Cher
Cher
Singer, actress
Performing artist Cher has been a mainstay of the Hollywood glitterati for more than two decades, and her personal star seems to be waxing still. Few would quarrel with Mademoiselle contributor Diana Maychick, who calls Cher “a breed unto herself” who “has lived enough lives to fill a novel.” Professionally, the statuesque performer has had equal success as a singer, a comedienne, and an actress, with Gold Records and Academy Award nominations to her credit. Personally, a series of tempestuous relationships with several rock stars, producers, and actors has helped keep her name in the news even when her career stagnated.
As a reporter for Time magazine noted, the arc of Cher’s rise to stardom “proves that at least one American dream lives: she gives evidence that show biz can still reach out among the adolescent millions and—with a little luck and a lot of hype—transform a mildly talented young woman into a multimillion dollar property.” Ironically, though known for her cool onstage demeanor and effectively understated acting, Cher admits to a chronic case of stage fright. “I’ve been running on fear,” she told Mademoiselle. But, she added, she has learned that “you take your terror and you do it.”
A younger generation might recognize Cher as simply a film actress, but it was as a popular singer that she first gained national notoriety. Her initial success in the music industry can be attributed to her former husband/partner Sonny Bono; they married in 1964 when Cher was only seventeen. Bono had had some prior experience as a songwriter and record producer, and he recognized Cher’s star potential. However, noted the Time reporter, “they both must have known that she needed him. Her ambition may have been fierce, but like her talent it was vague and undefined.” First Bono talked Cher into concentrating on singing rather than acting, her art of choice. Then, after she had done some studio backup work for other artists, he began to write songs specifically for her.
Bono told Time that Cher “was too frightened to perform by herself,” so he provided vocal harmony “just to be with her.” After a short stint as “Caesar and Cleo” they began singing as Sonny and Cher, and their third record release—the 1965 soft-rock tune “I Got You, Babe”—sold more than four million copies and made them instant headliners. By the fall of that year they had five singles on the Top-40 charts simultaneously and were playing at major rock concerts in the United States and Europe.
The Sonny and Cher sound drew on folk and rock roots, especially the work of Bob Dylan. A critic for the Rolling Stone Record Guide contends that the couple “always cultivated an exuberant vulgarity in order to disarm
For the Record…
Full name, Cherilyn LaPiere; born Cherilyn Sarkesian, May 20, 1946, in El Centro, Calif.; daughter of John and Georgia (a model; maiden name, Holt) Sarkesian; stepdaughter of Gilbert LaPiere (a bank manager); married Sonny (Salvatore Philip) Bono (a record producer, songwriter, and entertainer), October 27, 1964 (divorced, May, 1975); married Gregg Allman (a musician), June, 1975 (divorced); children: (first marriage) Chastity; (second marriage) Elijah Blue.
Singer, with husband, Sonny Bono, in duo Sonny and Cher, 1964-75, and 1977; has also recorded and performed as a soloist, 1965—. Star of musical variety television shows “The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour,” 1971-74, “Cher,” 1975-76, and “The Sonny and Cher Show,” 1977. Member of rock group Black Rose, 1979-80. Actress in feature films, including “Good Times,” 1966, “Chastity,” 1969, “Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean,” 1982 (also performed role on Broadway), “Silkwood,” 1983, “Mask,” 1985, “The Witches of Eastwick,” 1987, and “Moonstruck,” 1988.
Awards: Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress, 1983, for “Silkwood”; Academy Award for best actress, 1988, for “Moonstruck.”
Addresses: Home —2727 Benedict Canyon Dr., Beverly Hills, CA 90210.
Sixties songwriting … to push it into a more comfortably sentimental direction.” This “exuberant vulgarity” extended to their wardrobes as well; both favored hip-hugging bell-bottom pants and a gaudy array of hippy-style shirts and vests. Then, observes the Time reporter, “fashion changed. Hard rock, acid rock, were suddenly in, and Sonny and Cher were out.”
Their sudden plunge in popularity was accelerated by their vocal criticism of drug use. Cher told Time that after she and Sonny made a public service film denouncing drugs, their fans “thought we were stupid.” Deeply in debt after a movie project called “Chastity” bombed, the couple were forced to reassess their act and make drastic changes. Against Cher’s wishes they opted for a more mainstream approach in sound and style, and they turned to nightclubs for performing venues. It was in this environment that Sonny and Cher developed the comic repartee and musical variety formula that they would take to television so successfully.
