Happy birthday, Cher! Her 10 most iconic moments

10. “Super Trouper”

Cher’s appearance in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again in 2018 remains her last substantial film role. We can, and must, keep hope alive that something else is out there on the horizon. But if not, we’ll at least have the big finish seen here, in which Cher leads the entire cast (including Meryl Streep!) through a rousing rendition of “Super Trouper.” The only reason this doesn’t rank higher on the list is that it is Cher in salute of ABBA. The long view of history suggests that future films will include legendary performers celebrating Cher.

9. Silkwood

In the early 1980s, Cher was in a precarious place in her career. She tried to transition from pop and disco to rock & roll, and it didn’t really connect. She was also having some rough times in her private life, now divorced twice. Luckily some important film directors — first Robert Altman, then Mike Nichols — recognized what talent she possessed, and cast her in some remarkable, risky roles.

The drama Silkwood, based on a true story of a nuclear plant worker who died under mysterious causes, starred Meryl Streep and Kurt Russell, plus Cher in a rare, heroic gay role. This was a radical departure for the woman America knew from the wacky Sonny & Cher Show, and proved that we were just beginning to see what she could achieve. She received an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe win for the part.

8. “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves”

We love Cher so much, we’re even willing to disagree with her. She doesn’t like this song, even though it is still part of her repertoire. But most will agree this tale of woe, told in toe-tappin’ rhythm, is one of the best tunes that still dominates AM radio. The 1971 release was her first No. 1 hit on the Billboard charts, and secured her position as a solo artist. It’s also a great one for karaoke.

7. Escorting the world’s loneliest elephant across Asia

In 2020, when most of the world was sealed up due to the COVID pandemic, Cher was flying around Asia fighting for Kaavan, a depressed elephant, stuck in a particularly nasty zoo in Pakistan.

Cher met with Pakistan’s prime minister, fought her way through red tape, and ultimately succeeding in winning the precious pachyderm his freedom. She then escorted Kaavan to a sanctuary in Cambodia, shooting a documentary for the Smithsonian Channel along the way. Those who were following along on social media may remember when she vowed, in all caps, “CANT WAIT TO SING TO HIM ON WAY TO CAMBODIA. I HAVE TWO SONGS.”

May we all have friends in our corner like Cher.

6. “Believe”

Fact: anyone who has used autotune since Cher conquered the airwaves with “Believe” is wasting their time. Cher owns autotune like Franz Liszt owned the pianoforte, and everyone knows it.

“Believe,” released in 1998, was Cher’s fourth No. 1 hit on the Billboard charts, 27 years after her first.

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly‘s free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

5. “I gotta come down here and play pussyfoot with you!”

There are a lot of great Cher film performances — and obviously we’re gonna get to the biggie soon — but one should not overlook 1985’s Mask on her resume. (Even if she recently called her director, the late Peter Bogdanovich, an “a–hole” and “a pig,” the two of them did great work together.)

Mask is based on the true story of Rocky Dennis, played by Eric Stoltz, a kid with a genetic disorder and facial disfigurement. It’s a tremendous role for Cher, who gets to play a tough-as-brass Jewish mother in a biker gang. (Talk about a badass combo!) Above, you can see her having absolutely no patience for a prejudicial school principal.

For more of Cher reading authority figures for filth, here’s a great scene opposite Andrew Robinson, another in a string of doctors giving her and Rocky the runaround.

4. Cher’s men

Cher has provided chum to tabloids throughout her entire professional life, and given her no-nonsense demeanor, she seems to have made peace with this. Perhaps she even enjoys it. Her private life is none of our business, really, but it has been filled with high highs and low lows.

Indeed, her marriage to Sonny Bono was (let’s put this mildly) complicated, but it was clear she still had love for him when she gave his eulogy after he died while skiing. If you haven’t watched her speech, it’s a thing of tremendous, poignant humanity.

The pop star’s second marriage to psychedelic Southern rocker Gregg Allman did not last quite as long, but proved, for a while anyway, that love could cross over from opposite sides of the radio dial.

And at the peak of her fame, the nation cheered when she hooked up Rob Camilletti aka “The Bagel Boy,” a gorgeous Italian-American kid from Queens who was 18 years her junior. She even put him in a video.

3. “Snap out of it!”

Rarely does someone cement their legacy in cinema with a literal flick of the wrist, but that’s what Cher did when she smacked Nicolas Cage across the face in 1987’s Moonstruck.

The Brooklyn-based Italian-American romp Moonstruck (written by an Irish-American playwright and directed by a Canadian) is one of the greatest romantic comedy ever filmed, and a lot of that is due to Cher’s performance as Loretta Castorini, a widowed bookkeeper who has given up looking for love, but can’t stop love from looking for her.

There are 102 minutes in Moonstruck and every one of them is perfect — but the moment when Cher does her best to force Nic Cage to “snap out of it” is the one that everyone rightly remembers. She won the Oscar for her role, and so did Olympia Dukakis for Best Supporting Actress and John Patrick Shanley for Best Original Screenplay. The Last Emperor won for Best Picture, and while that is absolutely a great movie, the fact that Moonstruck lost is one of life’s great injustices.

2. The 1986 Bob Mackie dress

Two years before Cher won the Oscar for Moonstruck, she was nominated for Silkwood. She wore this dress. We’re still talking about it.

1. “If I Could Turn Back Time”

Why is the sky blue? Why does the Earth revolve the sun? Why was Cher singing about time travel on a battleship in a fishnet bodysuit?

These are the mysteries of existence that are beyond questioning.

In 1989, Cher, with the aid of songwriter Diane Warren, went from superstar to beyond-all-levels-of-superstar with this ubiquitous hit that topped charts around the globe. The accompanying music video — shot on a naval ship — got a few fuddy-duddies angry, but it certainly looks like all the sailors had a good time!

We salute you, Cher!