We usually do memorials when people who have worked or lived with Cher have died. So much has happened since late last year, this is woefully behind.

Teri Garr

In Cher’s memoirs she said that Teri Garr was so funny she could have had her own show. Teri Garr and Steve Martin were part of The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour family (two friends from the earlier, cancelled Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour) and Cher would go on to have those two as guests on her solo show.  Teri Garr was also a cast member of Sonny’s solo TV show, The Sonny Comedy Review, which always seemed odd to me because Garr’s movie career was picking up around that time.

She was fabulous in Young Frankenstein,  Close Encounters of the Third Kind (the mashed potato scene alone) and my favorite, Mr. Mom. She also had great roles in Head, After Hours, Tootsie and Oh God! opposite John Denver.

Cher and Garr would have also crossed paths when Garr was a dancer on Hullabaloo, Shivaree and Shindig!

In Garr’s memoirs she told a story about how Cher tried to impress upon her that she needed “a look.” (And I don’t think Garr every was really convinced enough to create one.) Garr also credits learning her German accent for Young Frankenstein to her time spent with the Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour’s hairdresser Renate Leuschner.

Once in L.A. my friend Julie talked me into going to a taping of Hollywood Squares and we could see Teri Garr making her way to the center square and struggling with a cane. We wondered if she had been in a car accident. Not long afterwards, Garr went public with the fact that she was struggling with M.S.. Sadly, she made fewer public appearances as the condition progressed. This was the last interview I saw her give.

Teri told some stories about working on The Comedy Hour on Bob Costas in 1991.

Val Kilmer

Cher dated Val Kilmer around 1982 to 1984. I think Cher said Kilmer was the one to break it off due to their not being able to spend much time together. Maybe we’ll hear more about that in Volume 2 of Cher’s memoirs. In any case, they were a very photogenic, happy-seeming couple and from existing Cher accounts and things Kilmer has said to the press and in his own memoirs, they had nothing bad to say about their time together or each other and they parted as good friends. In fact, Cher took Kilmer into her Malibu guest house when he was suffering from cancer.

Interestingly, Val Kilmer was born in 1959 making him 13 years younger than Cher; but I don’t remember anyone making a big deal about this at the time, like they would later do for every other boyfriend Cher would go on to have. Then again, I completely missed this relationship as a fan being only 12 years old at the time. I do think I have one People Magazine photo of them together from my childhood Cher scrapbook. Other than that, I learned about this relationship much later.

And my ignorance was unfortunate because I really did like the Val Kilmer of this early period. I liked both Top Secret and Real Genius, but exited the Kilmer train at Top Gun which I still haven’t seen.

Jimmy Carter

Cher and Sonny were famously on opposite sides of the 1976 election. Cher and her husband Gregg Allman (and The Allman Brothers) were big supporters of Jimmy Carter’s presidential campaign. My friend Mikaela sent me this excerpt from NPR via The New York Times where Amy Carter recalls Cher visiting the White House.

Cher’s memoirs are full of these brushes and casual relationships with uber-famous people. It’s been an extraordinary life of meeting famous characters. Which makes it all the more amazing that when she gave the eulogy for Sonny she still insisted he was the most interesting person she ever met. That’s quite a tribute considering.