Between 1971 and 1974, “The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour” was seen weekly by more than thirty million viewers. Simultaneously, Cher began a solo singing career in the pop format; her best known hits were “Half Breed” and “Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves,” both of which reached number one on the charts. By virtue of her glamorous Bob Mackie gowns and ever-changing hairstyles—a look Rolling Stone correspondent Lynn Hirschberg called “ridiculously sexy for television”—Cher cultivated an image of materialistic excess that was tempered by the themes of hurt and vulnerability in her music. “Television always made Cher accessible,” Hirschberg wrote. “She seemed like a lot of fun…. She appealed to the junky impulses in everyone.”
In 1975, Sonny and Cher divorced; both starred in their own variety shows, but only Cher’s was a success. Still, the dissolution of Sonny and Cher marked the beginning of a difficult period for her. Gradually her show declined in popularity, and her personal life was made chaotic by her marriage and divorce of band leader Gregg Allman and extended liasons with producer David Geffen and Gene Simmons, actor and member of the colorful rock group Kiss. By 1977, she told Rolling Stone, her career “cooled down to an ice cube.” Musically she experimented with a fully-orchestrated studio sound on the 1977 album I’d Rather Believe In You and then turned to disco on the 1978 Take Me Home. Neither record achieved the popularity of her previous offerings.
Cher’s last attempt at musical innovation came in 1980 when she formed the hard rock band Black Rose. The effort was a critical disaster; Jim Farber reported in Rolling Stone that “newspaper reviews were pointedly negative,” singling out Cher for their barbs even though she deliberately understated her role in the band. “The critics panned us,” Cher told Rolling Stone.”And they didn’t attack the record. They attacked me. It was like, ‘How dare Cher sing rock & roll?’”
Stung by this defeat, Cher returned to her more conventional Las Vegas stage show and tried to inch her way onto a stage or into a film as a serious actress. In the latter capacity—as an actress—she has met with unexpected but welcome critical favor. In movies such as “Silkwood,” “Mask,” and “Moonstruck,” to quote Newsweek contributor Cathleen McGuigan, “Cher not only triumphs as an actress, but finally vanquishes her glitzy Vegas image.”
Although she has won respect for her acting, the ambitious performer has not relinquished her musical career. She still sings in New York, Las Vegas, and Atlantic City, and she is constantly entertaining the idea of starring in a movie musical. Time suggested that by whatever medium she chooses, Cher will continue “to woo the world through performance.” Cher herself told Time: “From the time I could talk I began to sing. Singing just came from the inside—something I’d do without thinking whenever I felt good or was really blue…. It released my tensions.”
Selected discography
With Sonny and Cher
Look At Us, Atco, 1965.
Wonderous World, Atco, 1966.
In Case Your In Love, Atlantic, 1967.
Good Times, Atlantic, 1967.
The Best of Sonny & Cher, Atlantic, c. 1968.
Sonny & Cher Live, Kapp, c. 1969, re-released, MCA, 1972.
All I Ever Need Is You, Kapp, 1971, re-released, MCA, 1974.
Baby Don’t Go, Reprise.
Live In Las Vegas, MCA, 1974.
Greatest Hits, MCA, 1975.
The Beat Goes On, Atco, 1975.
Solo albums
All I Really Want to Do, Imperial, 1965.
Sonny Side of Cher, Imperial, 1966.
Cher, Imperial, 1967.
With Love, Imperial, 1968.
Backstage, Imperial, 1968.
Golden Greats, 1968.
3614 Jackson Highway, Atco, c. 1969.
Cher, Kapp, 1972.
Foxy Lady, MCA, 1972.
Hits of Cher, United Artists, 1972.
Bittersweet White Light, MCA, 1973.
Dark Lady, MCA, 1974.
Half Breed, MCA, 1974.
Stars, Warner Bros., 1975.
This Is Cher, Sunset.
Greatest Hits, MCA, 1975.
I’d Rather Believe In You, Warner Bros., 1977.
Cherished, Warner Bros., 1977.
Take Me Home, Casablanca, 1978.
Prisoner, Casablanca, 1979.
The Best of Cher, EMI America, 1987.
Cher, Geffen, 1988.
Sings the Hits, Springboard.
Greatest Hits, Springboard.
Live.
The Two of Us.
This Is Cher.
Allman and Woman.
With Black Rose
Black Rose, Casablanca, 1980.
Sources
Books
The Rolling Stone Record Guide, Random House, 1979.
