Farrah Fawcett, the bronzed, blue-eyed poster girl of 1970s America, died today at the age of 62. The former Charlie's Angels star had been battling cancer since an initial diagnosis back in 2006.
"She's gone," her longtime partner, Ryan O'Neal said in a statement. "She now belongs to the ages." Fawcett died at St John's health centre in Santa Monica, California. O'Neal and her friend Alana Stewart were reportedly at her bedside.
Other Charlie's Angels stars paid tribute to her. "Farrah had courage, she had strength, and she had faith. And now she has peace as she rests with the real angels," Jaclyn Smith said.
Cheryl Ladd said: "She was incredibly brave, and God will be welcoming her with open arms."
Fawcett burst into the public eye as a fully-fledged celebrity courtesy of her 1973 marriage to Lee Majors, star of the top-rated TV series The Six-Million Dollar Man. Despite being born in Texas, she found herself embraced as the emblem of a wholesome, suntanned California lifestyle. A poster featuring her grinning over her shoulder in a one-piece red bathing suit sold a record 12m copies. "I was famous before I even had a craft," she would later ruefully remark.
Fawcett went on to become one of the most visible stars of the age thanks to her breakthrough role in Aaron Spelling's ABC TV series Charlie's Angels. Cast as crime-busting Jill Munroe, Fawcett would prove to be the first among equals in a trio that included Jaclyn Smith and Kate Jackson. "The other ones looked very nice girl-next-door," wrote Linda Stasi in the NY Post. "She was a babe. She didn't live next door to anyone you knew."
Fawcett quit the show after just one series and a subsequent move into feature films floundered with the flop 1978 thriller Somebody Killed Her Husband. Her marriage to Majors ended the following year.
Even in adversity, however, Fawcett continued to fascinate American audiences. She won an Emmy nomination for her role as an abused wife in the 1984 TV movie The Burning Bed. Off-screen, the ups and downs of her relationship with Ryan O'Neal provided reliable fodder for the tabloids.
In recent years Fawcett took fleeting roles in the TV shows Ally McBeal and Spin City, and appeared in the Robert Altman comedy Dr T and the Women. Her other screen credits include Logan's Run, Saturn 3, The Cannonball Run and The Apostle.
Yet Fawcett's most lasting legacy may prove to be her last completed production. Farrah's Story, an acclaimed two-hour documentary charting her fight against cancer, screened last May on the NBC network to an audience of nine-million viewers.
Courtesy Guardian.co.uk |
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