Cher

Birth name : Cherilyn Sarkisian
Also known as : Cherilyn LaPierre, Cleo, Cher Bono
Born : May 20, 1946 (1946-05-20) (age 62), El Centro, California, USA
Origin : Los Angeles, California, USA
Genre(s) : Pop, dance, disco, folk, pop rock, R&B
Instrument(s) : Vocals
Voice type(s) : Deep contralto
Years active : 1963- present
Website : www.cher.com
Cher (IPA: /ʃɛɹ/born Cherilyn Sarkisian on May 20, 1946) is an American pop singer-songwriter, actor, director and record producer. She has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globe Awards and was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Cher came to prominence in 1965 as one half of the pop/rock duo Sonny & Cher. She subsequently established herself as a solo recording artist, a television star in the 1970s, and a film actress in the 1980s, starring a string of hit filmsincluding The Witches of Eastwick, Silkwood, Mask and Moonstruck, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Her smash hit single "Believe" (1998) is the biggest-selling dance song, having sold over 10 million copies worldwide. She is the only female recording artist to have Top 10 hits in every decade beginning in the 1960s and the oldest female artist to reach number one. With a career lasting over 40 years, Cher is an enduring pop culture icon and one of the most popular and biggest-selling artists in music history, having sold over 100 million records worldwide (includes the ones with Sonny Bono). She is currently performing at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas with her show "Cher at the Colosseum". Cher is well known for her deep contralto vocal range.
Early life
Cher was born in El Centro, California, on May 20, 1946, at 7:25 a.m. Her father, John Sarkisian, was an Iranian-Armenian refugee who worked as a truck driver. Her mother, Georgia Holt (born Jackie Jean Crouch), born in Sharp County, Arkansas, June 20, 1927, an aspiring actress and occasional model, is of Cherokee, English and French descent. Cher's half sister is actress Georganne LaPiere. Cher's parents divorced when she was young and she was raised primarily by her mother, who at one time was married to Gilbert LaPierre, a banker who adopted Cher. Due to financial problems, Cher's mother placed her in foster care for a time as a child. Later, her mother provided money for acting lessons to help further her career. Due to severe, undiagnosed dyslexia, she left Fresno High School at the age of 16. In those years Cher had a brief relationship with Warren Beatty.
Personal life
Marriages and relationships
In the early 1960s Cher had a relationship with actor Warren Beatty. Sonny and Cher first met in 1962. Though they had claimed to be married as early as 1963, and had a wedding ceremony in Tijuana, Mexico on October 27, 1964, it is rumored that they weren’t legally married until an impromptu ceremony in 1968. Their only child is Chastity Bono, born on March 4, 1969. After 11 years, they divorced on June 27, 1975. The divorce resulted in the cancellation of The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour. Later that year, Cher married her second husband, rock star Gregg Allman. Their son, Elijah Blue Allman of the band Deadsy, was born on July 10, 1976. They separated in 1977 and were officially divorced in January 1979. Between Bono and Allmann, Cher revealed that she had a fling with Elvis Presley while they were performing in Las Vegas, but rejected him when he asked her up to his room because she was too nervous of spending the night with him. In February 2008, Cher stated on Good Morning America that she deeply regrets turning him down. In the interview, she also claimed to being asked out by Marlon Brando on a plane ride. Cher was also involved with record executive David Geffen, KISS bassist Gene Simmons, and senior account manager Garreth Crawford.
In the 1980s, Cher dated several younger men that included actors Val Kilmer, Tom Cruise, and Rob Camilletti, the 22 year old bagel baker and bartender whom she met on her 40th birthday and lived with for three years. It was widely speculated in the tabloid press that the couple were planning to marry, but this never occurred. Cher was involved with Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora for two years in the early 1990s, and was also linked to musicians Eric Clapton and Mark Hudson. Rumors also circulated that Cher was romantically involved with a member of her band during her lengthy Farewell Tour.
Influence
In her early career Cher was a fashion trend-setter, popularizing long straight hair, bell-bottoms and an exposed midriff. She is noted by fashion designers and television historians as being the first female to ever expose her bellybutton on television. She stepped that up a notch in 1989 when she boarded the U.S. Navy's USS Missouri ship in thong and fishnets for the "If I Could Turn Back Time" music video, becoming one of the first video by a mainstream pop artist to be banned by MTV (after the video was banned, it grew to mass popularity, forcing MTV to play the video after 9 p.m.). Through her 1970s television shows she became a sex symbol and pushed the censors with her revealing outfits and creative ensembles, frequently designed by Bob Mackie. She has also inspired many celebrities who have noted her as being a major influence on them, such as Britney Spears , Beyonce Knowles, Tracy Chapman, Oprah Winfrey, Cindy Lauper, Gene Simmons, Meryl Streep, Anastacia, Rosie O'Donnell, Madonna, Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Lopez, Elton John among others.
In July 1999 Cher ranked 43rd on VH1’s 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll poll and in September 2002 ranked 26th on VH1’s 100 Sexiest Artists. She has appeared on the cover of People magazine thirteen times. In a 2007 poll A&E's Biography magazine ranked her as the third favorite actress of all time behind two of her Hollywood idols, Katharine Hepburn and Audrey Hepburn. To state this fact Cher has also been frequently mention in a large number of TV programs, songs, films and books.
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