Farrah Fawcett

Fawcett was born on February 2, 1947 in Corpus Christi, Texas, and was the younger of two daughters. Her mother, Pauline Alice Fawcett (née Evans; 1914–2005), was a homemaker and her father, James William Fawcett (1917–2010), was an oil field contractor. Her older sister, Diane Fawcett Walls (1938–2001), was a graphic artist. She was of Irish, French, English and Choctaw Native American ancestry. Fawcett once said the name "Farrah" was "made up" by her mother because it went well with their last name.

When Fawcett arrived in Hollywood at age 21 in 1968, Screen Gems signed her to a $350-a-week contract. She began to appear in commercials for such products as Noxzema, Max Factor, Mercury Cougar automobiles, and Beautyrest mattresses, among others. Her earliest acting appearances were guest spots on The Flying Nun (1969) and I Dream of Jeannie (1969–70). She made numerous other TV appearances, including Getting Together, Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law, Mayberry R.F.D., and The Partridge Family. She appeared in four episodes of The Six Million Dollar Man with husband Lee Majors, on The Dating Game and S.W.A.T, and had a recurring role on Harry O alongside David Janssen as the title character's girlfriend, Sue. She had a sizable part in the 1969 French romantic-drama Love Is a Funny Thing. She played the role of Mary Ann Pringle in Myra Breckinridge (1970).

The song "Midnight Train to Georgia" had initially been inspired by Fawcett and Lee Majors. Songwriter James Dawn "Jim" Weatherly phoned Majors, who was one of his friends, but it was Fawcett who actually answered the call. Weatherly and Fawcett chatted briefly and she told him she was going to visit her mother and was taking "the midnight plane to Houston". Although Majors and Fawcett were both successful by that time, Weatherly used them as "characters" in his song, about a failed actress who leaves Los Angeles and is followed by her boyfriend who cannot live without her. Eventually the genders were swapped to a failed actor who leaves Los Angeles and is followed by his girlfriend who cannot live without him, a train replaced the plane, and Houston was changed to Georgia. The recording by Gladys Knight & the Pips attained the number 1 position on the Billboard chart in 1973.

In 1976, Pro Arts Inc. pitched the idea of a poster of Fawcett to her agent. A photo shoot was then arranged with photographer Bruce McBroom, who was hired by the poster company. According to friend Nels Van Patten, Fawcett styled her own hair and did her makeup without the aid of a mirror. Her blonde highlights were further heightened by a squeeze of lemon juice. Fawcett selected her six favorite pictures from 40 rolls of film, and the choice was eventually narrowed to the one that made her famous. The resulting image of Fawcett in a one-piece red bathing suit is the best-selling poster in history.

Due to the popularity of her poster, Fawcett earned a supporting role in Michael Anderson's science-fiction film Logan's Run (1976) with Michael York. She and her husband, television star Lee Majors, were frequent tennis partners with producer Aaron Spelling. Spelling and his business partner eventually chose Fawcett to play Jill Munroe in their upcoming made-for-TV movie, Charlie's Angels, a movie of the week which aired on March 21, 1976, on ABC. The movie starred Fawcett (then billed as Farrah Fawcett-Majors), Kate Jackson, and Jaclyn Smith as private investigators for Townsend Associates, a detective agency run by a reclusive multimillionaire whom the women had never met. Voiced by John Forsythe, the Charles Townsend character presented cases and dispensed advice via a speakerphone to his core team of three female employees, whom he referred to as "Angels". They were aided in the office and occasionally in the field by two male associates, played by character actors David Doyle and David Ogden Stiers. The program quickly earned a huge following, leading the network to air it a second time and approve production for a series, with the pilot's principal cast minus Ogden Stiers.

The Charlie's Angels series proper formally debuted on September 22, 1976. Each of the three actresses was propelled to stardom, but Fawcett dominated popularity polls and was soon proclaimed a phenomenon. She subsequently won a People's Choice Award for Favorite Performer in a New TV Program. In a 1977 interview with TV Guide, 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." Fawcett's appearance in the television show boosted sales of her poster, and she earned far more in royalties from poster sales than from her salary for appearing in Charlie's Angels. Her hairstyle went on to become an international trend, with women sporting a "Farrah-do", a "Farrah-flip", or simply "Farrah hair". Iterations of her hair style predominated among American women's hairstyles well into the 1980s.