Periodicals
Mademoiselle, June, 1985.
Newsweek, March 18, 1985.
People, April, 10, 1978; October 22, 1979.
Rolling Stone, October 16, 1980; March 29, 1984.
Time, March 17, 1975.
—Anne Janette Johnson
Cher
Cher
Singer
Performing artist Cher has been a mainstay of the Hollywood glitterati for more than three decades, and her personal star seems to be waxing still. Few would quarrel with Mademoiselle contributor Diana Maychick, who calls Cher “a breed unto herself” who “has lived enough lives to fill a novel.” Professionally, the statuesque performer has had equal success as a singer, a comedienne, and an actress, with highly successful records and an Academy Award and Grammy Award to her credit. Personally, a series of tempestuous relationships with several rock stars, producers, and actors has helped keep her name in the news even when her career stagnated.
As a reporter for Time noted, the arc of Cher’s rise to stardom “proves that at least one American dream lives: she gives evidence that show biz can still reach out among the adolescent millions and—with a little luck and a lot of hype—transform a mildly talented young woman into a multimillion dollar property.” Ironically, though known for her cool onstage demeanor and effectively understated acting, Cher admits to a chronic case of stage fright. “I’ve been running on fear,” she told Mademoiselle. But, she added, she has learned that “you take your terror and you do it.”
A younger generation might recognize Cher as simply a film actress, but it was as a popular singer that she first gained national notoriety. Her initial success in the music industry can be attributed to her former husband/partner, the late Sonny Bono; they married in 1964 when Cher was only 17 years old. Bono had some prior experience as a songwriter and record producer, and he recognized Cher’s star potential. However, noted a Time reporter, “they both must have known that she needed him. Her ambition may have been fierce, but like her talent it was vague and undefined.” First Bono talked Cher into concentrating on singing rather than acting, her art of choice. Then, after she had done some studio backup work for other artists, he began to write songs specifically for her.
Bono told Time that Cher “was too frightened to perform by herself,” so he provided vocal harmony “just to be with her.” After a short stint as Caesar and Cleo they began singing as Sonny and Cher, and their third record release—featuring the 1965 soft-rock tune “I Got You, Babe”—sold more than four million copies and made them instant headliners. By the fall of that year they had five singles on the top 40 charts simultaneously and were playing at major rock concerts in the United States and Europe.
The Sonny and Cher sound drew on folk and rock roots, especially the work of Bob Dylan. A critic for the Rolling Stone Record Guide contends that the couple “always cultivated an exuberant vulgarity in order to disarm Sixties songwriting … to push it into a more comfortably sentimental direction.” This “exuberant vulgarity” extended to their wardrobes as well; both
For the Record…
Born Cherilyn Sarkesian on May 20, 1946, in El Centro, CA; daughter of John and Georgia (a model; maiden name, Holt) Sarkesian; stepdaughter of Gilbert LaPiere (a bank manager); married Sonny (Salvatore Philip) Bono (a record producer, songwriter, and entertainer; died 1998), October 27, 1964; divorced, May 1975; married Gregg Allman (a musician), June 1975; divorced; children: (with Bono) Chastity, (with Allman) Elijah Blue.
Singer, with husband, Sonny Bono, in duo Sonny and Cher, 1964–75, 1977; recorded and performed as a soloist, 1965—; star of musical variety television shows The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, 1971–74, Cher, 1975–76, and The Sonny and Cher Show, 1977; member of rock group Black Rose, 1979–80; actress in feature films, including Good Times, 1966, Chastity, 1969, Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, 1982 (also performed role on Broadway), Silkwood, 1983, Mask, 1985, The Witches of East-wick, 1987, Moonstruck, 1988, Mermaids, 1990, and Tea with Mussolini, 1999; released multiplatinum album, Believe, 1998; released Not.Com.mercial, 2000.
Awards: Academy Award, Best Actress for Moonstruck, 1988; Golden Globe, Best Actress for Moonstruck, 1988; Vanguard Award and star on the Walk of Fame, both for “Sonny and Cher,” 1998; Grammy Award, Best Dance Recording for “Believe,” 1999.
Addresses: Record company —Chers Plattenfirma, WEA Records, Arndtstr. 16, 22805 Hamburg, Denmark, website: http://www.wea.de. Website —Cher Official Website: http://www.cher.com.
favored hip-hugging bell-bottom pants and a gaudy array of hippy-style shirts and vests. Then, observes Time, “fashion changed. Hard rock, acid rock, were suddenly in, and Sonny and Cher were out.”
