SONNY BONO, 1935 - 1998; SKIING ACCIDENT CUTS SHORT EX-STAR'S TURN AS LAWMAKER.

Byline: Bernard Weinraub The New York Times

Rep. Sonny Bono, whose unexpected career in Republican politics followed an equally unexpected - and successful - career as a singer and television star with his former wife, Cher, was killed Monday evening when he crashed into a tree while skiing in South Lake Tahoe. He was 62 and lived in Palm Springs.

Bono was skiing with his wife, Mary Whitaker, and their two children when he left them about 1:30 p.m. to ski alone at the Heavenly Ski Resort on the California-Nevada line, 55 miles south of Reno. Unaware that he had not made it down the hill, his wife, their son, Chesare, 9, and daughter, Chianna, 6, waited at the bottom of the slope. When he failed to appear after several hours, they reported him missing.

Bono's body was found by the ski patrol about 6:45 p.m. Sheriff Ron Pierini of Douglas County said Bono skied into a wooded area and hit a tree.

The sheriff said Bono died of massive head injuries. There was no evidence of drug or alcohol use, he said.

Cher, who cut short a trip to London to return to the United States after Bono's death, looked tearful at the airport but had no comment.

Chastity Bono, Sonny and Cher's lesbian activist daughter, left for Palm Springs. She lives in New York.

``Although my father and I differed on some issues, he was very supportive of my personal life and career and was a loving father. I will miss him greatly,'' she said in a statement.

Bono's death came less than a week after Michael Kennedy, the 39-year-old son of Robert F. Kennedy, was killed when he hit a tree while playing football on a ski slope in Aspen, Colo. Michael Kennedy's uncle, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., said his family was ``heartbroken'' at Bono's death.

Similarly, President Clinton echoed what many lawmakers, Democrats as well as Republicans, said about Bono. ``His joyful entertainment of millions earned him celebrity, but in Washington he earned respect by being a witty and wise participant in policy-making processes that often seemed ponderous to the American people,'' Clinton said.

Bono almost prided himself on never being taken, or taking himself, very seriously - either in his successful entertainment career, as part of the team Sonny and Cher, in the 1960s and '70s, or in his recent political career. He once admitted that he had never voted until he was 53 years of age, when he contemplated running for mayor of Palm Springs out of anger and frustration over the red tape he faced when he wanted to put a sign on his Italian restaurant.

Bono was elected mayor in 1988 and served until 1992, when he ran unsuccessfully in the California Republican primary for a seat in the U.S. Senate that was eventually won by Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat. But he bounced back in 1994, winning his congressional seat in the Republican tide that wrested control of the House from the Democrats for the first time in 40 years.

Bono, who represented the state's 44th Congressional District - a heavily Republican area that sprawls across the desert in Southern California - defeated his Democratic opponent, Steve Clute, by 56 percent to 38 percent, and was re-elected in 1996.

``The last thing in the world I thought I would be is a U.S. congressman, given all the bobcat vests and Eskimo boots I used to wear,'' Bono told the Washington Press Club Foundation shortly after taking office in January 1995.

``I love this game,'' he joked to the group. ``I am so pleased that we are all so dedicated to mankind - unlike show business, where there you have egomaniacs and you have power mongers and you have elitists.''

It was Bono's self-deprecating style (he was the second most popular Republican fund-raiser behind House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Geo.), and his casual bluntness that made him especially popular. At a Judiciary Committee session on the crime bill in 1995, Bono interrupted a colleague and complained that all they did was talk, talk, talk.

``With all due respect to lawyers, it's wonderful that you have this intricate knowledge,'' he said. ``You break down words to the nth degree. And sometimes I find it rather disgusting. And it goes on and on.''

In Congress, Bono generally adhered to a conservative agenda, and focused on such issues as the environment, immigration and copyright questions. But unlike many of his conservative allies, Bono seemed to go out of his way to befriend stalwart liberals like Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. The two split over the issue of same-sex marriage in 1996, but Frank praised Bono for his candor and decency.

At the time, Bono said he loved his daughter, Chastity, a lesbian activist, and respected gay people, but could not accept the notion of gay marriage. ``I'm not homophobic, I'm not a bigot, I'm not pandering to hatred,'' he said. ``I simply can't handle it. It's nothing else.''

Bono was born Salvatore Bono in Detroit on Feb. 16, 1935. His parents were impoverished Sicilian immigrants who moved to Los Angeles when he was 7. A poor student, Sonny Bono dropped out of high school and struggled to write songs while working as a waiter, a construction worker, a truck driver and a butcher's helper.

In his 20s he immersed himself in the music business as a songwriter and singer with Specialty Records, where he worked with Sam Cooke and Little Richard. Soon he teamed up with the legendary record producer Phil Specter, where he wrote songs (``You Bug Me, Baby,'' and ``Needles and Pins'') and sang background for groups like the Righteous Brothers.

The turning point of his career took place when a sloe-eyed and exotically beautiful 16-year-old named Cherilyn Sarkisian, who called herself Cher, drifted into his life. ``She wanted to be an entertainer more than I've seen anybody want to be an entertainer in my life,'' he once said.

The team - she was a long-haired beauty; he was short, nasal and bumbling - made several modestly successful recordings (``Baby, Don't Go,'' ``Just You'') before creating a giant hit in June 1965 with ``I Got You, Babe,'' which Sonny had written as an expression of their feelings for each other.

Bono divorced his first wife, Donna, shortly after he met Cher, but the two were not married until years later, after the birth of their daughter, Chastity. Bono also had a daughter, Christy, with his first wife, Donna Rankin.

It was a guest spot on the ``Merv Griffin Show'' that convinced Fred Silverman, the head of CBS programming, to turn the bickering, irreverent and outrageously clad musical and comedy team into television stars.

``The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour,'' began as a five-week summer replacement series in August 1971. They were an immediate hit. Cher wore sequined and spectacular Bob Mackie outfits and was known for her sharp-tongued wit. He wore bell bottoms, had a droopy mustache and played the fall man. The show lasted until 1974, when the couple split up.

Bono virtually dropped out of show business after that, except for a few guest spots on shows like ``Fantasy Island'' and ``The Love Boat.'' He went into the restaurant business in Palm Springs, while Cher's film career flourished for a while.

After his marriage to Cher, Bono was married to Susie Coehlo; that marriage ended in divorce in 1984.

Bono met his fourth wife, Mary Whitaker, in 1985, when she walked into a restaurant he owned on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles to celebrate her graduation from the University of Southern California. They were married a year later.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos, map

PHOTO (1 -- color) Cher, former wife and entertainment partner of Sonny Bono, prepares to leave London and head for Los Angeles on Tuesday.

Associated Press

(2 -- color) A 1986 photo of Sonny Bono shows the congressman at the Heavenly Ski Resort.

Knight-Ridder Tribune Photo Service

Map: California