David Copperfield Biography
David Copperfield (born; David Seth Kotkin) is an American magician. He is the most commercially successful magician in history with 21 Emmy Awards, 11 Guinness World Records, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame According to Forbes.
David Copperfield Career
David Copperfield began practicing magic at the age of 10 under the pseudo name “Davino the Boy Magician”. He was admitted to the Society of American Magicians at the age of 12 becoming the youngest person admitted.
He attended Camp Harmony, a day camp in nearby Warren, New Jersey, where he began practicing magic and ventriloquism. He normally credits the experience for his creative style. By the age of 16, he was teaching a course in magic at New York University.
He enrolled at Fordham University at the age of 18 but left three weeks later he left college to play the lead role in the musical The Magic Man in Chicago.
He sang, danced, and created most of the original illusions used in the show. The show was one of the longest-running musicals in Chicago’s history.
David Copperfield headlined and created the first “Magic of David Copperfield” at the Pagoda Hotel in Honolulu, Hawaii at the age of 19.
David Copperfield Age
Copperfield is 67 years old as of 2023. He was born on 16th September 1956 in Metuchen, New Jersey, United States.
David Copperfield Height
Copperfield stands at an approximate height of 6 feet tall.
David Copperfield Family
David parents are Jewish, her mother Rebecca was an insurance adjuster while his father Hyman Kotkin owned and operated a men’s haberdashery in Warren, New Jersey, called Korby’s.
David Copperfield Wife
In 2007 he married Chloe Gosselin, a French model. They got engaged in 2014 with David confirmed his engagement saying he had changed from his ways of being a ladies man
“Oh, that was a long time ago, now I’m engaged and in a committed relationship with Chloe in my mind and my heart.”
The couple has three children a daughter Sky, a son, Dylan Jacob Kotkin and a daughter, Audrey Anna Kotkin.
David Copperfield Daughter
In February 2010 David Copperfield and Chloe give birth to their daughter Sky.
David Copperfield Net worth
David Copperfield has an estimated net worth of $930 million as of 2018. Forbes listed his earnings at $63 million for the previous 12 months in 2015 and listed him as the 20th highest-earning celebrity in the world.
David Copperfield Magic Show
In 1977 copperfield began hosting ‘The Magic of ABC’ on ABC which was produced by Joseph Cates who is also the person who discovered David. Copperfield also presented ‘ The Magic of David Copperfield’ specials on CBS between 1978 and 2001. Between 7th September 1977 and 3rd April 2001 there have been 17 Copperfield TV specials and 2 documentaries.
David Copperfield Illusionist
Some of David’s illusions includes; the disappearance of a 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 an Orient Express dining car (1991) and flying on stage for several minutes (1992).
On 8th April 1983 he performed his most famous illusion when he made the statue of Liberty disappear and reappear. A live audience of 20 tourists was seated in front of a giant curtain attached to two lateral scaffolding built on Liberty Island in an enclosed viewing area when Cooperfield with the help of Jim Steinmeyer 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 empty.
To give the aerial view of the illusion a helicopter hovered overhead with only the circle of lights surrounding it still present and visible. The illusion was filmed in long take to demonstrate the absence of camera tricks.
In 1996 his Broadway show ‘ Dreams & Nightmares’ which was in collaboration with Francis Ford Coppola, David Ives, and Eiko Ishioka broke box office records in New York at the Martin Beck Theatre. He gave the audience a mind blogging performance with his disappearance and reappearance, making the audience vanish and others levitate and also cutting himself to two. He climaxes his show with a flying routine which defies both logic and visual evidence.
David Copperfield – International Museum and Library of the Conjuring Arts
In 1991 David Copperfield bought the Mulholland Library of Conjuring and the Allied Arts. It contained the world’s largest collection of Houdini memorabilia. Copperfield refurbished it and it houses the world’s largest collection of historically significant magic memorabilia, books and artifacts.
In 1992 David bought the largest private magic collection in the world from Dr. Robert Albo to add to the museum. The museum houses the world’s largest collection of “Houdiniana” . The museum is not open to the public and tours are reserved for “colleagues, fellow magicians, and serious collectors”.
David Copperfield – Musha Cay and the Islands of Copperfield Bay
David Copperfield bought Musha Cay, eleven Bahamian Island, in 2006 and renamed it to “The Islands of Copperfield Bay”. The Island is a private resort and Copperfield said that it may contain the Fountain of Youth , this claim earned him a Dubious Achievement Award from Esquire Magazine in 2006.
David Copperfield Accidents
While rehearsing an illusion ‘Escape From Death’ on 11th March 1984 David Copperfield was shackled and handcuffed in a tank of water and he became tangled in the chains and started taking in water and banging into the sides of the tank. After 80 seconds he was pulled from the water and taken to a Burbank hospital as he had hyperventilating and was in shock. He was found to have pulled tendons in arms and legs.
In 1989 while doing a rope trick at a show in Memphis he cut off the tip of his finger with sharp scissors and was rushed rushed to the hospital and the fingertip was reattached.
David Copperfield Sexual Assault Allegations
In 2007 David Copperfield was accused of sexual assault by Lacey L. Carroll, in January 2010 a federal grand jury in Seattle closed the investigation without charges.
In January 2018 Copperfield was accused of drugging and assaulting a teenager in 1988. On 24th January Copperfield published a statement in response.