Charlie's Favourite Angel Goes To Heaven

4 months ago 04th Jul 08:15

The Death Of The Seventies Icon Farrah Fawcett Left A Void In The Lives Of A Generation

Dressed in a tiny scarlet swimsuit and a smile, Farrah Fawcett titillated the world's men for over 30 years.

Last week, the biggest selling pin-up girl of all time lost her long battle to anal cancer, aged 62.

Farrah was 29 years old and starting to think she would never "make it" when Pro Arts Inc. approached her agent and pitched the idea of a poster.

It was the beginning of 1976, and while she had played cameos in 'The Six Million Dollar Man', 'The Dating Game' and several episodes of 'Harry O' and married TV star Lee Majors, Farrah was still relatively unknown.

Keen to make a name for herself, Farrah agreed and was in Bruce McBroom's photographic studio days later.

McBroom shot 40 rolls of film of the blonde beauty, before asking Farrah to choose her favourite image.

The photo she selected - all sun-kissed skin, pearly whites, big hair and come hither eyes - went on to become the most popular poster of all time, selling over 12 million copies.

Around the same time, Farrah appeared in a TV movie of the week called 'Charlie's Angels'.

At the time, she said: When the show was number three, I thought it was our acting

Farrah, Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith played a trio of feisty private investigators who worked for a reclusive millionaire they'd never met.

The movie got such good ratings, the network commissioned a television series, recruiting the entire principal cast of the original film.

The series aired in September 1976 and Farrah - who played blonde bombshell Jill Munroe - became an overnight star.

Within months, 'Charlie's Angels' was the number one show in the US, and Farrah had won the People's Choice Award for Favourite Performer in a New TV Program.

Suddenly, Farrah was on the cover of magazines worldwide, and women everywhere were going into hair salons and asking for her distinctive feathered "Farrah Do".

Although she loved the female admiration Farrah always knew men were her main fans.

At the time, she said: "When the show was number three, I thought it was our acting. When we got to be number one, I decided it could only be because none of us wears a bra."

But after just one season, Farrah shocked fans when she quit the show and was replaced by Cheryl Ladd, who played Jill's younger sister Kris Munroe.

The studio sued Farrah for breaching the terms of her contract, and forced her to return for six guest appearances in seasons three and four of the series.

As well as problems in her career, in 1979, Farrah split from Lee and spent the next three years starring in a series of commercial and critical flops, including 'Somebody Killed Her Husband', which was cruelly dubbed 'Somebody Killed Her Career'.

But in 1982, Farrah’s luck changed. She started dating actor Ryan O'Neal and agreed to star in a low-budget production of William Mastrosimone's controversial play 'Extremities'.

She played a would-be rape victim who turns the tables on her attacker. The following year, her performance as a battered wife in TV movie 'The Burning Bed' earned her an Emmy Award nomination.

In 1986 - just months after she gave birth to her first and only child Redmond - Farrah starred in a film adaptation of 'Extremities', earning a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture.