Roy Black

German romantic ballad singer Roy Black entered the world as Gerhard Hollerich on January 25, 1943. He first entered the pop arena as a rock & roll performer, assembling Roy Black & His Cannons in 1963 when he turned twenty. He chose the stage name Roy Black because of his dark hair and an enduring admiration for American singer-songwriter Roy Orbison. Polydor Records awarded the band a contract, yet the company steadily steered Black toward solo work; by the close of the 1960s he had been fully repositioned as an interpreter of lushly orchestrated romantic pop ballads. Through the early 1970s he ranked among Germany’s most commercially potent recording artists. Starting in 1967 he also took roles in a succession of German films and television programs, most of them musical comedies. Although his pop career later waned, he stood on the threshold of a revival when he died on October 9, 1991. Reports listed heart failure as the cause, but his documented struggles with alcoholism and substance abuse prompted some observers to suggest he had intentionally overdosed on medication.