Their plunge in popularity was accelerated by their vocal criticism of drug use. Cher told Time that after she and Sonny made a public service film denouncing drugs, their fans “thought we were stupid.” Deeply in debt after a movie project called “Chastity” bombed, the couple was forced to reassess their act and make drastic changes. Against Cher’s wishes they opted for a more mainstream approach in sound and style, and they turned to nightclubs for performing venues. It was in this environment that Sonny and Cher developed the comic repartee and musical variety formula that they would take to television so successfully.
Between 1971 and 1974, The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour was seen weekly by more than 30 million viewers. Simultaneously, Cher began a solo singing career in the pop format; her best known hits were “Half Breed” and “Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves,” both of which reached number one on the charts. By virtue of her glamorous Bob Mackie gowns and ever-changing hairstyles—a look Rolling Stone correspondent Lynn Hirschberg called “ridiculously sexy for television”—Cher cultivated an image of materialistic excess that was tempered by the themes of hurt and vulnerability in her music. “Television always made Cher accessible,” Hirschberg wrote. “She seemed like a lot of fun…. She appealed to the junky impulses in everyone.”
In 1975, Sonny and Cher divorced; both starred in their own variety shows, but only Cher’s was a success. Still, the dissolution of Sonny and Cher marked the beginning of a difficult period for her. Gradually her show declined in popularity, and her personal life was made chaotic by her marriage to and subsequent divorce from band leader Gregg Allman. She became tabloid fodder as a result of extended liaisons with producer David Geffen and with Gene Simmons of the colorful rock group Kiss. By 1977, she told Rolling Stone her career “cooled down to an ice cube.” Musically she experimented with a fully orchestrated studio sound on the 1977 album I’d Rather Believe In You and then turned to disco on 1978’s Take Me Home. Neither record achieved the popularity of her previous offerings. She renewed her attempts at musical innovation in 1980 when she formed the hard rock band Black Rose. The effort was a critical disaster; Jim Farber reported in Rolling Stone that “newspaper reviews were pointedly negative,” singling out Cher for their barbs even though she deliberately understated her role in the band. “The critics panned us,” Cher told Rolling Stone. “And they didn’t attack the record. They attacked me. It was like, ‘How dare Cher sing rock & roll?’”
Stung by this defeat, Cher returned to the more conventional Las Vegas stage show and tried to inch her way onto a stage or into a film as a serious actress. In the latter capacity—as an actress—she met with unanticipated but welcome critical favor. In movies such as Silkwood in 1983, Mask in 1985, and Moonstruck In 1987, “Cher not only triumphs as an actress, but finally vanquishes her glitzy Vegas image,” according to Newsweek contributor Cathleen McGuigan. Indeed, Cher won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Moonstruck. Cher also appeared in Tea with Mussolini in 1999.
Even as she won respect for her acting, this ambitious performer never relinquished her musical career. She continued recording and singing regularly in New York, Las Vegas, and Atlantic City, while constantly entertaining the idea of starring in a movie musical. She released new albums throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s, including It’s a Man’s World in 1996, the multiplatinum Believe in 1998 for which the title track won a Grammy Award in 1999, and Not.Com.mercial, an album sold strictly on the Internet, in 2000. She also dabbled in directing in 1996 and following the death of Bono in a skiing accident in 1998, published a memoir.
Time suggested that by whatever medium she might choose, Cher will continue “to woo the world through performance.” Cher herself told Time: “From the time I could talk I began to sing. Singing just came from the inside—something I’d do without thinking whenever I felt good or was really blue…. It released my tensions.”
Selected discography
Solo
All I Really Want to Do, Imperial, 1965.
Sonny Side of Cher, Imperial, 1966.
Cher, Imperial, 1967.
With Love, Cher, Imperial, 1968.
Backstage, Imperial, 1968.
Golden Greats, 1968.
3614 Jackson Highway, Atco, c. 1969.
Gypsies, Tramps, and Theives (includes “Gypsies, Tramps, and Theives”), MCA, 1971.
Cher, Kapp, 1972.
Foxy Lady, MCA, 1972.
Bittersweet White Light, MCA, 1973.
Dark Lady, MCA, 1974.
Half Breed, MCA, 1974.
Stars, Warner Bros., 1975.
I’d Rather Believe In You, Warner Bros., 1977.
Cherished, Warner Bros., 1977.
Two the Hard Way (Allman and Woman), Warner, 1977.
