Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#13940
of 909177 performers
Top 5%
Cher represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 43 years in, and Cher is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Cher appears in 24 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Cher. Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion is the clearest case: a film rated 10.0 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for music, documentary, comedy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with James Keach, Beth McCarthy-Miller, Jeffrey Schwarz and others, Cher helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion (2024) as Self · iHeartRadio Jingle Ball 2023 (2023) as Self - Special Guest · Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love (2023) as Self - Guest
Career snapshot
Ranked #13940 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
24
1983–2026
Career length
43 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
10.0
Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion
Average Nutevio score
6.4
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
10.0
Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion
Most frequent director
Robert Altman
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Robert Altman
Most common genre
Comedy
13 titles
Average runtime
1h 41m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.0
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
7.0
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
1980s
6.9 average MV
The 1980s are where the work and the material meet. The Witches of Eastwick, Moonstruck, Mask — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1980s
6.9
Across 4 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1980s
6.9
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1980s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. The Witches of Eastwick, Moonstruck, Mask.
Most productive era
2020s
11 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.03 films | 6.83 films | — | 7.21 film | — |
| Thriller | — | 7.21 film | — | — | — |
| Comedy | 6.72 films | 6.45 films | 5.41 film | 6.32 films | 6.43 films |
| Crime | — | 7.21 film | — | — | — |
| Romance | 6.81 film | 6.71 film | — | 6.63 films | — |
| Horror | 6.61 film | — | — | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1983Silkwood
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Dolly Pelliker.
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance
2023iHeartRadio Jingle Ball 2023
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 10.0 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
2024Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2026Gregg Allman: The Music of My Soul
The current state of the argument, as Self.
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
24 of 24 films
as Self - Special Guest
Directed by Sam Wrench
as Self - Guest
Directed by Paul Miller
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
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The defining work
#1
Self
Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion (2024)
Performance score9.9
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Self gives Cher a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Self - Special Guest
iHeartRadio Jingle Ball 2023 (2023)
Performance score9.7
iHeartRadio Jingle Ball 2023 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Self - Special Guest is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Self
Cher & the Loneliest Elephant (2021)
Performance score8.5
Cher & the Loneliest Elephant asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Self is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Self - Guest
Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love (2023)
Performance score8.0
Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Self - Guest is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Self
Start here. Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion is the clearest statement of what Cher does — accessible, 105 minutes, and rated 10.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Cher at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
Mask (1985)
A deliberate change of key after Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Cher & the Loneliest Elephant (2021)
A deliberate change of key after Mask — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
iHeartRadio Jingle Ball 2023 (2023)
Keeps the documentary register of Cher & the Loneliest Elephant but asks for a colder reading of it.
Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love (2023)
Keeps the documentary register of iHeartRadio Jingle Ball 2023 but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Robert Altman
Director
2 films together
Notably The Player
Mike Nichols
Director
1 film together
Notably Silkwood
Peter Bogdanovich
Director
1 film together
Notably Mask
Norman Jewison
Director
1 film together
Notably Moonstruck
George Miller
Director
1 film together
Notably The Witches of Eastwick
Richard Benjamin
Director
1 film together
Notably Mermaids
Franco Zeffirelli
Director
1 film together
Notably Tea with Mussolini
Adam Rifkin
Director
1 film together
Notably Detroit Rock City
Bobby Farrelly
Director
1 film together
Notably Stuck on You
Steve Antin
Director
1 film together
Notably Burlesque
Frank Coraci
Director
1 film together
Notably Zookeeper
Kirk Wise
Director
1 film together
Notably Bobbleheads: The Movie
Linda Mendoza
Director
1 film together
Notably A Night at the Academy Museum
Paul Miller
Director
1 film together
Notably Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love
Sam Wrench
Director
1 film together
Notably iHeartRadio Jingle Ball 2023
Jeffrey Schwarz
Director
1 film together
Notably Commitment to Life
Beth McCarthy-Miller
Director
1 film together
Notably SNL50: The Homecoming Concert
James Keach
Director
1 film together
Notably Gregg Allman: The Music of My Soul
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Robert Altman
Director
2 films together · 6.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The PlayerSam Wrench
Director
1 film together · 10.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
iHeartRadio Jingle Ball 2023Paul Miller
Director
1 film together · 8.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + LovePeter Bogdanovich
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MaskSteve Antin
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BurlesqueLinda Mendoza
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Night at the Academy MuseumMike Nichols
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SilkwoodNorman Jewison
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MoonstruckAdam Rifkin
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Detroit Rock CityRichard Benjamin
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MermaidsGeorge Miller
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Witches of EastwickBeth McCarthy-Miller
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SNL50: The Homecoming ConcertFranco Zeffirelli
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Tea with MussoliniFrank Coraci
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ZookeeperBobby Farrelly
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Stuck on YouKirk Wise
Director
1 film together · 4.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Bobbleheads: The MovieJames Keach
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Gregg Allman: The Music of My SoulJeffrey Schwarz
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Commitment to LifeSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion
as Self
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Burlesque
as Tess
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
iHeartRadio Jingle Ball 2023
as Self - Special Guest
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Detroit Rock City
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion
as Self
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Cher has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
43 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Comedy Legend
Awarded
13 catalogue titles in comedy, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
iHeartRadio Jingle Ball 2023
as Self - Special Guest
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion
as Self
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Burlesque
as Tess
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Player
as Cher
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
iHeartRadio Jingle Ball 2023
as Self - Special Guest
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Bobbleheads: The Movie
as Bobblehead Cher (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Tea with Mussolini
as Elsa Strauss-Almerson
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Zookeeper
as Janet the Lioness (voice)
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
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Have your say
Community
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Reference
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