Farrah Fawcett: Picture perfect

June 26, 6:02 PMNY Fashion ExaminerRuby Charles

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Farrah Fawcette circa 1960.

In the last months of Farrah Fawcett's life she revealed to her adoring public that she had remarkable strength and a courageous heart but it will be her wide teethy smile and feathered mane for which she will forever be remembered.

Fawcett was no stranger to adoration by the time her iconoic red bathing suit poster debuted in Life magazine in 1976. Fawcett has reportedly said as a child the children in the neighborhood would not come to play with her but to simply look at her. In high school, she was voted the "Best Looking" and, similarly, at the University of Texas at Austin, she appeared in a photo capturing the "Ten Most Beautiful Coeds"  at the University which also appeared in Cashbox magazine. This photo led to Farrah's move to Los Angeles when an LA movie publicist, David Mirisch, saw the photo and quickly called Fawcett and urged her to pursue a career in acting.
 

Farrah Fawcett circa 1960.

Fawcett has never been in need of admirers. Upon moving to LA, she met and dated actor Lee Majors of the Six Million Dollar Man. (They later married in 1973.) Farrah's beauty quickly landed her commercial roles and small parts in TV shows like I Dream of Jeannie and the "pretty girl" on the Partridge Family. In 1976, she won the role of Holly in Logan's Run. The movie was not a success but it caught the attention of producer Aaron Spelling.
 

Iconic pinup poster of Farrah Fawcett that
appeared in Life magazine in 1976.

Aaron Spelling offered Fawcett the role of Jill Munroe on his new TV sitcom Charlie's Angels which first aired in 1976. That same year, her publicist arranged a photo shoot for the blond beauty that would appear in Life magazine. It was this shoot that delivered the iconic poster of Fawcett in a wet, clingy red swimsuit that became the best selling pinup poster of all times. It has been estimated as selling anywhere between 8 and 12 million copies. This photo established Fawcett as an international sex symbol and a pop cultural icon of the 70s. The poster has become a historical piece and has long been preserved at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington.

The original Charlie's Angels (clockwise): Jaclyn Smith, Kate Jackson,
and Farrah Fawcett.

Fawcett's picture perfect smile made her the most popular angel of Charlie's Angels although she appeared on the show for only a short time. She appeared in the first season before discontinuing her role in what she felt was a frothy sitcom. In a settlement after a lawsuit was waged on her by the production company, she was contracted to make six more appearances which she did in the 3rd and 4th seasons of the show. But it was this role that catapulted Fawcett into the public spotlight and quickly influenced popular culture with the famed pinup poster and her feathered hairdo that became known as the "Farrah do". Her looks were quickly mimicked by young women everywhere and continues to be copied as recent as a few years ago when the Farrah-do made a short comeback on runways and magazines. 

Farrah Fawcett on the cover of Playboy, December 1978.

Fawcett, a Roman Catholic from Corpus Christi, TX, would not appear nude early in her career but her beauty was such that she did not need to. Her December 1978 cover of Playboy magazine dressed only in a white dress shirt, pumps and champagne in hand was enough to drive her male admirers wild and women to go running in search for a white shirt and gold metallic pumps. Her photos were clean and left much to the imagination - they were perfect. Her hair in disarray framing her smile was all she needed to please her fans. In one Playboy image she is completely dressed in a full snug body suit and propped on a bike. Only Fawcett could pull this off for Playboy.

In 1995, nearly 50, Farrah posed for Playboy again but this time she shed her clothes. It is the highest selling issue of the 90s and proved that time could not erase her picture perfect finesse.

Mary Ferrah Leni Fawcett Feb. 2, 1947 - June 25, 2009

See the slideshow of the star below.