#robpilatus

ROB PILATUS

8 June 1964/5 - 3 April 1998

MILLI VANILLI

            Rob Pilatus was one half of the music duo Milli Vanilli with Fab Morvan. Milli Vanilli became successful selling singles and albums and won the 1989 Best New Artist Grammy.

            Pilatus was a German model who was born in Munich, his father was African-American and his mother was German. He spent his first years of his life in an orphanage before he was adopted by a Munich family. At school he was an outsider and was verbally bullied. He left his home as a teenager to work as a model and dancer; he met Fab Morvan on the dance scene in 1988.

            The two men had connections to those in the entertainment industry and were noticed by a music producer Frank Farian who signed them to be a music act, Milli Vanilli. They were to pose as the vocalists whilst the real singers were Charles Shaw and Brad Howell who Farian didn’t believe had a marketable image. The two men created a look, wearing vests and having hair extensions put in. Their singles were released and the two men quickly gained fame and wealth.

            It wasn’t long until rumors spread that the two men were miming. Charles Shaw, the real singer went public and revealed that he was the actual singer behind Milli Vanilli. Farian paid him in hush money to retract his statement, but the cat was already out of the bag. In 1990 the men were stripped of the Emmy Award. Albums were taken off the shelves and anybody in America who had purchased the album could get a refund.

            Farian and Morvan attempted to make a comeback by telling the public that they could really sing, but it was too late. In 1996, Pilatus served time in prison for assault, vandalism and attempted robbery. Farian had a drug problem and Farian paid to have him to do drug rehab.

            In 1998, Pilatus, 32, was found dead in a Frankfurt hotel room after taking a lethal combination of drugs and alcohol. His death was ruled accidental.