Cher at 80: From The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour to Oscar and pop milestones

Cher has had several careers in one public life: pop star, variety-show favorite, film actress and chart force across multiple eras. Born Cheryl Sarkisian on May 20, 1946, she is 80 as of Nov. 12, 2026. For many classic TV viewers, though, one image still comes first: Cher on CBS's The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, using dry comic timing and unmistakable screen presence to help make the show a prime-time hit.

How did Cher get started before television?

Long before she was a fixture on 1970s network TV, Cher broke through in pop music. At 16, she left school, took acting classes and supported herself while trying to find a way into show business in Los Angeles. A key early turning point came when she met Sonny Bono in 1962. Through him, she connected with producer Phil Spector and sang backup on recordings including the Ronettes' "Be My Baby" and the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'."

Her first single, "Ringo, I Love You," came out in early 1964 under the name Bonnie Jo Mason. It did not become a hit, but it showed how quickly she was being tested in the studio. That same period also led to the act that made her famous. Performing together first as Caesar & Cleo and then as Sonny & Cher, the pair broke out nationally in 1965 with "I Got You Babe," which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Cher was never only half of a duo. She began building a solo career at the same time, scoring with "All I Really Want to Do" in 1965. More solo success followed with songs including "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)," which became her first million-selling solo single. By the second half of the 1960s, she had already established the two qualities that would define her career: a voice nobody confused with anyone else's, and a public image strong enough to carry both music and screen work.

What made The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour stand out?

The TV version of Cher arrived after an important reset. By 1971, she and Sonny had turned to nightclub work, mixing songs with comic back-and-forth. CBS programming chief Fred Silverman saw the act and offered them a television series. The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour premiered on Aug. 1, 1971, as a summer replacement and returned that December after proving itself in the ratings.

The format was simple but durable. Each episode mixed banter, sketches and musical performances. Sonny set up jokes; Cher cut through them with a deadpan line or a look. Their exchanges let her play the cool, unflappable straight face while still landing some of the biggest laughs. The show also leaned into sketch comedy, giving Cher space to do more than sing. One of her best-known recurring creations was Laverne LaShinsky, an over-the-top housewife character that showed how broad her comic instincts could be.

The series was a real network hit, drawing more than 30 million weekly viewers during its three-year run. It also became a showcase for design as much as performance. Bob Mackie created many of Cher's costumes, and those looks became part of the show's identity and part of 1970s TV fashion more broadly. Behind the scenes, the series attracted strong comedy talent, including Steve Martin as a writer and performer, and it brought in a long list of guests from across entertainment.

Recognition followed. The show earned multiple Emmy nominations, and Cher won the Golden Globe in January 1974 for best performance by an actress in a television series, comedy or musical. For viewers of the period, The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour was not just another variety show. It was where Cher became a full-scale television personality.

How did TV fame help power her music career?

Television made Cher a weekly presence in American homes, but it also helped frame the next stage of her recording career. While The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour was on the air, she reasserted herself as a solo hitmaker. In 1971, "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves" became her second US No. 1 single and the centerpiece of a major comeback. It was followed by "The Way of Love," then by another No. 1, "Half-Breed," and then "Dark Lady," which gave her a fourth career chart-topper.

That run showed that Cher was not relying on television fame alone. She was becoming one of the most consistent singles artists of the era. The songs also sharpened the persona audiences saw on TV: self-possessed, theatrical and emotionally direct. Her recordings from the early 1970s did not sound exactly like the folk-pop of the Sonny & Cher breakthrough years. They were more dramatic and more clearly centered on her.

After The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour ended in 1974, Cher remained on CBS with her own variety series, Cher, beginning in February 1975. The solo show featured music, comedy and monologues, along with an extensive wardrobe, and guests included David Bowie, Elton John, Bette Midler, Ray Charles, Tina Turner and the Jackson 5. It confirmed something the earlier series had already suggested: Cher could hold a network show on her own.

How did Cher become an Oscar-winning actress?

Cher's transition into acclaimed film acting did not happen overnight, but by the 1980s it was unmistakable. After television stardom, she gained notice with her Broadway debut and the film adaptation of Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean in 1982. The following year brought one of the biggest validations of her acting career: an Academy Award nomination for Silkwood.

More recognition came quickly. She won the Cannes Film Festival's Best Actress Award for Mask in 1985, and in 1987 she reached the high point of her screen career with Moonstruck. Her performance in that film won the Academy Award for Best Actress. It remains one of the clearest examples of what made Cher effective on screen. The forceful persona the public already knew from music and television could become funny, romantic, sharp and vulnerable inside a role.

That same period also included The Witches of Eastwick in 1987, keeping her firmly in the film mainstream. She continued with major roles in Mermaids in 1990 and later added directing to her resume with If These Walls Could Talk in 1996. In the decades that followed, she stayed visible on screen with films including Burlesque in 2010 and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again in 2018.

Her acting career was not a novelty side path for a singer. It became one of the pillars of her reputation. By the time she won for Moonstruck, she had done something relatively rare in American entertainment: move from pop success to television stardom to top-tier film recognition without losing the public identity that made her famous in the first place.

Where is Cher now, and what makes her record so unusual?

If the TV years made Cher familiar and the Oscar made her elite, "Believe" made her newly current for a different generation. Released in 1998, the song helped popularize the stylized vocal processing often called the "Cher effect." It became 1999's No. 1 song in the US and added another reinvention to a career already measured in decades.

That longevity is central to her place in entertainment history. Cher is the only solo artist with No. 1 singles on the US Billboard charts in seven consecutive decades, from the 1960s through the 2020s. She is also, as of her 2024 induction, the only performer to have won an Academy Award for acting and been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The same year, she published Cher: The Memoir, adding an official retrospective to a career that had already generated several public chapters.

Her present-day visibility is still notable. In October 2026, Cher appeared in Moncler's Re/Icons campaign, photographed by Gabriel Moses alongside Jennie and Grace Jones, and discussed the campaign in a Vogue interview published Oct. 14, 2026. At 80, she remains one of those rare entertainers whose television fame from the early 1970s is only one part of a much larger record.

For more on classic TV, movie careers and entertainment history, visit NewsCubby's TV & Streaming, Movies and Entertainment sections, and watch short Then and Now features on our Videos page.

Timeline

• **May 20, 1946:** Cher is born in El Centro, California.
• **1965:** Sonny & Cher break through with "I Got You Babe," while Cher also scores solo success with "All I Really Want to Do."
• **Aug. 1, 1971:** The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour premieres on CBS as a summer replacement.
• **1971-1974:** The show becomes a major TV hit, and Cher scores solo No. 1 singles including "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves," "Half-Breed" and "Dark Lady."
• **1975:** Her solo CBS variety show, Cher, debuts.
• **1983:** She receives an Academy Award nomination for Silkwood.
• **1987:** Cher wins the Oscar for Best Actress for Moonstruck.
• **1998-1999:** She releases "Believe," which becomes 1999's No. 1 song in the US.
• **2024:** Cher: The Memoir is published, and she is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
• **October 2026:** She appears in Moncler's Re/Icons campaign.

*Want more? Explore today's headlines on NewsCubby and join My Day free to make NewsCubby part of your day.*

*ARCHIVE PHOTOS: Cher in a December 1973 CBS photo with Sonny Bono, cropped to Cher (left), and Cher performing in London on her Here We Go Again Tour in October 2019 (right). Photos: CBS Television / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain (left); Raph_PH / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 (right). Both cropped.*

*NewsCubby articles are produced with AI assistance and reviewed by humans.*