Fawcett never got her big Hollywood break
Charlie's Angels actress Farrah Fawcett. Photo: Getty Images
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FARRAH Fawcett, the actress and model, who died yesterday aged 62, achieved celebrity in 1976 in 'Charlie's Angels', a soft-focus television series in which three highly attractive women were special agents guided by the eponymous Charlie, an unseen private detective.
An all-American girl with cascading blonde hair and a toothsome, dazzling smile, Fawcett's character was the poker-playing Jill Munroe, who enlivened the programmes with her athleticism and derring-do. If the plots were wafer-thin, the visuals -- particularly the three scantily-clad heroines -- were outstanding, and the show quickly gained huge audiences.
Described by one reviewer as "family-style porn", the series attracted criticism from those who felt the format exploited women. Fawcett considered that people wanted to "see some glamour, some clothes, some hairstyles", and in Jill Munroe even the most gluttonous were surely sated.
The show propelled its three stars, and particularly Fawcett, on to the cover of almost every magazine in America. Its success was reflected in a famous poster of her in a wet red swimsuit; it sold eight million copies.
Although she performed creditably in several films, and was eager to shed her lightweight image, never again could she attain the success she had with her kooky detective.
Unfortunate
In a life lived out in the tabloids, she increasingly became famous for off-screen adventures that offered an unfortunate counterpoint to her image as a sun-kissed cheerleader.
She was born Ferrah Leni Fawcett on February 2, 1947 in Corpus Christi, Texas, where her father was a pipe fitter in the oil industry; her name, later altered to Farrah, means "joy" in Arabic. She attended the University of Texas, where she switched from microbiology to sculpture and dated the star quarterback. It was rumoured that some male students memorised her timetable in order to meet her between classes. Female students were less enamoured, one recalling: "We were marching for peace, and Farrah was sitting there just smiling and looking pretty."
After being spotted by a talent agent, Fawcett dropped out of university in her first year. In Hollywood she studied acting, but concentrated on modelling products ranging from Wella shampoo to Ultra Brite, "the toothpaste with sex appeal".
She made her film debut in 'Myra Breckenridge' (1970), playing a lesbian love scene with Raquel Welch. A small part in 'Love Is A Funny Thing' (1970) opened no doors, and she returned to the small screen until her two-scene role in the science fiction fantasy 'Logan's Run' (1976). She became a regular on television, appearing in ABC's 'Owen Marshall: Counsellor at Law'; her husband Lee Majors' 'The Six Million Dollar Man'; and 'Harry O'.
She also won a minor role in the made-for-television feature 'The Feminist' and the 'Fuzz' (1971); and roles in 'The Girl Who Came Gift-Wrapped' (1973); 'The Great American Beauty Contest' (1974); 'Murder on Flight 502' (1975); and hung around Hollywood waiting for her big break.
Aaron Spelling's 'Charlie's Angels' was a huge success from the moment it was aired, featured endless changes of costume and disingenuous plot lines designed chiefly to deploy the "angels" as undercover agents on assignments which demanded little more than assorted states of undress. Notwithstanding its teatime eroticism, the show was as wholesome as apple pie.
Fawcett threatened to leave 'Charlie's Angels' unless she was paid a percentage from the merchandise spawned by the programme. The producers called her bluff and she resigned after the first series. In the 1980s, Fawcett tried to reassert herself as a serious actress but mainstream Hollywood remained unimpressed.
She left Majors for Ryan O'Neal, with whom she had a son, Redmond. By the mid-1990s, with her relationship under pressure, her Bel Air mansion a casualty of the 1994 California earthquake and her screen appearances barely registering, she appeared naked in 'Playboy' magazine. In 1997, she starred in a Playboy video, 'All Of Me'. An incoherent appearance on 'The David Letterman Show' did little to help.
Also in 1997, she was acclaimed for her performance as the preacher's wife opposite Robert Duvall in 'The Apostle'.
She broke with O'Neal and was assaulted by her next boyfriend, director James Orr. At the same time Redmond, then 16, entered a drug clinic.
She was a talented sculptor and art collector who owned works by Chagall, Dufy and Magritte. In 2006, she was diagnosed with cancer. (© Daily Telegrpah, London)