This Is Cher, Sunset, 1978.
Take Me Home, Casablanca, 1978.
Prisoner, Casablanca, 1979.
I Paralyze, Columbia, 1982.
Cher, Geffen, 1988.
Heart of Stone, Geffen, 1989.
Outrageous, PolyGram, 1989.
Love Hurts, Geffen, 1991.
You Better Sit Down Kids, Great Hits, 1996.
It’s a Man’s World, WEA, 1996.
Believe (includes “Believe”), Warner, 1998.
Take Me Home (Australia), Polygram, 1999.
Not.Com.mercial, Isis, 2000.
With Sonny and Cher
Look At Us (includes “I Got You, Babe”), Atco, 1965.
Wonderous World, Atco, 1966.
In Case You’re In Love, Atlantic, 1967.
Good Times, Atlantic, 1967.
The Best of Sonny & Cher, Atlantic, c. 1968.
Sonny & Cher Live, Kapp, c. 1969; reissued, MCA, 1972.
All I Ever Need Is You, Kapp, 1971; reissued, MCA, 1974.
Live In Las Vegas, MCA, 1974.
Greatest Hits, MCA, 1975.
The Beat Goes On, Atco, 1975.
With Black Rose
Black Rose, Casablanca, 1980.
Sources
Books
The Rolling Stone Record Guide, Random House, 1979.
Periodicals
Billboard, March 4, 2000.
Entertainment Weekly, November 10, 2000.
Mademoiselle, June 1985.
Newsweek, March 18, 1985.
People, April, 10, 1978; October 22, 1979.
Rolling Stone, October 16, 1980; March 29, 1984.
Time, March 17, 1975.
Online
“Cher,” All Music Guide, http://www.allmusic.com (January 2, 2002).
“Cher,” Internet Movie Database, http://us.imdb.com/Name?Cher (January 2, 2002).
Cher Official Website, http://www.cher.com (January 2, 2002).
—Anne Janette Johnson
Cher
CHER
Nationality: American. Born: Cherilyn Sarkisian in Southern California, 20 May 1946. Education: Trained for the stage with Jeff Corey. Family: Married 1) Sonny Bono, 1964 (some sources say 1969) (divorced 1974), daughter: Chastity; 2) Gregg Allman, 1975 (divorced), son: Elijah Blue. Career: With husband, as Sonny and Cher, had first U.S. hit, Baby Don't Go, 1965; co-hosted The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour for CBS, 1971–74; had her own TV show, Cher, 1975–76; co-hosted The Sonny and Cher Show, 1976–77; appeared on stage (then on film) in Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, 1982; won international success as a film actress, mid-late 1980s. Awards: Best TV Actress—Musical/Comedy Golden Globe, for The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, 1971; Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture Golden Globe, for Silkwood, 1983; Best Actress Cannes Film Festival, for Mask, 1985; Best Actress Academy Award, Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture—Comedy/Musical Golden Globe, for Moonstruck, 1987. Address: c/o Creative Artists Agency, 9830 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, CA 90212, U.S.A.
Films as Actress:
- 1965
Wild on the Beach (Dexter) (as herself)
- 1967
Good Times (Friedkin) (as herself)
- 1969
Chastity (De Paola) (title role)
- 1982
Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (Altman) (as Sissy)
- 1983
Silkwood (Nichols) (as Dolly Pelliker)
- 1985
Mask (Bogdanovich) (as Rusty Dennis)
- 1987
The Witches of Eastwick (Miller) (as Alexandra Medford); Suspect (Yates) (as Kathleen Riley, Public Defender); Moonstruck (Jewison) (as Loretta Castorini)
- 1990
Mermaids (Benjamin) (as Mrs. Flax)
- 1992
The Player (Altman) (as herself)
- 1994
Ready to Wear (Pret-a-Porter) (Altman) (as herself)
- 1996
Faithful (Mazursky) (as Margaret O'Donnell)
- 1999
Tea With Mussolini (Zeffirelli) (as Elsa); Cher: Live in Concert from Las Vegas (doc) (as herself)
Films as Director:
- 1996
If These Walls Could Talk (for TV) (co-d, + ro)
Publications
By CHER: book—
Cher in Her Own Words, compiled by Nigel Goodall, London, 1992.
By CHER: articles—
Interview with Allan Hunter, in Films and Filming (London), August 1985.
Interview in Time Out (London), 21 October 1987.
Interview with A. Kass, in Films and Filming (London), December 1987.
