Georgia Holt, Singer and Cher’s Mother, Dead at 96
Georgia Holt, singer, actress and mother of Cher, has died at the age of 96.
“Mom is gone,” Cher tweeted Saturday night; a rep for the singer confirmed Holt’s death to The Hollywood Reporter.
While no cause of death was provided, Cher previously revealed that her mother had been dealing with health issues over the past few months. “Sorry I’ve been Mia. Mom’s Been Sick Off & On. She Just Got Out Of Hosp. She Had Pneumonia. She’s Getting Better,” Cher tweeted in September.
As an actress in the Fifties, Holt landed bit parts in films like A Life of Her Own, Grounds for Marriage, and Father’s Little Dividend, and appeared on TV shows like The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and I Love Lucy, where Holt played a French fashion model.
Over the past decade, Holt made appearances on The Tonight Show, the Ellen DeGeneres Show and RuPaul’s Drag Race (alongside her grandson Chaz Bono), as well as the 2013 documentary Dear Mom, Love Cher.
“She never gave me and my sister advice because, truthfully, she knew we’d never take it,” Cher said of her mother in the documentary. “Instead, we learned about life by listening to her talk about the things she did wrong and the things she did right.”
In 2013, Holt released her debut country album Honky Tonk Woman, which was recorded in the Eighties but not unearthed until decades later when Holt rediscovered the master tapes. The album featured a duet with her daughter Cher, “I’m Just Your Yesterday.”