One half of '60s sensations Sonny & Cher who became a US congressman
If Sonny Bono, who died in a skiing accident on 5 January, 1998, was an unlikely pop star, he was an even more unlikely politician, and yet he made a success of both careers.
He was one of the most self-deprecating stars of the era, but husband and wife duo Sonny & Cher sold 80 million records and hosted their own television show for five years in the 1970s.
After his separation from Cher in 1975, Sonny had a brief career as an actor before entering politics, becoming mayor of Palm Springs in 1988 and being elected to Congress in 1994 where he campaigned on environmental issues and also fought to extend copyrights for artists.
Salvatore Phillip Bono was born on 16 February, 1935, in Detroit, Michigan. His parents were Italian immigrants Jean and Santo Bono. The family moved to LA when he was seven. He dropped out of school at a young age and tried to launch a songwriting career while taking a number of part-time jobs.
He broke into the music industry in his twenties, landing a job at Specialty Records where he worked with the likes of Sam Cooke, Little Richard and Phil Spector. With the latter his writing and performing began to flourish; he sang with groups like the Righteous Brothers and in 1963 Jackie DeShannon recorded his song Needles and Pins.
He met 16-year-old Cher (Cherilyn Sarkisian LaPierre) in a coffee shop in 1962 and they married the following year. Sonny was keen to aid his wife's singing career and helped her record a few fruitless solo efforts.
They began performing together as Caesar and Cleo with little success, but after releasing their debut album Look at Us (1965) as Sonny & Cher, the number one single I Got You Babe turned them into overnight worldwide sensations.
Sonny & Cher, who enjoyed numerous top 40 successes over the next few years, were among the first high profile people to be described as hippies and they became embroiled in controversy in 1967 for publicly siding with "harassed" young people in LA.
However, despite being the original hippies, they were essentially a drug-free, easy-listening pop act and by 1968 had begun to look and sound outdated compared to the psychedelic rock coming out of the West Coast of America. Towards the end of the decade they also made two ill-advised films, Good Times (1967) and Chastity (named after their first daughter, 1969), both of which flopped.
In 1970, they changed their focus and began making regular television variety show appearances, leading to CBS hiring them for a replacement for the The Merv Griffin Show in 1971. The Sonny & Cher Show quickly became one of the top ten prime time shows and was nominated for numerous Emmy Awards.
However, by 1974 changing times were once again making Sonny & Cher's husband-and-wife routine look trite and outdated. Their marriage was also under huge strain, ending in an acrimonious divorce the following year. Remarkably, The Sonny & Cher Show returned two years later for another series after the couple settled their differences, though it would be the last time they would work together.
While Cher was embarking on a successful solo career in the 1980s, Sonny made his living as restaurateur and bit-part film and TV actor, his biggest role being top billing in the 1988 version of Hairspray.
Despite admitting to not voting until his 53rd birthday, he was inspired to enter politics after the bureaucracy involved in opening a new Italian restaurant became too much for him to take.
Naturally there was much scoffing at the prospect of a '60s pop star becoming a politician, but Bono had mastered his diffidence of old. "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," he said.
With talk radio host Marshall Gilbert as his campaign manager, he ran successfully under the Republican banner. In his four years as mayor he was instrumental in making Palm Springs more business-friendly and also founded an international film festival.
He failed to get into the Senate in 1992 but two years later won a seat in the House of Representatives for California's 44th District. There he spearheaded what was to eventually become the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (named posthumously in his honour) to benefit musical artists whose work was due to be released into the public domain.
He died after hitting a tree during a holiday at the Heavenly Ski Resort near South Lake Tahoe, California. His fourth wife, Mary, took over his Congressional seat and continued to campaign for the same issues, in particular the conservation of Salton Sea, a Californian lake. He had three daughters and a son from his various marriages. Towards the end of his life he eschewed his Catholic upbringing and became a Scientologist.