"Cher: Chez la femme," interview with Harlan Jacobson, in Film Comment (New York), January/February 1988.
Interview with Eugenie Ross-Leming and David Standish, in Playboy (Chicago), December 1988.
Interview with Bruce Roberts, in Interview (New York), October 1994.
"Young Men Pick Me. Middle-aged Men Never Ask Me Out," interview with Andrew Duncan in Radio Times (London), 25 November 1995.
"Straight Up," interview with E. Weitzman, in Interview (New York), December 1998.
On CHER: books—
Taraborelli, J. Randy, Cher: A Biography, New York, 1986.
Quirk, Lawrence J., Totally Uninhibited: The Life and Wild Times of Cher, New York, 1991.
St. Michael, Mick, Cher: The Visual Documentary, London, 1993.
On CHER: articles—
Connelly, Christopher, "Uncommon Women," in Premiere (New York), November 1990.
Current Biography 1991, New York, 1991.
Kudrjavcev, S, "Istvikskie Ved'my," in Iskusstvo Kino (Moscow), July 1992.
* * *
Cher is an unpredictable woman, a talented entertainer who seems to enjoy sampling various show business venues without getting attached to any one. It might be unfair to categorize her as a movie star, since her active on-screen career has been limited to relatively few films. One is on more secure ground calling Cher a celebrity.
Her emergence as a critically acclaimed screen actress in the 1980s is surprising not only because few would have guessed she could be a talented actress, but also because the roles she has taken are so different from her celebrity image. In most of her films, she plays distinctly unglamourous women, a far cry from the glittery persona associated with her long-standing fame.
For a decade, 1965–74, she was the overtly talented half of the singing duo Sonny and Cher. After several hit singles and a popular television show, the marriage ended and so the act folded. Cher continued her singing career and had a number of hits ("Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves," "Half Breed," "Dark Lady ") which alluded to a difficult and impoverished upbringing as the daughter of a part Cherokee Indian mother who was married eight times. Aside from buying her records, the public craved information about her love affairs with younger men, her provocative—and quite tacky—scanty clothing, and her face and figure. The tabloids were quick to supply any and all information they could run down or make up. She cashed in on her celebrity in the late 1970s with a solo act in Las Vegas for which she was paid $300,000 per week.
Few performers have made the leap from Las Vegas to art cinema, but Cher managed to do just that when she took the role of Sissy, a good-natured but hard-drinking and rough-talking waitress, in Robert Altman's screen version of the stage play Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, whose plot involves the 1975 reunion of the James Dean Fan Club, a group of forlorn women who share the events of their unfulfilled lives. The genesis of her film career came the year before the film was made when she moved to New York City to seek work in the theater, and Altman hired her for the play's Broadway run.
Mike Nichols was so impressed with Cher's stage performance as Sissy that he cast her in Silkwood as the blue-collar, frumpy lesbian roommate of Karen Silkwood (Meryl Streep). This was a much more mainstream movie than Jimmy Dean, and Cher's praised performance led to her being cast as unglamourous leads in other Hollywood films. All of a sudden, baby boomers who had grown to maturity alongside Cher were realizing that Sonny was not the only member of the duo with brains. Scratch Cher's sequined exterior, and you find an intelligent and insightful actress.
She next starred in Mask as a drug-addicted, foul-mouthed motorcycle mama who is a loving mother to a son suffering from craniodiaphyseal dysplasia, a disease that causes enlargement of the head and disfigurement of the facial features. It was the sort of down-and-dirty role that many stars would refuse. Cher relished the part and became friendly with real-life disease victim Rusty Dennis, and has since raised funds to support victims of this disease. Cher fought with director Peter Bogdanovich throughout the production, insisting on playing the character in her own instinctual way. For her determined efforts, she wound up winning the 1985 Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award.
In the late 1980s, Cher continued to record hit tunes and appear in a variety of films. The Witches of Eastwick is an entertaining black comedy about three New England sex-starved females who conjure up a charming devil of a man (Jack Nicholson). She also played a public defender in Suspect, a film which did little to further her career. But in Moonstruck, Cher found an outstanding opportunity in the plain-Jane role of Loretta Castorini, who is 37 going on 50. Loretta dresses like a frump. Her frizzy black hair has more than a touch of gray. A widow of seven years, she is a dutiful daughter who lives with her very ethnic Italian-American parents in a very ethnic Italian neighborhood in Brooklyn. She has been dating Johnny Cammareri (Danny Aiello), a respectable but boring fellow. When Johnny proposes marriage, she readily accepts. But Loretta has yet to meet Johnny's estranged brother Ronny (Nicolas Cage), who causes her to bloom like the cherry blossoms in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden on a sunny spring afternoon. Loretta's catharsis is the thrust of Moonstruck; by the time she played Loretta, Cher had developed into a solid screen actress. Her performance in the film ranks with her roles in Silkwood and Mask as her best work to date on celluloid, but this time she earned a Best Actress Academy Award.
