Thursday 2 February 2017

Farrah Fawcett at 70

Further to my previous posting on this blog entitled Charlie’s Angels at 40, today would have been the 70th birthday of the TV series star, Farrah Fawcett.

Born on 2nd February 1947, Texan, Farrah Leni Fawcett, was born of Irish, French, English and Choctaw Native American ancestry, into a Roman Catholic family with one older sister. Her father was an oil field contractor while her mother was a homemaker.

Iconic poster image
She initially rose to international fame early in 1976 when posing in a red swimsuit, which became the best-selling pin-up poster in history selling over 20 million copies.

Best remembered for her stunning smile, blonde flowing locks and pin-up model beauty, she was cast as Jill Monroe in the original TV series of Charlie’s Angels in 1976. At that time she was styled as Farrah Fawcett-Majors due to her 9-year marriage to Lee Majors (star of The Six Million Dollar Man).

From 1979 until 1997 and then 2001 to 2009 (her death) she was romantically involved with actor Ryan O’Neal, producing a son, Redmond James Fawcett-O'Neal.

Also to star in such movies as Logan's Run, Saturn 3, The Cannonball Run, The Apostle, Dr. T and the Women and The Burning Bed, she was diagnosed with anal cancer in 2006. An NBC documentary outlining her battle with the disease (Farrah’s Story) won her a posthumous Emmy award for her work as a producer.

After enduring chemotherapy and surgery, it was reported on her 60th birthday that she was "cancer free". However 3 moths later she experienced a recurrence and was diagnosed with stage IV cancer that had metastasised to her liver.

With subsequent unsuccessful holistic treatments in Germany, she finally passed away in June 2009, at the age of 62.


RIP Farrah.