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In this 1977 file photo originally released by ABC, Farrah
Fawcett-Majors, from the series "Charlie?s Angels," is shown.
Fawcett died Thursday, June 25, 2009 in a Los Angeles hospital.
She was 62. (AP Photo, file)
Seeing a woman go undercover to a foil a major crime is pretty standard fare on television today, but in 1976, very few women had such roles, except for Farrah Fawcett, Jacyln Smith, and Kate Jackson. Charlie’s Angels was but one prong in Fawcett’s career. She made headlines with a poster featuring her in a red bathing suit. Between that poster and her role in a series that was once described as “jiggle TV,” Fawcett was branded as the dumb blonde. Reinforcing that image was Fawcett’s trademark hairstyle which featured choppy layers and feathered bangs; the look was light and fluffy, causing people to believe Fawcett was what her image made her out to be.
In the 1980s with her role in the play Extremeties, she reinvented her status as an icon with roles as the battered woman. Perhaps, her most significant role in that period was in The Burning Bed, a made-for-TV movie that focused attention on spousal abuse. She would go on to play women whose lives were far from perfect.
Aside from her career as an actress, Fawcett also was a sculptor. The Andy Warhol Museum presented an exhibit of her work in collaboration with Keith Eimer in 2003. In May of this year, Fawcett appeared in Farrah’s Story, a documentary recording her experiences fighting cancer. When Fawcett died today, popular culture lost one of its beacons. Her work influenced notions of beauty, of strength, and finally of courage.
- More coverage on the death of Michael Jackson http://www.examiner.com/category-michael_jackson.html
- More coverage on the death of Farrah Fawcett http://www.examiner.com/category-farrah_fawcett.html
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