Mermaids allowed Cher to play a sexy single mom to Winona Ryder, and was a solid comedy hit. She put in a fine performance (and had enough creative leverage to have director Frank Oz replaced by Richard Benjamin), but the role was not in the same league as Moonstruck. The following decade found her mostly absent from the screen. She starred in exercise videos that showed off the fabulous body she claims comes from workouts rather than nips and tucks, and occasionally appeared on infomercials. Aside from cameo appearances as herself in The Player and Ready to Wear, Cher took roles in only two theatrical features: Faithful, a well-intentioned drama in which she plays an unhappy wife whose husband hires a hit man to murder her; and Tea With Mussolini, cast as a wealthy American in 1930s Italy who becomes involved with a group of eccentric British expatriate women. In the film, Cher plays opposite several of the world's top actresses, including Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, and Joan Plowright. Yet she practically steals the film with her vibrant presence and screen confidence.
Perhaps Cher's most notable 1990s credit is the three-part made-for-television feature If These Walls Could Talk, a serious-minded drama which explores the issues of unplanned pregnancy and abortion. Cher not only takes an acting role in the film, but also co-directs (with Nancy Savoca).
—H. M. Glancy, updated by Audrey E. Kupferberg
Cher
CHER
Born: Cherilyn Sarkisian LaPierre; El Centro, California, 20 May 1946
Genre: Pop, Rock
Best-selling album since 1990: Believe (1998)
Hit songs since 1990: "Believe," "Strong Enough"
Few performers have earned the label "survivor" more deservedly than Cher. Constantly reinventing herself during a forty-year career, the indomitable performer has triumphed over fluctuations in popular taste to become an American institution, one of the few singers more famous for who she is than for her music. Cher's celebrity persona has sometimes obscured the appealing quality of her recordings. While her voice often sounds awkward and her phrasing excessively blunt, Cher puts tremendous energy and strength of spirit into her music. Never one to err on the side of subtlety, she infuses her performances with an aggression and straightforwardness that transcend technical limitations. Focusing mostly on acting during the 1980s, she re-entered the music spotlight in the late 1990s to release one of the most successful albums of her career. By 1999, at age fifty-three, Cher had won an entirely new generation of fans.
Sonny and Cher
Born in El Centro, California, Cher was raised by a struggling actress mother with few financial means, her father having left the family when Cher was three years old. At sixteen, Cher moved alone to Los Angeles, where she worked as a background singer in order to support her acting ambitions. The next year she met Salvatore "Sonny" Bono, a songwriter and protégé of hit pop producer Phil Spector. The pair soon married and formed a professional alliance as the singing duo Caesar and Cleo. As Sonny and Cher, they scored a smash hit in 1965 with "I Got You Babe," a charming pop confection featuring clumsy but sincere vocals and a lilting, sing-song arrangement. Unfortunately, Sonny and Cher's popularity faded near the end of the 1960s after they starred in two poorly received films. Plagued by subsequent troubles with the Internal Revenue Service, they decided to embark upon a television career. Their TV program, The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, was a huge success and ran in various forms from 1971 to 1976. At the same time Cher pursued a career as a solo artist, recording in a more adult, yet equally intense, style. Songs such as "Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves" (1971) and "I Saw a Man and He Danced with His Wife" (1974) dealt with themes of teen pregnancy and adultery, and, along with her trend-setting fashion sense, contributed to Cher's bold, daring image during this period.
Splitting from husband Bono in the mid-1970s, Cher recorded a disco hit, the promiscuously themed "Take Me Home" (1979), before returning to her first love, acting. Fine performances followed in films such as Silkwood (1983) and Mask (1985). In 1988 she won an Academy Award for her funny, touching performance in the romantic comedy Moonstruck (1987).
