Cher: Talented, durable singer and actor

Cher in the 1987 legal drama "Suspect".

Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094082/mediaviewer/rm4291724544/

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One minute she is performing alongside her husband on the most popular variety show on television, the next she is becoming the first artist to have a number one song in seven straight decades.

But during the 1980s, Cher had a renaissance, becoming an award winning actor and making a startling comeback on the music scene.

When I recently heard she became the first artist with a number one single in her seventh decade, I was reminded of those movies and the comeback, that propelled her career into a future that continues to this day.

Sunday night viewing
My oldest memories of Cher are from watching “Sonny and Cher” on Sunday nights with my parents. She always seemed to be making jokes about her now ex-husband Sonny Bono. Their daughter Chastity also appeared on the show.

Beyond that, I recall very little, because I was just seven years old.

It was only later that I discovered “I Got You Babe” was one of their hits.

You oughtta be in pictures
I picked up Cher’s trail when she started to act. From my limited exposure to her just making fun of Sonny, I was skeptical about her acting. Boy was I wrong.

“Silkwood”
She appeared in “Silkwood” in 1983. Meryl Streep played title character Karen Silkwood, a woman trying to blow the whistle on and unionize a nuclear power plant. Cher played Silkwood’s roommate. Wikipedia reveals audiences questioned Cher’s ability to act just as I had. They too were wrong. For her efforts, Cher was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and won the Golden Globe for best supporting actress in a motion picture.

“Mask”
Cher was back in 1985, this time as the lead actor in a movie. In “Mask” she played the drug addict biker mom of a boy with a serious physical deformity, played by Eric Stoltz. She got great critical reviews, and won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, but was not even nominated for an Academy Award.

Still, her acting career was on the rise, and she would release three movies in 1987 that proved that.

“Suspect”
In “Suspect” she plays an overworked defence attorney who defends a homeless man, played by a young Liam Neeson, accused of murder. She also ends up romantically involved with one of the jurors. I just saw this movie for the first time a couple years ago, and it still stands up.

“The Witches of Eastwick”
In “The Witches of Eastwick”, Cher plays one of three divorcees, along with Susan Sarandon and Michelle Pfeiffer. They get involved with a mysterious man, played by Jack Nicholson, who may be the devil, in the small New England town of Eastwick.

By the Fall of 1987 I was living in student residence at the University of Alberta on the 10th floor of Kelsey Hall. We had pay TV, so movies were always running in the lounge on our floor. I recall seeing a lot of bits and pieces of “The Witches of Eastwick” but not in its entirety.

I can say that about a lot of movies.

“Moonstruck”
Cher’s final movie of 1987 may have been her best. In “Moonstruck”, she plays an Italian widow in love with her fiancé’s younger brother, played by Nicholas Cage. The film was directed by Canadian icon Norman Jewison, and was the fifth highest grossing movie of the year.

For her efforts, Cher won the Academy Award for Best Actress, and the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a motion picture comedy or musical.

Yet, she was not done yet.

Another renaissance was coming – a musical one.

“I Found Someone”
It was yet another example of hearing, or seeing, something that did not seem possible.

One of the other things that seemed to always be playing in the background on 10th Kelsey was MuchMusic. One day, I went out into the lounge and saw something odd.

It looked like Cher but, by then, I thought of her as an actor. I thought, in the little thought I gave her, that her singing days were behind her. Yet, as is becoming a theme with Cher, I was wrong.

In fact, it was Cher on MuchMusic. She was back with a new album simply called, “Cher”. Wikipedia reveals it received a lot of resistance from stores and radio stations. Yet, the music prevailed.

Her single “I Found Someone” broke through and peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The first time I recall hearing that song in its entirety was when I was back home on the farm during the summer of 1988. I was in a bar called Alley Oops in Lethbridge with Chris Vining, my best friend, and the song just boomed over the stereo system.

Hearing it loud in the dark in a beer-soaked bar, made me realize just how powerful Cher’s voice was, especially when singing a ballad such as “I Found Someone”.

It just proved – Cher was back.

Sustained success
Before the end of the decade, Cher released another album “Heart of Stone”, that would yield several hits, and make her as bankable a performer as she was an actor.

The first single was the duet “After All” with Peter Cetera, former lead singer of Chicago but who, by then, had two number one singles under his belt. The song was from the movie “Chances Are”, which oddly had Ryan O’Neal in the cast. “After all” was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song, and went all the way to number six on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, and number five in Canada.

I absolutely love this song. Cher and Peter Cetera’s voices meld perfectly.

The next single from “Heart of Stone” was “If I Could Turn Back Time”. It peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. The video of Cher performing for the troops aboard a battleship, drew some controversy for what Cher was wearing. She also did straddle a cannon.

The third single from the album was “Just Like Jesse James”, and it peaked at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

As the decade closed, Cher was on a twin path with success in acting and performing.

The years after
Cher keeps on performing to this day, becoming the first artist to have a number one song in seven straight decades. Some of her other hits included “Love and Understanding”; the number one “Believe”; and much, much more.

She was back o the big screen with “Mermaids” in 1990; “The Player” in 1992; “Ready to Wear” in 1994; “Faithful” in 1996, once again, oddly, appearing with Ryan O’Neal; “Burlesque” in 2010; and much more.

Parting thoughts
One of Cher’s hallmarks in the 1980s was how flamboyant, and at times bizarre, her clothes, hair and make up were. There were the tattoos, plastic surgery, revealing clothes, feathers, glitter and so much of everything.

It was a stark contrast to those days when I was growing up watching her on Sunday nights, singing and telling jokes with her daughter and ex-husband.

It was also a wide departure from the roles she played in “Silkwood”; “Mask”; “Suspect”; “The Witches of Eastwick”; “Moonstruck others.

There was one thing for sure, something that didn’t change.

Cher is an extremely talented singer and actor.

And she has proved that over second decades.

That makes her durable too.