Sonny Bono -- from TV to D.C.
January 6, 1998
Web posted at: 3:46 p.m. EST (2046 GMT)
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(CNN) -- For members of one generation, Sonny Bono will be best remembered as a singer and songwriter who hit the peak of his musical popularity in the 1960s. For television viewers who are slightly younger, the more lasting memory is of a bumbling sidekick for his witty and sophisticated wife, Cher.
It was the TV image that followed Bono into politics, earning him popularity with voters and initial scorn from Washington colleagues.
The mustachioed, self-deprecating half of the Sonny and Cher duo died on Monday when he skied into a tree at Heavenly Ski Resort on the Nevada-California line, 55 miles southwest of Reno, Nevada. He was 62.
Born in Detroit on February 16, 1935, Salvatore Bono moved to California with his family when he was 7, and turned to songwriting after high school. He drove a meat delivery truck, squeezing in trips to record companies to drop off songs.
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Sonny with then-wife, Cher, and their daughter Chastity on CBS in the early 1970s
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As a songwriter and backup singer, he worked with Phil Spector and the Righteous Brothers. His first hit as a writer was "Needles and Pins," which he co-wrote with Jack Nitzsche. It became a top 20 single for the British group the Searchers in 1964.
But it was with Cher -- Cherilyn Sarkisian -- whom he married in 1964, that things took off. That year their song "Baby Don't Go" got Sonny and Cher a contract with record giant Atco-Atlantic.
Their first hit, "I Got You, Babe," went to No. 1 on the Billboard charts in August 1965. "Baby Don't Go" was rereleased and got to the top 20, and other hits followed -- "The Beat Goes On, "It's the Little Things," "It's a Beautiful Story" and "Laugh at Me."
The couple turned to television with "The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour" on CBS from 1971-74.
The show proved to be a hit, with on-stage bickering between the husband-wife team that was as memorable as the music they sang. Bono was well-known for his droopy mustache, bell-bottoms and playing the fall guy to his taller, sharp-tongued wife with the spectacular sequined outfits.
After they were divorced in 1974, their solo TV efforts lagged, as did an attempt to revive their partnership with a new TV show in 1976-77. Bono all but dropped out of show business, other than a few guest spots on shows such as "Fantasy Island" and "The Love Boat." He went into the restaurant business in Palm Springs.
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Bono launched his political career in 1988 after age
50, when he became mayor of Palm Springs, California
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The man who once said he never voted until age 53 ran for mayor of Palm Springs, California, out of frustration over the red tape he faced for a remodeling project at his Italian restaurant.
Bono was elected mayor of the resort town in 1988 and served until 1992. He claimed responsibility for erasing a $2.5 million deficit without raising taxes and starting a local film festival.
But he wasn't taken seriously at first. The outgoing Republican mayor, Frank Bogert, called him everything from a hippie to a squirrel.
He was criticized for his lack of political experience and, in a failed Senate race in 1992, for his unfamiliarity with state issues.
In 1994, Bono easily won the GOP primary in California's 44th District and rode the Republican tide with a 56 percent to 38 percent win over Democrat Steve Clute.
At the time, Bogert told reporters: "I don't like to see a darned Democrat go to Congress. But I sure don't want to see Sonny Bono there, making a fool of himself and us."
But the former entertainer gained voter approval, winning re-election to Congress in 1996.
"People have said to me, 'You can't write songs. You can't play an instrument.' But I've got 10 gold records. I can do this job," Bono once said of his political duties.
Still, Bono got off on the wrong foot in Washington by telling one of his colleagues on the House Judiciary Committee that his fellow lawmakers were too long-winded. The criticisms of lawmakers' "legalese" that had won him points with voters backfired in the committee room.
"This is constitutional law," said Rep. Charles E. Schumer, D-New York. "We're not making sausage." Bono said he got the message. "Actually I could see his point -- some punk coming in there and trying to take over," he said.
Bono was known for rambling on and off the House floor, but fellow Republicans came to appreciate his style, especially during his 1996 re-election campaign when he spent much of his time speaking at fund-raisers for them, spicing his talks with Hollywood anecdotes.
He became the second-most requested draw at House members' events during the 1996 campaign.
During a 1997 split among House Republicans, Bono continued to support Speaker Newt Gingrich, even offering the speaker advice on his public image.
Although only in his second term, Bono was named to the House judiciary and national security committees and was active on immigration and Indian gaming issues.
Bono announced last June he would not run for Senate this year, saying he didn't want to take that much time from his family.
Bono had a child, Christy, with his first wife, Donna Rankin; he and Rankin married in 1954 and divorced in the early 1960s. He had one child with Cher -- Chastity, now a lesbian activist.
Following a brief third marriage, he married Mary Whitaker in 1986 and they had two children.
Correspondent Ann McDermott The Associated Press contributed to this report..