Things are about to get wild for Jude Law and Andrew Garfield, as the two actors have signed on to portray magicians Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn, respectively, in a new Apple TV+ limited series titled Wild Things.
Based on the eight-episode podcast series Wild Things: Siegfried & Roy, this saga takes audiences on "the wild-ride relationship tale of two of the greatest showman-magicians in history, who, along with their white tigers, were tasked with turning Sin City into a family-friendly destination," the show's official description reads, as reported on Entertainment Weekly. "The duo push the concept of illusion versus reality to the extreme, personally and professionally, until tragedy reframes and opens a mystery surrounding their last fateful Las Vegas show."
Siegfried and Roy were two of the most famous performing duos of all time when it comes to live entertainment set in Las Vegas. If you're not very familiar with them or need a refresher, here's everything you should know before watching Wild Things.
Who are Siegfried and Roy?
Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn were two of the most famous performers in Las Vegas history. Fischbacher was a magician, and Horn was an animal trainer. They were both born in Germany to fathers who served as Nazi soldiers in World War II, as reported on Forbes.
The two men met in the 1950s and started performing together. By the 1970s, they made their way from Europe to Las Vegas, where they would become some of the biggest live entertainers of all time.
How did Siegfried and Roy meet?
Siegfried and Roy met on the luxury ocean liner TS Bremen that traveled between Europe and the U.S. At this point in their lives, Fischbacher was a magician, while Horn was a waiter. Their first interactions happened after Horn saw Fischbacher making a rabbit disappear in his act — and they instantly connected over their shared love of performing.
"I asked him, 'Well, if you can make a rabbit disappear, how about making a cheetah disappear?'" Horn said, according to ABC News.
Horn had smuggled a live cheetah named Chico on the boat and was keeping it in his cabin. "We put him into the act. We had a standing ovation," Fischbacher told ABC News. "I thought, in show business, you don't have to be only good, you have to be different, and Roy brought the difference."
From then on, the duo was inseparable. They started performing in clubs and theaters around Europe, eventually ending up in Monte Carlo. There, they performed for celebrities like Grace Kelly, Cary Grant, Sophia Loren, and Frank Sinatra.
How did Siegfried and Roy get famous?
The duo — Fischbacher as a magician and Horn as an animal wrangler — received an invitation in 1967 to perform at the Tropicana in Las Vegas.
When developer Steve Wynn came to Sin City in 1989 and built The Mirage, that became the most expensive resort in the world — and it didn't take long for Fischbacher and Horn to be hired as live entertainment, Forbes reports.
Wynn signed the duo to a five-year $57 million deal and built a $30 million, 5,000-seat theater specifically for the magicians and their animals.
"Siegfried and Roy came to me with the idea of a new show that was going to be scaled above and beyond anything anyone had seen in Las Vegas," Wynn told ABC News. Overall, the pair performed more tham 5,000 times in Las Vegas.
What happened when Roy Horn got attacked by a tiger?
During a live performance by Siegfried and Roy on October 3, 2003, a 7-year-old white tiger named Montecore (named Mantecore in other reports) attacked Horn. At the time, eyewitnesses told People that the tiger became unexpectedly agitated at one point in the show. When Horn tried to get Montecore to lie down, the tiger grabbed Horn with his forepaws or mouth. Horn then bopped the animal on the nose to get him to stop.
Witnesses say that Horn stumbled to the ground — which was when Montecore bit onto his neck and dragged him off stage. Horn suffered massive blood loss in the attack and had a severe stroke.
Nonetheless, Horn stood by the animal even after getting attacked. "I started feeling kind of weak. I fell over," Horn told People in 2004. "Montecore saw that I was falling down. So he actually took me and brought me to the other exit where everybody could get me and help me. He knew better than I did where to go."
The Siegfried and Roy act in Las Vegas ended after the attack, even though they performed together again in 2009.
Were Siegfried and Roy gay?
Rumors about Siegfried and Roy being gay went on for many years throughout their careers.
"As time passed, especially in the 1980s and 1990s, Siegfried and Roy became a bit more flamboyant, but they still had to keep their private life in check. Because, remember, the audiences for their shows were mostly from middle America, and their audience was a more conservative crowd," journalist and Wild Things podcast host Steven Leckart told The Advocate in 2022.
They were romantic partners for some time, "in the early and middle stages of their careers," per The Advocate, but remained professional partners after they split.
They eventually came out together on the cover of National Enquirer, in August 2007, with the announcement "We're Gay!" as the headline — as described in the book The Secret Life of Siegfried and Roy: How the Tiger Kings Tamed Las Vegas.
When and how did Siegfried and Roy die?
Horn died of complications from COVID-19 in 2020. He was 75.
"Today, the world has lost one of the greats of magic, but I have lost my best friend," Fischbacher wrote in a statement reported by ABC News. "From the moment we met, I knew Roy and I, together, would change the world. There could be no Siegfried without Roy, and no Roy without Siegfried."
NPR reported that Fischbacher died less than a year later, in 2021, from pancreatic cancer. He was 81.
