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Current Events => Breaking News => Topic started by: Thor on June 25, 2009, 11:58:28 AM
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(http://graneyandthepig.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/farrahfawcettposter.jpg?w=450&h=693)
By Valerie J. Nelson
9:51 AM PDT, June 25, 2009
Farrah Fawcett, who soared to fame as a national sex symbol in the late 1970s on television's campy "Charlie's Angels" and in a swimsuit poster that showcased her feathery mane and made her a generation's favorite pinup, died today at 62, according to Reuters.
Fawcett, whose celebrity overshadowed her ability as a serious actress, was diagnosed with a rare anal cancer in 2006.
Three months after she was declared cancer-free in 2007, doctors at UCLA Medical Center told her the cancer had returned, spreading to her liver, and she repeatedly sought experimental treatment in Germany.
As an actress, Fawcett was initially dismissed for her role as Jill Munroe in "Charlie's Angels," one of the "jiggle" series on ABC-TV in the late 1970s.
But she transformed her career and some popular perceptions in 1984 with "The Burning Bed," a television movie about a battered wife that brought her the first of three Emmy nominations. She further established herself as an actress in the play and later feature film "Extremities," about a rape victim who takes revenge on her attacker.
For many, the poster of her wearing a wet one-piece swimsuit and a blinding smile endured.
"If you were to list 10 images that are evocative of American pop culture, Farrah Fawcett would be one of them," Robert Thompson, a professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University, told The Times. "That poster became one of the defining images of the 1970s."
Yet Fawcett was part of a new generation of celebrities whose fame was fueled by heightened coverage of their ongoing personal dramas, Thompson said.
She had many: a failed marriage to actor Lee Majors; a stormy, long-term relationship with actor Ryan O'Neal; a son who fought drug addiction; a writer-director boyfriend, James Orr, who was convicted of assaulting her; a Playboy video that featured her using her naked body as a paintbrush; and a spacey 1997 appearance on David Letterman's late-night TV show that caused critics to question her mental state.
For her part, Fawcett once said all she had to do to get on the cover of People was to "have a new boyfriend or even a new dog," Texas Monthly reported in 1997.
At first, her mane nearly eclipsed her fame.
"Charlie's Angels" showcased the long, feathered tresses that framed her face, launching a national fad of copycat haircuts. Many Fawcettphiles believed the hair had as much to do with the poster's sales as anything, The Times reported in 1977.
Within six months, the poster sold five million copies, outstripping the records of such previous sex symbols as Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe. It wound up selling a reported 12 million copies.
"You were a real man if you had her poster. She was our pinup girl," Mike O'Meara, a radio show host who was in high school when it came out, told the Baltimore Sun in 2006.
Fawcett quit the series that brought her initial fame in 1977 after a single season, saying producers were preventing her from growing as an actress. With Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith, Fawcett had played a private investigator whose main talent seemed to be the ability to wield a gun while going braless and shouting, "Freeze, turkey!"
"Charlie's Angels" was so popular that 59% of the television audience tuned in, according to Time magazine, and the Los Angeles Times' review of the series premiere pointed out why: The show dripped with "sexuality" and "good-natured but quite intentional teasing."
Along with "Three's Company" -- a double-entendre-filled ABC sitcom that debuted six months after "Charlie's Angels" in fall 1976 -- the show is credited with helping to launch television's "jiggle" era. Still, the show was seen as empowering women, even if they did take their orders from an unseen male boss named Charlie.
"In an odd way, even with all that Lycra and bralessness, the show was a feminist statement," Thompson said. "This was an hourlong drama with women as action heroes. They were working in areas of power that generally we didn't see women in much."
Fawcett, who had appeared in shampoo ads, would triumph over critics who dismissed "Charlie's Angels" as little more than a commercial for hair products. But first she appeared in two lightweight feature films: "Somebody Killed Her Husband" (1978) and "Sunburn" (1979).
She surprised critics with her intense portrayal of the battered wife who immolates her husband in the TV movie "The Burning Bed." The 1984 Times review noted her "growing acting skill" and "deeply moving performance."