In 1978, Fawcett's first post-Angels movie, Somebody Killed Her Husband, was released to negative reviews (some critics referred to the film as Somebody Killed Her Career) and a poor box-office. The 1979 release of Sunburn, co-starring Charles Grodin and Art Carney, was met by equally negative reviews. In 1980, Fawcett starred with Kirk Douglas in Stanley Donen's science-fiction film Saturn 3; the film earned unfavorable reviews from critics and experienced poor box office sales. The following year she starred alongside an ensemble cast, which included Burt Reynolds, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr. in the comedy The Cannonball Run (1981). Later that year, she co-starred with Katharine Ross, Sam Elliott, and Andy Griffith in the television movie Murder in Texas.

Fawcett began dating Lee Majors in the late 1960s. She was married to Majors from 1973 to 1982, although the couple separated in 1979. They had no children. Throughout her marriage (and despite the separation) she used the name Farrah Fawcett-Majors in her screen credits.

In 1979, Fawcett became romantically involved with actor Ryan O'Neal, and they had a son named Redmond James Fawcett O'Neal, who was born in 1985. In 1994, Fawcett told TV Guide that their relationship had some troubles. "Sometimes Ryan breaks my heart, but he's also responsible for giving me confidence in myself," she said. Fawcett ended the relationship after she caught him in bed with actress Leslie Stefanson in 1997. After their split, O'Neal's daughter Tatum O'Neal alleged that he physically abused Fawcett. "He had a terrible temper and was very violent. He beat her up," she said. Fawcett and O'Neal rekindled their relationship in 2001. On June 22, 2009, The Los Angeles Times and Reuters reported that Ryan O'Neal had said that Fawcett had agreed to marry him as soon as she felt strong enough.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Fawcett had steadfastly resisted signing a release for nude photographs of her to be published in magazines, even though she had briefly appeared topless in the 1980 film Saturn 3. She caused a major stir by posing semi-nude in the December 1995 issue of Playboy. At the age of 50, she appeared in a pictorial for the July 1997 issue of Playboy, which also became a top seller. The issue and its accompanying video featured Fawcett actually using her own body to paint on canvas; for years, this had been one of her ambitions.

In 1980, O'Neal facilitated a meeting between Fawcett and artist Andy Warhol, who created two portraits of Fawcett during their time together. Fawcett later loaned the portraits to The Andy Warhol Museum. Following a 2013 court case between O'Neal and the University of Texas, which had been named by Fawcett as the recipient of all of her artwork, one of the portraits was deemed the property of O'Neal. The portrait was valued at between $800,000 and $12 million during the court case.

In 1983, Fawcett won critical acclaim for her role in the Off-Broadway stage production of the controversial play Extremities, written by William Mastrosimone. Replacing Susan Sarandon, she played the role of an attempted rape victim who turns the tables on her attacker. She described the role as "the most grueling, the most intense, the most physically demanding and emotionally exhausting" of her career. During one performance, a stalker in the audience disrupted the show by asking Fawcett if she had received the photos and letters he had mailed her. Police removed the man and were only able to issue him a summons for disorderly conduct.

Fawcett's only child, Redmond James Fawcett-O'Neal, was fathered by Ryan O'Neal and was born on January 30, 1985. He has struggled with drug addiction for most of his adult life. In 2008, Redmond and his father were arrested for drug possession in their Malibu home. In April 2009, Redmond was on probation for driving under the influence when he was arrested for possession of narcotics; Fawcett was in the hospital at the time. In 2014, his half sister Tatum O'Neal told People, "I love him, but I have never seen a more scary side of addiction," and urged him to go to 12-step meetings with her but he refused. In 2015, his probation was revoked and he was sentenced to three years in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. In 2018, he was arrested and charged with attempted murder, robbery, assault and drug possession after he allegedly tried to rob a convenience store in Santa Monica. From jail he blamed his struggles on his parents, adding that it was "not drugs that have been a problem, it's the psychological trauma of my entire life — my whole life experiences have affected me the most."

In 1986, Fawcett appeared in the movie version of Extremities, which was also well received by critics and performed well financially. For her performance she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. (At the time there was even talk and buzz about the possibility of her receiving an Oscar nomination for her role in the film.) She appeared in Jon Avnet's Between Two Women with Colleen Dewhurst, and took several more dramatic roles as infamous or renowned women. She was nominated for Golden Globe awards for roles as Beate Klarsfeld in Nazi Hunter: The Beate Klarsfeld Story and troubled Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton in Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story, and won a CableACE Award for her 1989 portrayal of groundbreaking LIFE magazine photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White in Double Exposure: The Story of Margaret Bourke-White.

