Farrah Fawcett

Farrah Fawcett seemed destined to be a star from early on. Born in Corpus Christie, Texas, she was voted "Best Looking" by her high school classmates. She attended the University of Texas and majored in Biology, before switching to Art. After two years of higher education, Fawcett decided to try her luck in Hollywood.

In 1971 she auditioned for, and won, a guest appearance on Owen Marshall: Attorney at Law. After meeting one of the stars of the show, Lee Majors, the two began dating and married in July 1973. Majors went on to success as The Six Million Dollar Man, in which Fawcett made several guest appearances. In 1976 Fawcett landed the role of Jill on the new series Charlie's Angels. The show was a hit and Fawcett became a major sex-symbol and star. A poster of her in a red bathing suit became the best selling poster of its era, it sold over 12 million copies.

Despite her success Majors still expected his celebrity wife to be home in time to prepare him dinner every evening. After only a year on the series, Fawcett walked out on her contract. She wanted to be taken seriously and knew that her role on the series would never help her achieve "serious actor" status. A legal battle with the producers of the show ensued and eventually an agreement was struck that had Fawcett appear in a handful of episodes during the next season.

In 1979, Fawcett began an affair with her husband's best friend, actor Ryan O'Neal. The actress ended her marriage and moved in with O'Neal. The two remained together, unmarried, for 17 years. In 1985 Fawcett gave birth to their son Redmond O'Neal. The couple went their separate ways in 1997.

Fawcett's wish to be taken seriously did not come true—at first. She starred in the films Somebody Killed Her Husband, Sunburn and Saturn 3, all of which met with critical and box-office failure. It wasn't until she appeared battered and bruised, with no makeup, that she won the critics' favor, in her portrayal of a rape victim in the film Extremities. She followed up with a role as an abused wife in the TV movie, The Burning Bed.

In 1995 Fawcett went back to her pinup status with a pictorial in the Christmas issue of Playboy magazine. She posed again in 1997 and then did a best-selling Playboy video entitled Farrah Fawcett: All of Me, in which she used her body to paint on a huge canvas.

In 1997 during an appearance on David Letterman to promote her video, Fawcett caused controversy because she appeared out of it. Rumors of substance abuse and a mental breakdown swirled around the actress. Later in the year she was involved in a tabloid-worthy fight with her then-boyfriend, director James Orr. He was eventually tried and convicted for battery.

In 1998 a turn as Robert Duvall's estranged wife in The Apostle won her critical praise and much-needed positive attention. Two years later she landed a role in Dr. T & The Women, as the mentally unstable wife of Richard Gere's character.

In 2003 she was set to make her Broadway debut in the play Bobbi Boland, but it closed after only seven previews. She returned to the big screen in 2004 with a role in Queen Latifah's The Cookout.

Fawcett, whose sister died of lung cancer in 2001, was diagnosed with anal cancer in 2006. Though the cancer went into remission in 2007, it returned just months later, and she went to Germany for controversial embryonic stem cell treatments. Unfortunately, the treatment caused abdominal bleeding and a hematoma and she returned to Los Angeles, where she was admitted to hospital. An NBC documentary about her battle with cancer, Farrah's Story, aired shortly before her death on June 25, 2009.

Filmography:

The Cookout (2004)
Dr. T & the Women (2000)
The Apostle (1998)
The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars (1998)
The Lovemaster (1996)
Man of the House (1995)
A Good Day to Die (1995)
Children of the Dust (1995)
The Substitute Wife (1994)
See You In the Morning (1989)
Small Sacrifices (1989)
Extremities (1986)
The Cannonball Run (1981)
Murder in Texas (1981)
Saturn 3 (1980)
Sunburn (1979)
Somebody Killed Her Husband (1978)
Logan's Run (1976)
Myra Breckinridge (1970)