Say Goodbye to Farrah

I’ll always remember Farrah Fawcett as Jill Munroe, one-third of the iconic “Charlie’s Angels” silhouette, standing in karate pose, with her hands drawn amid explosive fire. She was just shy of 30 back in 1976, already a worldwide phenom thanks to the poster hung around the world, which featured the blonde, blue-eyed actress in a sexy red swimsuit. Her sex appeal was undeniable, and her curly lion’s mane hairstyle would be copied for the remainder of the decade.

But Farrah was more than her blonde locks. She was a credible actress, not only appearing in such big-screen classics as 1970's “Myra Breckinridge,” and 1976’s “Logan’s Run,” but also in more challenging roles, as a battered wife in “The Burning Bed” (1984) and a sexual assault victim in “Extremities” (1986), for which roles she was nominated for an Emmy and Golden Globe respectively. It would be on TV that Fawcett would hit her stride throughout 1980’s with bio-pics on heiress Barbara Hutton and legendary photographer Margaret Bourke-White.

Fawcett’s personal life could have been fodder for one of these melodramas. After her marriage to Lee Majors from 1973-1982 ended, according to reports, because Fawcett refused to be his stay-at-home wife, the actress quickly became involved in a stormy on again-off again relationship with turbulent actor Ryan O’Neal. Their child together, Redmond O'Neal, born in 1985, has long struggled with addiction and is currently serving time in prison on a narcotics charge.

Fawcett’s personal and professional lives would merge in a recent, two-hour documentary “Farrah's Story,” which aired last month on NBC and was watched by nearly 9 million people . The film documented the final stages of Fawcett’s struggle with anal cancer, which she was diagnosed with in 2006, and the treatments, some conventional, some experimental with which she was battling the disease.

In her most courageous role yet, our favorite angel battled her greatest foe, only this time she lost. Fawcett passed early this morning at the age of 62, but she lives on in our hearts and minds -- every time we stand in Charlie’s Angels pose, channeling that Jill Munroe fierceness, which Fawcett played in every aspect of her life.

If you'd like to post a condolence to Farrah -- or even just expressing what she meant to you, please do so below.  PlanetOut will collect all of your messages and deliver them to Fawcett's estate.

 

by Josh Rotter

(Getty Images)