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Farrah Fawcett: Marilyn Monroe of the 70s
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That smile. That body. That hair. Farrah Fawcett, who for much of the mid to late 1970s was the poster that adorned the bedrooms and school lockers of more teenage boys than any other, has died after a long battle with cancer. While she outlived her youthful radiance moreso than tragically beautiful sex kitten Marilyn Monroe, Fawcett shares some similarities. She, like Norma Jean, was a blazing, blonde moment in time. One that will not be forgotten.
That famous poster of her in a skimpy red swimsuit sold 12 million copies, and that hair style became the look of choice for women around the world. Her sex appeal was one of the key components of the hit detective series “Charlie’s Angels”, and the series, which co-starred two other hotties, Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith, helped create the phrase, “Jiggle TV”. She may not have been Helen Mirren as an actress, but she looked terrific trying. She quit the series after a year, to move into movies. But the ill-fated move (Need I say “Cannonball Run”?) nearly killed her career.
In time honored Hollywood tradition, she re-invented herself, portraying a series of abused women in terrific fashion. Her turn in 1984’s “The Burning Bed” as a battered wife drew rave reviews for previously unrecognized acting chops.
After a brief, and tabloid-friendly marriage to “Six Million Dollar Man” star, Lee Majors, Fawcett began a long, often tumultuous, relationship with Ryan O’Neal. The two had a son, Redmond, whose drug use also became tabloid fodder.
In the 1990’s, she tried to revisit her sex appeal by posing nude for Playboy. But it would never be the same as the brilliance she brought to the idea of youth, beauty and radiating sexiness in those moments of the late 1970s.
