Farrah Fawcett
Birthday:
Birthplace:
Corpus Christi, Texas
American actress Farrah Fawcett was an art student at the University of Texas before she deduced that she could make more money posing for pictures than painting them. A supermodel before that phrase had fallen into common usage, Fawcett moved from Wella Balsam shampoo ads into acting, making her first film Myra Breckenridge in 1970. She worked in TV bits and full supporting parts, obtaining steady employment in 1974 with a small recurring role on the cop series Harry O, but true stardom was still some two years down the road. In 1976, producer Aaron Spelling cast Fawcett, Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith in a pilot for an adventure series titled Charlie's Angels. The pilot graduated to a series, and the rest was TV history; during her Charlie's Angels tenure Fawcett was the most visible of the three actresses, adorning magazine covers and pin-up posters (including one particularly iconic image), which set sales records. There were even Farrah Fawcett dolls before the first season of Charlie's Angels was over.Now in the hands of high-profile agents and advisors, Fawcett (billed Farrah Fawcett-Majors after her marriage to Lee Majors) decided she'd outgrown Angels and left the series, even though she had another year on her contract. While the studio drew up legal papers to block her move, she was replaced by Cheryl Ladd. Fawcett settled her dispute by agreeing to a set number of guest appearances on the program. Some industry cynics suggested that Fawcett would have problems sustaining her popularity. Certainly such lukewarm film projects as Sunburn (1979), Somebody Killed Her Husband (1978) and Saturn 3 (1980) seemed to bear this theory out. But Fawcett took matters into her own hands and decided to make her own opportunities--and like many other performers who strive to be taken seriously, she chose the most extreme, demanding method of proving her acting mettle. Playing a vengeful rape victim in both the play and 1986 film version of Extremities (an apt title) and making a meal of her role as a battered wife who murders her husband out of self-defense in the TV movie The Burning Bed (1984), Fawcett confounded her detractors and demonstrated she was a more-than-capable actress. Other TV movie appearances of varying quality cast her as everything from a child killer to a Nazi hunter to famed LIFE photographer Margaret Bourke-White. Never as big a name as she was in 1976, Fawcett nonetheless affirmed her reputation as an actress of importance. Her fans were even willing to forgive her misbegotten fling at situation comedy in the 1991 series Good Sports, in which she co-starred with her longtime "significant other" Ryan O'Neal. Fawcett died in 2009 at age 62, following a lengthy and well-publicized battle with cancer.
Photos
Highest Rated Movies
Filmography
MOVIES
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | BOX OFFICE | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet | Hollywood Wives: The New Generation |
|
— | 2009 |
5% | The Cookout |
|
$11.6M | 2004 |
No Score Yet | Jackie Collins' Hollywood Wives: The New Generation |
|
— | 2003 |
No Score Yet | Jewel |
|
— | 2001 |
57% | Dr. T and the Women |
|
$12.2M | 2000 |
No Score Yet | Baby |
|
— | 2000 |
No Score Yet | Silk Hope |
|
— | 1999 |
No Score Yet | The Lovemaster |
|
— | 1999 |
40% | The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars |
|
— | 1998 |
90% | The Apostle |
|
— | 1998 |
No Score Yet | The Lovemaster |
|
— | 1997 |
No Score Yet | Dalva |
|
— | 1996 |
14% | Man of the House |
|
— | 1995 |
No Score Yet | A Good Day To Die |
|
— | 1995 |
No Score Yet | Children of the Dust |
|
— | 1995 |
No Score Yet | The Substitute Wife |
|
— | 1994 |
No Score Yet | Criminal Behavior |
|
— | 1992 |
10% | Strictly Business |
|
— | 1991 |
No Score Yet | Small Sacrifices |
|
— | 1989 |
55% | See You in the Morning |
|
— | 1989 |
No Score Yet | Margaret Bourke-White |
|
— | 1989 |
No Score Yet | Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story |
|
— | 1987 |
No Score Yet | Nazi Hunter: The Beate Klarsfeld Story |
|
— | 1986 |
40% | Extremities |
|
— | 1986 |
No Score Yet | Between Two Women |
|
— | 1986 |
No Score Yet | The Burning Bed |
|
— | 1984 |
No Score Yet | The Red Light Sting |
|
— | 1984 |
No Score Yet | Fall Guy |
|
— | 1982 |
29% | The Cannonball Run |
|
— | 1981 |
No Score Yet | Murder in Texas |
|
— | 1981 |
25% | Saturn 3 |
|
— | 1980 |
No Score Yet | An Almost Perfect Affair |
|
— | 1979 |
No Score Yet | Sunburn |
|
— | 1979 |
No Score Yet | Somebody Killed Her Husband |
|
— | 1978 |
63% | Logan's Run |
|
— | 1976 |
No Score Yet | Murder on Flight 502 |
|
— | 1975 |
27% | Myra Breckinridge |
|
— | 1970 |
TV
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet |
Charlie's Angels
1976-1981
|
|
|
81% |
So NoTORIous
2006
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
2003
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Tonight Show With Jay Leno
1992-2014
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Guardian
2001-2004
|
|
|
69% |
Spin City
1996-2002
|
|
|
61% |
Ally McBeal
1997-2002
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Johnny Bravo
1997-2004
|
|
|
100% |
The Larry Sanders Show
1992-1998
|
|
|
73% |
Good Sports
1991
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Fall Guy
1981-1986
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Partridge Family
1970-1974
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
I Dream of Jeannie
1965-1970
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Quotes from Farrah Fawcett's Characters
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