Born as
Gerhard Hollerich on January 25, 1943, German romantic ballad singer
Roy Black started in the pop music business as a rock & roll artist, forming the group
Roy Black & His Cannons in 1963 at the age of 20, taking the stage name
Roy Black from his dark hair color and a lifelong fascination with the American singer and songwriter
Roy Orbison. The group signed a contract with Polydor Records, but the label increasingly pushed
Black as a solo artist, and by the late '60s
Black had been entirely recast as a singer of lushly orchestrated romantic pop ballads, becoming one of Germany's most successful recording artists through the early '70s. Beginning in 1967
Black began appearing in a string of German movies and television shows, usually always musical comedies. His career as a pop singer faded, but he was on the verge of a comeback when he died on October 9, 1991, reportedly of heart failure, although his history of alcoholism and substance abuse led some to speculate that he deliberately overdosed on various medications in order to take his own life. ~ Steve Leggett