[Deathwatch] Farrah Fawcett, actress, 62

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

Farrah Fawcett, 1970s sex symbol, dies aged 62
By Jill Serjeant 

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? Actress Farrah Fawcett, the "Charlie's Angels"
television star whose big smile and feathered blond mane made her one
of the reigning sex symbols of the 1970s, died on Thursday after a long
battle with cancer. She was 62.

Fawcett, who first vaulted to stardom by an alluring poster of her in a
red swimsuit, was diagnosed with anal cancer in late 2006. It spread to
her liver in 2007, proving resistant to numerous medical treatments in
Germany and California.

"After a long and brave battle with cancer, our beloved Farrah has
passed away," Fawcett's long time companion, actor Ryan O'Neal, said in
a statement.

"Although this is an extremely difficult time for her family and
friends, we take comfort in the beautiful times that we shared with
Farrah over the years and the knowledge that her life brought joy to so
many people around the world."

Fawcett's death in a Los Angeles hospital came just six weeks after the
TV broadcast in May of a video diary she made chronicling her battle
with cancer and her final months.

Called "Farrah's Story," the documentary was effectively a self-penned
obituary by the actress, who was bedridden and had lost her famous hair
by the time it was shown.

O'Neal said she had wanted to tell her story on her own terms. Earlier
this week, O'Neal said Fawcett had agreed to marry him before her
death, but a marriage never took place, a spokesman for the actress and
O'Neal said.

Fawcett, born February 2, 1947, in Corpus Christi, Texas, was an art
student in college before she began modeling, appearing in shampoo ads.


She started guest-starring on TV in the late 1960s and appeared on the
television hit "The Six Million Dollar Man" after marrying the show's
star, Lee Majors, in 1974. The couple divorced in the early 1980s.

ANGEL CULTURE

Fawcett's career took off thanks to a poster of her posing
flirtatiously with a brilliant smile in a red one-piece bathing suit.
It sold millions of copies and led to her being cast in 1976 in
"Charlie's Angels," an action show about three beautiful, strong women
private detectives.

As the tanned and glamorous Jill Munroe -- part of a trio that included
Jaclyn Smith and Kate Jackson -- Fawcett was the hit show's most
talked-about star. She left "Charlie's Angels" after only one season
but lawsuit settlements brought her back to guest-star in subsequent
years.

"Farrah had courage, she had strength and she had faith. And now she
has peace as she rests with the real angels," Smith said in a
statement.

Fawcett's face appeared on T-shirts, posters and dolls. She came to
epitomize the glamorous California lifestyle and inspired a worldwide
craze for blown-out, feathered-back hair.

The New York Times once described that hair as "a work of art ...
emblematic of women in the first stage of liberation -- strong,
confident and joyous."

In late 2008, Fawcett shaved her own hair when it began falling out
because of her cancer treatments.

SERIOUS ROLES

While Fawcett's early career was marked by lightweight roles, the
actress sought to play down her sex symbol image in more challenging
dramas in the '80s.

She earned critical acclaim for her performance as a battered wife in
1984's "The Burning Bed," for which she received the first of three
Emmy nominations.

The off-Broadway play and subsequent film "Extremities," in which
Fawcett played a woman who takes revenge on a would-be attacker, earned
one of her six Golden Globe nominations.

Fawcett posed for Playboy magazine in 1995, the same year she received
a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

She had one son, Redmond, with O'Neal. Redmond O'Neal, now 24, was
arrested on several occasions in 2008 and 2009 for heroin and
methamphetamine offenses leading to time in jail.

In the last few years, Fawcett appeared frequently on entertainment TV,
where she shared details of her battle with cancer.

But she was outraged when news of her deteriorating condition was
leaked to tabloid newspapers. A Los Angeles hospital employee was
charged in 2008 with stealing and selling Fawcett's medical records,
leading to a new California law imposing tighter controls on medical
files and stiffer penalties for privacy breaches. 

Many thanks to Deathwatch Central for posting this obituary