Christopher Ciccone, an artist, dancer and designer whose memoir chronicled a sometimes fractious relationship with his famous older pop-star sister Madonna, has died.
He was 63.
Ciccone died of cancer on Friday, just days after a “very aggressive” form of the disease took their stepmother, Joan Ciccone, and less than two years after their brother Anthony Ciccone died at age 66.
Christopher Ciccone was a longtime collaborator with his sister, serving as one of her backup dancers during her early career, and working as her show designer and backstage dresser later on. He was also the art director on her Blond Ambition World Tour in 1990, and directed 1993’s The Girlie Show tour.
Aside from working with his sister, Ciccone also directed the “Peace Train” music video for Dolly Parton and “God Bless the Child” for Tony Bennett. As an interior designer, he launched the Ciccone Collection of footwear in 2012. Since 2016, he had been married to actor Ray Thacker, who was by his side when he died.
Ciccone released “Life with My Sister Madonna” in 2008, dishing about their strained relationship and reminiscing about the times they had toured together.
Madonna posted a heartfelt tribute to her sibling, detailing their singular close relationship and its underpinnings, and mourning a near constant companion and supporter.
“My brother Christopher is gone,” the pop icon wrote on Instagram, as she sought to chronicle a bond that defied explanation — one that “grew out of an understanding that we were different and society was going to give us a hard time for not following the status quo,” Madonna wrote.
“We took each other‘s hands and we danced through the madness of our childhood, she wrote, calling dance “a kind of superglue that held us together. Discovering Dance in our small Midwestern town saved me, and then my brother came along, and it saved him too,” with class providing a “safe space for my brother to be gay, a word that was not spoken or even whispered where we lived.”
Ciccone followed his sister to New York City, where they continued to dance “through the madness” of the AIDS epidemic as they devoured art, music and film “like hungry animals” while being “in the epicenter of all of these things exploding,” the pop star wrote.
“When it came to good taste, my brother was the Pope, and you had to kiss the ring to get his blessing,” she wrote. “He was a painter a poet and a visionary. I admired him. He had impeccable taste. And a sharp tongue, which he sometimes used against me, but I always forgave him.”
Together they pursued artistic freedom as they “soared the highest heights together, and floundered in the lowest lows,” his bereaved sister wrote, acknowledging that recent years had not been easy, amid a period of estrangement. But that ended when her brother got sick and “we found our way back to each other,” Madonna stated. “I did my best to keep him alive as long as possible. He was in so much pain towards the end. Once again, we held hands We closed our eyes and we danced. Together.”
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