Her 1989 portrayal of convicted murderer Diane Downs in the miniseries Small Sacrifices earned her a second Emmy nomination and her sixth Golden Globe Award nomination. The miniseries won a Peabody Award for excellence in television, with Fawcett's performance singled out by the organization, which stated "Ms. Fawcett brings a sense of realism rarely seen in television miniseries (to) a drama of unusual power".

On June 5, 1997, Fawcett received negative commentary after she gave a rambling interview and appeared distracted on Late Show with David Letterman. Months later, she told the host of The Howard Stern Show that her behavior was just her way of joking around with the television host, partly in the guise of promoting her Playboy pictorial and video. She explained that what appeared to be random looks across the theater was just her looking and reacting to fans in the audience. Though the Letterman appearance spawned speculation and several jokes at her expense, she returned to the show in 1999. Several years later in February 2009, Letterman ended an incoherent and largely unresponsive interview with Joaquin Phoenix by saying, "We owe an apology to Farrah Fawcett."

From 1997 to 1998, Fawcett was in a relationship with Canadian filmmaker James Orr, who was the writer and producer of Man of the House, the Disney feature film in which she co-starred with Chevy Chase and Jonathan Taylor Thomas. The relationship ended when Orr was arrested, charged, and later convicted of beating Fawcett during a 1998 fight.

Fawcett dated Longhorn football star Greg Lott while they were undergrads at the University of Texas. Lott said they rekindled their romance in 1998 and had a “a loving, consensual, one-on-one relationship" until she died in 2009. He claimed Ryan O'Neal kept him from seeing Fawcett in her final days. "He kept me from seeing the love of my life before she died," he told ABC News. In Fawcett's living trust she left nothing for O'Neal, but she left $100,000 for Lott. Lott insisted Fawcett's relationship with O'Neal was just for show. "Everything she did with Ryan, including all of those so-called reality shows they made together, was just Hollywood fantasy, something she had to do to keep up her image," he said.

That same year, Robert Duvall chose Fawcett to play the role of his wife in The Apostle, which was an independent feature film that he was producing. She received an Independent Spirit Award nomination as Best Actress for the film, which was highly critically acclaimed. In 2000, she worked with director Robert Altman and an all-star cast in the feature film Dr. T & the Women, as the wife of Richard Gere. (Her character has a mental breakdown, leading to Fawcett's first fully nude appearance.)

At around this time, Madonna's brother Christopher Ciccone described befriending Fawcett and giving her a studio visit for her abstract paintings and sculpture. In 2000, Fawcett's collaboration with sculptor Keith Edmier was exhibited at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the exhibit was later displayed at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The sculpture was also presented in a series of photographs and a book by Rizzoli.

Fawcett's older sister Diane Fawcett Walls died of lung cancer just before her 63rd birthday on October 16, 2001. The fifth episode of her 2005 Chasing Farrah series followed the actress home to Texas to visit with her father, James, and mother, Pauline. Pauline Fawcett died on March 4, 2005 at the age of 91.

In November 2003, Fawcett prepared for her Broadway debut in a production of Bobbi Boland, the tragicomic tale of a former Miss Florida. However, the show never officially opened when it closed during preview performances. Fawcett was described as "vibrating with frustration" at the producer's extraordinary decision to cancel the production; just days earlier, the same producer closed an Off-Broadway show she had been backing.

In 2004, the television film Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Charlie's Angels dramatized the events from the show, with supermodel and actress Tricia Helfer portraying Fawcett and Ben Browder portraying Lee Majors, Fawcett's then-husband.

Fawcett continued to work in television, and appeared in well-regarded made-for-television movies and on popular television series that included Ally McBeal, four episodes of Spin City, and four episodes of The Guardian. Her work on the latter show earned her a third Emmy nomination in 2004.

Fawcett was diagnosed with anal cancer in 2006, and began treatment that included chemotherapy and surgery. Four months later, on February 2, 2007, her 60th birthday, the Associated Press reported that Fawcett was at that point cancer-free. However, in May 2007, Fawcett experienced a recurrence and was diagnosed with stage IV cancer that had metastasized to her liver (which has a 5-year survival rate of less than 20%); a malignant polyp was found where she had been treated for the initial cancer. Doctors contemplated whether to implant a radiation seeder (which differs from conventional radiation and is used to treat other types of cancer). Fawcett's U.S. doctors told her that she would require a colostomy.