1990s Stardom
By the late 1980s and early 1990s Cher was balancing a dual acting and singing career, recording hits and shooting music videos that emphasized her outrageous taste. In 1989 her video for the song "If I Could Turn Back Time" was banned by music video network MTV after viewers complained about her revealing costume. While many of Cher's late-1980s and early-1990s songs were hard-rock-influenced "power ballads," with heavy drums and blaring electric guitar, she displayed a softer, warmer side on the 1996 album, It's a Man's World. On the opening track, "One by One," she sings with a breathiness that recalls 1960s pop vocalist Dusty Springfield, while "Not Enough Love in the World" conveys a sweetness that is out of character with her brash earlier recordings. "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore)" is another highlight, a well-orchestrated song that Cher sings with soaring exuberance. Taken as a whole, It's a Man's World presents a subtler Cher whose awareness of her vocal strengths has deepened. While her voice could not be described as pretty in the conventional sense, it is nonetheless distinctive and powerful. Like that of pop singer Barbra Streisand, it is immediately recognizable and uniquely her own. Still, Cher's mid-1990s recordings were often overshadowed by her ongoing presence in tabloid newspapers, whose writers speculated on her bouts with chronic fatigue syndrome and the extent of her plastic surgery. In 1998, however, she found herself back in the musical spotlight with the album Believe, which brought her a degree of popular acceptance she had not experienced in years. During this period Cher became an activist for gay rights after her daughter with Bono, Chastity, came out as a lesbian. The late 1990s were also marked by loss: Former husband and longtime friend Sonny was killed in a skiing accident in 1998.
In early 2002 Cher released Living Proof, another collection of techno-disco dance songs emphasizing themes of unity and strength. Although not as compelling as Believe, Living Proof succeeds through Cher's undiminished energy and professionalism. When the album's first single, the inspirational "Song for the Lonely," entered the Top 100 hit charts, Cher set a new record in pop music: Her hits have spanned thirty-seven years, the longest period for any artist. Soon after Living Proof 's release she announced plans for a farewell tour in 2002, but later extended the dates into 2003. Cher pulled out all of the stops for these live performances, creating a circuslike atmosphere through a host of larger-than-life stage devices. Starting the show by riding a giant chandelier onto the stage amidst dancers and acrobats, she then disappeared and returned on top of a large puppet elephant. The show's theatricality helps explain Cher's enduring appeal. As much performance artist as singer, Cher makes each appearance an event.
Spot Light: Believe
In 1998 Cher had not had a major hit in nine years, although her albums continued to sell among a core group of fans. That year she worked with a young, relatively unknown production and songwriting team, Mark Taylor and Brian Rawling, in their small, low-tech London studio. The result was Believe, an album that brought Cher's thirty-five-year career to new heights. The title track, featuring an electronic dance rhythm suggestive of 1970s disco music, became the best-selling single of 1998 and remained on the charts through the next year. Although the energetic beat recalls disco's good-time party atmosphere, Cher's haunting vocals and the bittersweet lyrics—"Do you believe in life after love?"—point to the sadness of the post-AIDS era. The song's most unusual element is the use of an electronic vocoder, an instrument that makes Cher's voice sound distorted and robotic. Rather than ruining her performance, the vocoder adds a spiky layer of character in keeping with the singer's unconventional personality. Impressively, Taylor and Rawling sustain the single's enthusiasm throughout the album's remaining nine songs, taking Cher through a series of catchy tunes, hook-laden tracks, and infectious beats. For all their sophistication, songs such as "The Power" and "All or Nothing" reveal a gritty, homemade quality that captures Cher's fighting spirit and tough essence. Attesting on Believe that, "I know that I'll get through this / Cause I know that I am strong," Cher sings with the knowledge and experience of a true show-business survivor.
Remaining a star through five decades of changing trends, Cher is more than a pop singer; she is a force, an all-around performer with a canny sense of style and publicity. Recording in virtually every pop musical style since the 1960s, from teen ballads to disco, she has set a standard for endurance and energy. Never a subtle vocalist, Cher succeeds through her sweeping sense of drama and astute understanding of the dynamics of performance. Despite the ever-changing musical backdrops, she retains her individuality and spirit.
SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:
With Love, Cher (Imperial, 1967); Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves (Kapp, 1971); Take Me Home (Casablanca, 1979); Heart of Stone (Geffen, 1989); It's a Man's World (Warner Bros., 1996); Believe (Warner Bros., 1998); Living Proof (Warner Bros., 2002).
SELECTIVE FILMOGRAPHY:
Silkwood (1983); Mask (1985); Moonstruck (1987); Faithful (1995); If These Walls Could Talk (1996); Tea with Mussolini (1999).
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