Magician Henning Dies

10/30/1998 at 12:00 AM EST

Magician Doug Henning -- a favorite of TV, Broadway and arena audiences -- died Monday in Los Angeles after battling liver cancer for the past five months. He was 52. Henning, with his long locks and toothy grin, enjoyed a career heyday in the '70s and '80s. His 1974 rock musical, "The Magic Show," turned off Broadway critics but turned on audiences, who for four years flocked to see him make women from the audience disappear, among other illusions. He won an Emmy when he recreated Harry Houdini's "Water Torture Escape" in NBC's "World of Magic" TV special. At the time of his death he reportedly was working on a transcendental meditation theme park he hoped to build in Niagara Falls, Ontario. His wife, Debbie, survives him.