Cher

views updated

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.”