The World According to a Legend
By Kaya Morgan

Cher once told Barbara Walters that she wouldd like to be remembered as “somebody who succeeded at everything she attempted, despite not being terribly talented.” We beg to differ. Just on longevity alone, it is hard to recall a time when Cher was not around. She has been a pop star, a TV star, a stage star, and an Oscar-winning movie star with reported earnings of $73 million in 2002. Spanning almost four decades in the music industry with hit songs in the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, many of us have grown up with Cher, able to recall her transformation from a fur-vested hippie into a high-glam fashion diva known for her provocative outfits. Yet, a whole new generation of fans now considers her their discovery.

Formerly known as Cherilyn Sarkisian LaPierre Bono Allman, she was born a month premature to scratching poverty in the isolated California desert community of El Centro in 1946. She was the exotic product of John Sarkisian, a handsome Armenian truck driver, whom she never knew, and a struggling actress, Georgia Holt, a striking woman with sharp, part-Cherokee features. Struggling to stay afloat, Holt briefly placed Cher in a Catholic nunnery, visiting her daily. The family barely squeezed by on mom’s occasional movie roles and less-frequent singing gigs. Despite the hard times, Cher delighted in seeing her mom perform on stage. So it was not totally unexpected when at 16, while struggling with dyslexia in school, the precocious student dropped out and moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career.

By 17, her talent, even at an early age, landed her a job as a background singer for famed songwriter-record producer Phil Spector, soon making the most important connection of her life. In 1963, a chance encounter at the renowned Aldo’s Coffee Shop, where all the celebrities used to hang out, brought her face to face with destiny when she met Sonny Bono, a hustling record company promo-man in the burgeoning music scene of the early ’60s. He immediately spotted her talent and unique, ravenhaired appeal in the land of blondes. The two quickly became friends and eventually moved in together, despite the 11-year age difference between them. Although they started out as platonic roommates, sleeping in twin beds, deep down, Cher knew it was something more. Sonny worked his TV and music gigs while Cher ran the audition circuit and kept the house. Finally, when Cher’s mother caught on to the arrangement, the pair openly proclaimed their love, and things really began to heat up.

No question, the chemistry between them was magical. They played off each other like the best of Hollywood teams. By the time the Bono-penned song, “I Got You, Babe,” hit the charts in 1965, the pair were starstruck lovers, and the song became the anthem for hippie lovebirds everywhere. The duo followed with “Baby Don’t Go,” and the 1967 hit, “The Beat Goes On.” Marrying in 1969, the duo then had daughter Chastity, then disappearing into the ’60s pop culture.

Being relegated to nothing more than a Las Vegas lounge act, CBS stepped into the picture and made Sonny and Cher an offer they could not refuse: A one-hour, kitschy television variety show called The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour. The couple was back on top, working the chemistry that had initially attracted their fans in the first place. Cher returned to the pop charts, but their troubled married life soon brought the marriage and their successful show to an end. In an odd sort of way, the split between them speaks of their generation in a way more powerful than anything they did together. Bono, who always saw showbiz as a business, moved to Palm Springs, opened a restaurant, became a Republican, mayor, and a congressman.

Cher buried herself in her work, and repeatedly hit gold and platinum jackpots with her albums Cher (1987), Heart of Stone (1989), Love Hurts (1991), Grammy Award-winner, Believe (1999) and Living Proof (2002). Her acting career received a huge boost when she appeared in the Broadway and film versions of Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982), earned a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for Silkwood (1983), and won a Best Actress Academy Award for Moonstruck (1987). She made another strong statement as the director of the HBO dramatic film, If These Walls Could Talk, and garnered three Emmy Award nominations for her HBO performance, Cher: Live In Concert (2000).

Although her list of credits seems to go on indefinitely, people might be surprised to find that, contrary to the rumormill, Cher considers herself somewhat of a recluse, cocooning in her palatial Malibu estate. She is a homebody who values what we all value: friends, family, hanging out, playing board games at home and lounging in her designer sweats. The artist jokingly admits that about the only thing she can not make work is marriage, but says she has had “a wonderful time with all the wrong guys” while waiting to meet Mr. Right. Cher has even been romantically linked to Tom Cruise, David Geffen, Gene Simmons, and Val Kilmer.

Cher has proven herself time and time again to be a serious artist. Her Farewell Tour, one of the best shows ever, and latest album, Living Proof, is a testament to that fact. But, she also represents a phenomenon of her generation: The desire to remain young while refusing to age with grace. She has reinvented herself almost faster than the speed of sound during an amazing career with repeated flashes of incredible brilliance. At 57, long past the age of involuntary retirement for female pop stars, she continues to unearth fresh opportunities, despite a history of setbacks. If it is true that history repeats itself, we certainly have not seen the last of this fascinating performer.