In early April 2009, Fawcett was back in the United States and hospitalized. Media reports declared her unconscious and in critical condition, although subsequent reports indicated her condition was not so dire. On April 6, the Associated Press reported that the cancer had metastasized to her liver. This was a development that Fawcett had learned of in May 2007 and which her subsequent treatments in Germany had targeted. The report denied that she was unconscious and explained that the hospitalization was not due to her cancer, but instead due to a painful abdominal hematoma that had been the result of a minor procedure. Her spokesperson emphasized she was not "at death's door", adding "She remains in good spirits with her usual sense of humor ... She's been in great shape her whole life and has an incredible resolve and an incredible resilience." Fawcett was released from the hospital on April 9. She was accompanied by longtime companion O'Neal, and according to her doctor, was "walking and in great spirits and looking forward to celebrating Easter at home."

Fawcett did not name long-time lover Ryan O'Neal in her living trust which she amended in 2007. She left most of her fortune, $4.5 million to their son Redmond. She also left $500,000 to her nephew, Gregory Walls; $500,000 to her father, James Fawcett; and $100,000 to her college boyfriend Gregory Lott. Fawcett left all of her artwork to the University of Texas. When the university received her art collection, one of her Warhol portraits was missing. In 2011, after discovering that O'Neal had retained the portrait, the University of Texas filed suit. O'Neal claimed that Fawcett had given it to him. Lott maintained that Fawcett never gave up ownership of the portrait and that it was her wish to bequeath all her artwork to her alma mater. In December 2013, a Los Angeles court ruled that the portrait belonged to O'Neal.

A month later on May 7, Fawcett was reported as being critically ill, with Ryan O'Neal quoted as saying she was spending her days at home on an IV and often asleep. The Los Angeles Times reported that she was in the last stages of terminal cancer and had the chance to see her son Redmond in April 2009, although he was shackled and under supervision because he was then incarcerated. Her 91-year-old father, James, flew to Los Angeles to visit.

The two-hour documentary, Farrah's Story, which was filmed by Fawcett and friend Alana Stewart, aired on NBC on May 15, 2009. At its premiere airing, the documentary was watched by nearly nine million people, and it was re-aired on the broadcast network's cable stations MSNBC, Bravo and Oxygen. On July 16, 2009, Fawcett posthumously earned her fourth Emmy nomination as the producer of Farrah's Story. Controversy surrounded the aired version of the documentary. Her initial producing partner—who had worked with her four years earlier on her reality series, Chasing Farrah—alleged that the editing of the program by O'Neal and Stewart was not in keeping with her wishes to more thoroughly explore alternative methods of treatment of rare types of cancers such as her own.

Fawcett died of anal cancer at 9:28 a.m. PDT on June 25, 2009 at age 62 at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California with O'Neal and Alana Stewart by her side.

A private funeral was held in Los Angeles on June 30, 2009. Farrah's son Redmond was permitted to leave his California detention center in order to attend the service, where he gave the first reading. Fawcett was interred at the Westwood Village Memorial Park in Los Angeles, next to Rodney Dangerfield.

In March 2010, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences upset family and friends of Fawcett when she was excluded from the "In Memoriam" montage at the 82nd Academy Awards ceremony. The inclusion of Michael Jackson in the montage, though he was not primarily known for his film roles, only added to the controversy. Friends and colleagues of Fawcett, including Ryan and Tatum O'Neal, Jane Fonda and film critic Roger Ebert, publicly expressed their outrage at the oversight. AMPAS executive director Bruce Davis noted that Fawcett had been recognized for her "remarkable television work" at the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards in September 2009. On the exclusion, he said: "There's nothing you can say to people, particularly to family members, within a day or two of the show that helps at all. They tend to be surprised and hurt, and we understand that and we're sorry for it."

The red one-piece bathing suit she wore in her famous 1976 poster was donated to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History (NMAH) on February 2, 2011. Designed by CFDA Award-winning fashion designer Norma Kamali, it was donated to the Smithsonian by her executors and was formally presented to NMAH in Washington, D.C., by her longtime companion Ryan O'Neal. The iconic image of Farrah in a red swimsuit has been recreated in a limited edition Barbie doll with a gold chain and the girl-next-door locks.

In 2011, Men's Health named Fawcett in its list of the "100 Hottest Women of All-Time", ranking her at No. 31.