MEMORIES:
PHOTOS:
CATCH PHRASE:
Born as Cher Sarkisian LaPiere in 1946, she became known to the world by her stage name: Cher. Cher has become known worldwide through her achievements in music, TV, and film, and has taken home an Oscar, a Grammy, an Emmy, and 3 Golden Globe awards, among countless others in her career.
She started her career as one half of the 60s pop-duo, Sonny & Cher. She first met the much older Sonny Bono in a Los Angeles coffee shop in 1962. He was working for legendary producer Phil Spector, and through Sonny, Cher got to sing back-up on several of Spector’s now-classic recordings. Sonny and Cher became lovers, and eventually married. Her first solo recordings were under the pseudonyms, Bonnie Jo Mason and also, Cherilyn.
The first incarnation of Sonny and Cher would be as the due “Caesar and Cleo.” Under those names, they received little attention, and they later re-emerged as “Sonny and Cher.” In the summer of 1965, they released their first album, Look at Us. The album contained the overnight sensation “I Got You Babe,” which went to #1 that year. Several more Top 40 hits would follow, such as “Baby, Don’t Go,” “Just You,” “But You’re Mine,” “What Now My Love,” “Little Man” and “The Beat Goes On.” The couple gained incredible popularity, traveling and performing around the world.
In the fall of 1965, due to an infamous mispronunciation by Ed Sullivan on The Ed Sullivan Show, (he pronounced her name ‘Chur’), she changed the spelling of her name to include an acute accent: Chér. 1965 also saw the release of a solo album from Cher, titled All I Really Want To Do. The album reached #16 on the charts, and contained a cover of the Bob Dylan song, “All I Really Want to Do.” The re-make hit #15 on the charts, and was followed up by several other solo hits from her early days while still with Sonny.
Initially perceived as the awkward and underestimated half of Sonny & Cher, Cher soon rose to prominence as being the more outspoken, daring and provocative member of the team. With her dark, exotic looks, she became a trend-setter, popularizing bellbottoms, “hippie” clothing, and wearing eccentric and elaborate gowns and costumes on their live shows. In 1967, Sonny wrote a feature film to capitalize on their success, titled Good Times, but Good Times never saw good times: it was a flop. Their career together stalled in 1968, as album sales quickly dried up in the era that saw a culture and music take a turn for psychedelia and rock and roll. In 1969, they welcomed their first child, Chastity Bono, into the world.
1970 brought Sonny and Cher into television. They starred in their first television special, The Sonny and Cher Nitty Gritty Hour. A mixture of comedy bits, skits and live music, the show was a success, and led to other guest spots in television shows. The duo went on to host a variety show, The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, which debuted in 1971 as a summer replacement series. It returned to primetime a year later as a hit, reaching the Top-10 in their time slot, and the show gained numerous Emmy nominations throughout its first four seasons. Sonny and Cher also revived their recording career, releasing 4 albums resulting in two more Top 10 hits: “All I Ever Need is You” and “A Cowboy’s Work Is Never Done.” Cher continued to build her solo career, and charted her first solo #1 hit “Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves.” In the next two years she had two more #1 hits with “Half-Breed” and “Dark Lady” from the two albums of the same name. In 1974, she released her first Greatest Hits album.
In 1974, during the third season of their variety show, Sonny and Cher’s marriage began to fall apart. Later that year, they separated, and the show also fell apart, despite remaining in the Top 10 in ratings. Their very public divorce was finalized in 1975, with Sonny launching his own show, and Cher announcing that she would host and star in a variety TV series of her own. Bono’s show was quickly cancelled after only six weeks. The Cher show debuted as an elaborate all-star TV special featuring Flip Wilson, Bette Midler and special guest, Elton John. Cloris Leachman and Jack Albertson both won Emmy Awards for their appearances as guest-stars throughout the weeks, and the series got 4 additional Emmy noms that year. It ranked in the Top 25 in the year-end ratings.
Cher got a lot of press over her exposed bellybutton and daring ensembles created by Bob Mackie. The Cher show lasted for two seasons. Cher pulled the plug on her own show, deciding to get back together with Sonny for a revamped The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour. It came back to Top 10 ratings and high expectations, but ratings quickly declined and the variety show was cancelled in the second season.
In 1975, right after her divorce from Sonny was finalized, Cher married rock musician Greg Allman, founding member of The Allman Brothers Band. In 1976, they had their only son, and together they released an album, Two the Hard Way – Allman and Woman, which had them covering the Smokey Robinson hit “You Really Got A Hold On Me.” The project together was unsuccessful and the two were divorced in 1978. Cher came back to television starring in two of her own specials. In 1979, she signed with Casablanca Records, and scored another Top 10 hit with the disco-tinged song, “Take Me Home.”
In 1980, Cher formed the band Black Rose and released a self-titled album at the years end. The album was a failure and the band broke up the following year. In 1982, she released I Paralyze, and again, critics panned the album and sales were disappointing.