More (http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-farrah-fawcett26-2030oct20,0,7932288.story)
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RIP, she helped many a young boy through puberty. :)
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That swimsuit poster Thor has posted was the the very first poster I put on my wall back in 4th grade.
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That swimsuit poster Thor has posted was the the very first poster I put on my wall back in 4th grade.
The link is broken now, but i assume it's this one?
(http://graneyandthepig.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/farrahfawcettposter.jpg?w=450&h=693)
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RIP Farrah. She faced a long and difficult battle with cancer and is now at peace.
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She's no Courtney Love, that's for sure.
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She was a fighter and never gave up. God rest her soul.
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The link is broken now, but i assume it's this one?
(http://graneyandthepig.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/farrahfawcettposter.jpg?w=450&h=693)
Yup that's the one! :naughty:
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fix0red......... (image still worked for me..) :???:
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fix0red......... (image still worked for me..) :???:
I was getting the little red x, and when I tried to open the pic on a new page, I got the 404 error. The pic is showing up now. :)
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Well, at least The Smart One and The Pretty One are still going strong.
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RIP Farrah.
I thought she might be getting better after reading headlines that Ryan O'Neal and she were going to wed again.
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God got an "Angel".
RIP Farrah. :(
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Fawcett turned on: 02-02-47
Fawcett turned off: 06-25-09
RIP, Farrah. You had quite a life. May our Lord welcome you with Open Arms.
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RIP, and may God comfort those close to you.
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I still have my poster. She really was a star in alot of ways. RIP you earned it after your long fight.
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There were some other posters of her after the famous red swimsuit one I managed to get later on.
(http://redriverautographs.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/farrah_fawcett_011.jpg)
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51jGKBHz-gL._AA280_.jpg)
(http://www.libreopinion.com/members/charliesangels/FarrahFawcett_LogansRun.jpg)
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Farah Fawcett was truly the epitome of the girl next door that all the boys wished they lived next door.
She was a genuinely beautiful woman even when ill, and had a 1000 watt smile....and no one..no one had hair that was comparable!
She fought hard....so sad that she lost the fight.....
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She was such a beauty, I liked to emulate her "jill" character from charlie's angels during my growing years...of course I was not blonde, so couldn't really pull it off...
RIP...a true icon of the 70's.
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RIP Beautiful lady! A valiant battle to be sure!
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A true beauty and fellow Texan has passed. RIP Ferrah Leni Fawcett. :(
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There were some other posters of her after the famous red swimsuit one I managed to get later on.
(http://redriverautographs.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/farrah_fawcett_011.jpg)
I had this one too. We've lost one gorgeous Texan today.
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I'm so sorry, Farrah, that you have be upstaged during your final curtain call.
I wonder if this is God's joke because she bailed on her "Charlie's Angels" contract after one year?
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A sad day. Although I never had any posters that didn't glow with a black light, my brother had that poster. I snuck a peek every now and then.
May you be at peace.
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That swimsuit poster Thor has posted was the the very first poster I put on my wall back in 4th grade.
"Boy oh boy, I am so mad at Farrah Fawcett-Majors. She is so conceited. She has never called me once. And after the hours I've spent holding up her poster with just one hand!" - Steve Martin
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What a week. Ed McMahon, Michael Jackson, and Farrah Fawcett. Who knew they would all kick off within a week of each other?
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What a week. Ed McMahon, Michael Jackson, and Farrah Fawcett. Who knew they would all kick off within a week of each other?
There really is something to celeb deaths occuring in threes.
I have yet to hear any comment coming from Jerry Lewis about Ed's passing. This definitely puts a crimp in the coming MDA labor-day weekend gala. I heard a rumor a few years back that Ed was the power behind the telethon exceeding their monetary goal every year - supposedly Ed withheld his contribution to the telethon until the waining hours and donated enough to put the final figure over the top --- AGAIN, IT WAS ONLY A RUMOR.