Thursday, June 25, 2009

RIP - Farrah Fawcett

After a courageous battle against cancer, Farrah Fawcett passed away today. She was 62 years old.

Fawcett's career began in the early 1970s as a model and occasional actress. She caught the eye of TV star Lee Majors, and they were married in 1973. A small role in 1976's Logan's Run brought her some acclaim, but she was still on the B-list as it were.


Fawcett became an icon of the 1970s when she landed a starring role on Charlie's Angles, the 1976 mega-hit that featured three gorgeous women fighting crime in various skimpy outfits. That same year, a sexy poster of Fawcett became a defining image of sexuality in the 1970s.


Even though Fawcett left the show after only one season, she was now a star. The roles she chose, however, didn't connect as well with audiences. She scored a cult hit with the 1980 film Saturn 3, co-starring Harvey Kietel and Kirk Douglas, which gained notoriety for the brief nude scenes she shared with Douglas.


In 1982, she and Majors divorced. But Fawcett had a major comeback around the corner. She received good notices for her performance in Extremities, an off-Broadway play, and she won an Emmy for her gritty and powerful portrayal of a battered wife who burns her rapist husband to death in The Burning Bed. That same year, 1985, she began a relationship with Ryan O'Neal that lasted until her death.


In later years, she became more famous for her erratic behaviour than her career, but she made several notable appearances on TV in Spin City and on the big screen in Robert Altman's Dr. T and the Women. She was diagnosed with cancer in 2006, and spent the remaining years of her life battling the disease, as depicted in the documentary Farrah's Story. In recent days, Fawcett had entered the hospital again, sparking speculation that the end was near, and her suffering would soon be over.