With her musical career at a standstill, Cher expanded her career into serious film acting. Though her early entertainment ambitions were in film as opposed to music, she found herself in an uphill battle trying to land credible roles. That year, she landed her first major role in an off-Broadway production of Come Back to the Five and Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. Her performance got praise from the critics, and was cast in the film version produced by Robert Altman. In 1983, she was cast in Silkwood with Meryl Streep and Kurt Russell. For this film, she received her first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and took home the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. In 1985, she starred in the critically-acclaimed Mask, which also starred Eric Stoltz, Laura Dern and Sam Elliott, giving her her first critical and commercial success as a serious actress. She won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival that year, and was honored with the Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year Award with Harvard University.
1987 was a busy year for Cher. She starred in three films: Suspect, with Dennis Quaid, Witches of Eastwick with Jack Nicholson, Susan Sarandon, and Michelle Pfeiffer, and the romantic comedy, Moonstruck, with Nicolas Cage. For Moonstruck, she won the 1988 Academy Award for Best Actress, the Golden Globe and the People’s Choice award for Favorite Film Actress. That same year, Cher revived her recording career after a five-year hiatus and signed with Geffen Records. She released Cher in 1987 and it featured the hit song “I Found Someone.” The album was eventually certified platinum.
In 1989, at forty-three, Cher experienced her most successful comeback yet. She released Heart of Stone which featured three Top 10 hits, “If I Could Turn Back Time,” the Peter Cetera duet, “After All,” and “Just Like Jesse James.” The album was a huge success and she launched a world tour that played all around the world, and starred in the television special Cher – Live at the Mirage, filmed at the hotel in Las Vegas, NV. The 90s brought another version of Cher to the world. She starred in the moderately-successful film Mermaids with Bob Hoskins, Winona Ryder and Christina Ricci, and released the album Love Hurts in 1991, which produced “Love and Understanding,” and a re-work of the Betty Everett hit “The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In His Kiss).” She toured in support of this album throughout 1992.
In 1992, Cher took some time off, and many critics said this had a negative impact on her career. In 1996, she released the album It’s a Man’s World to critical praise, though the album was overlooked by her fans. She also produced and recorded an indie rock album Not.Com.mercial (pronounced “not-dot-com-mercial”). It was rejected by record labels, coincidentally, because it was “not commercial,” and Cher sells the recording exclusively through her website. It also marked the first time Cher wrote the material for an entire album.
In 1996, she starred in the movie Faithful, though the film was poorly received. Cher co-executive-produced the controversial HBO abortion drama, If These Walls Could Talk, with actress Demi Moore. She co-starred and directed in one of the film’s three segments, earning her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a made-for-television movie.
In 1998, Sonny Bono died, and the media appointed Cher his widow. She delivered his eulogy at his funeral, which was being broadcast live by CNN, unbeknownst to her. In front of millions, she praised Sonny, and the talk was she was being opportunistic.
At the end of 1998, Cher released Believe. As a collection of up-tempo dance tracks, the album was a big change for her. The title track, “Believe” became a worldwide hit, reaching #1 in twenty-three countries: it was the biggest hit of her career. It stayed at #1 for a total of seven weeks, and became the biggest-selling U.K. single ever be a solo female artist in that country. In the U.S. the song stayed at #1 for four weeks, and was her fifth overall #1 hit in the States. Cher won her first Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording, and the album was nominated in four other categories, including Record of the Year. In the same year, Cher published her first memoir titled The First Time, a collection of Cher’s favorite ‘first-time’ memories from her childhood and tremendous Hollywood career. The following year, Cher performed at the Superbowl, the highly-rated TV special Divas Live. She also co-starred in the critically-acclaimed Tea With Mussolini before embarking on a tour in support of Believe. Cher: Live at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas gained an Emmy nomination.
In 2000, Cher was presented with the Lifelong Contribution to the Music Industry Award at the World Music Awards, and in 2002, released Living Proof, the highly-anticipated follow-up to Believe. While no singles went into the Top 100, the album included several re-mixed songs that found their way onto the dance and club charts. That year at the Billboard Music awards she won the Dance/Club Play Artist of the Year, and was presented with a special Artist Achievement Award by Steven Tyler of Aerosmith.
In 2002, Cher announced plans for her “Living Proof Farewell Tour,” marking the end of her touring live, though she promises to continue recording and releasing music. The show highlighted her career through the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s, and included an extravagant backdrop of acrobats, dancers. The tour went around the world with great success, with a total of 325 shows, and it continued through 2005. In 2003, she released The Very Best of Cher a double-CD collection of all her greatest hits spanning her entire career. The album peaked at #4, and extended her enormous album chart span to 38 years. She won an Emmy Award for The Farewell Tour Live an NBC television special, and in 2004 won another Grammy for her song “Love One Another.” She is reportedly working on a new record, and in 2006 it was announced that Cher will replace Celine Dion at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas once Dion’s contract expires. The show will debut in 2008.
It’s safe to say that Cher might have had it right with the title of her last album, Living Proof. With the distinction of being the only female artist to have Top 10 hits in each of the past four successive decades, Cher is ‘living proof’ that anything really is possible.
