of 63, her publicist confirmed.

Cara was the star of the original movie “Sparkle,” which also starred Philip Michael Thomas and Lonnette McKee, in addition to being the songstress who belted out the hit “What a Feeling” for the eighties movie “Flash Dance,” for which she won an Academy Award for Best Original Song and a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. She may be best known for her role as “Coco Hernandez” in “Fame,” the 1980 movie based off New York City’s La Guardia High School, which launched the careers of Debbie Allen and Gene Anthony Ray.

In Sparkle, she played the baby sister of a family girl group that dealt with drugs, domestic violence and growing up in the harsh inner city. One of the most memorable songs from that movie was a rendition of Aretha Franklin’s classic, “Giving Him Something He Can Feel.”

“This is the absolute worst part of being a publicist. I can’t believe I’ve had to write this, let alone release the news,” Judith Moose announced in a tweet. “Please share your thoughts and memories of Irene. I’ll be reading each and every one of them and know she’ll be smiling from Heaven. She adored her fans.”

Born in New York City in 1959, Irene Cara Escalera was the youngest of five children. Her father, Gaspar Escalera, a factory worker and retired saxophonist, was Puerto Rican,and her mother, Louise, a movie theater usher, was Cuban-American. Cara had two sisters and two brothers.

At the age of three, Irene Cara was one of five finalists for the “Little Miss America” pageant. She began to play the piano by ear, then studied music, acting, and dance seriously, first having dance lessons, aged five. Her performing career started on Spanish-language television, professionally singing and dancing. She made early TV appearances on The Original Amateur Hour (singing in Spanish) and Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show. In 1971–1972, she was a regular on PBS’s educational program The Electric Company, as a member of the show’s band, The Short Circus. As a child, Cara recorded a Latin-market Spanish-language record and an English Christmas album. She appeared in a major concert tribute to Duke Ellington that featured Stevie Wonder, Sammy Davis Jr., and Roberta Flack.

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Cara appeared in on-and off-Broadway theatrical shows including the musicals Ain’t Misbehavin’, The Me Nobody Knows (which won an Obie Award), Maggie Flynn opposite Shirley Jones and Jack Cassidy, and Via Galactica with Raúl Juliá. Cara was the original Daisy Allen on the 1970s daytime serial Love of Life. Next came her role as Angela in romance/thriller Aaron Loves Angela, followed by her portrayal of the title character in Sparkle. Television brought Cara international acclaim for serious dramatic roles in two outstanding mini-series, Roots: The Next Generations and Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones. John Willis’ Screen World, Vol. 28, named her one of twelve “Promising New Actors of 1976”; that same year, a readers’ poll in Right On! magazine named her Top Actress. Cara graduated from the Professional Children’s School in Manhattan.

A cause of death has not yet been released.