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Backstage, off-broadway EXTREMITIES
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Today
Today is a hard day.
Today someone admired is gone but not forgotten.
The smile, the hair, the talent.
The Mother, the Sister, the Actress.
The fight was fought with pure determination.
The desire was raw and unflinching.
The hope was strong and unrelenting.
The faith was pure and unfaltering.
Facing, Fighting, Foraging.
You didn’t go quietly into the night.
Bringing about change in a tenuous hour.
With humor and strength and courage.
Your wings will dip into the clouds, the rain, the sun.
Surrounded by family who’ve gone on before you.
Healthy, whole and smiling.
This angel has found a new home.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Jill's little sister Chris
I have been meaning to write about Cheryl Ladd for some time now. I remember, being on the playground, in elementary school, when everyone, literally, was talking about Farrah Fawcett leaving Charlie’s Angels. Keep in mind, I grew up, mostly, in the mid-west. This was long before computers, cell phones or VCRs. Though they came shortly there after. Anyway… Cheryl Ladd joined Charlie’s Angels. She was and still is beautiful. I’ve never understood why she wasn’t in the reunions or at the tribute to Aaron Spelling. She worked with Fawcett (on six episodes) as Chris, Jill’s little sister. In fact Cheryl stayed the remainder of the run of CA and the only other angel to remain the entire run was Jaclyn Smith. Anyway… this is my last post of the morning… I’m just reminiscing a little about the Farrah phenomenon and was also thinking about Cheryl Ladd. Who wore a t-shirt the first day on the set that read, “Farrah Fawcett-Minor.” She’s been quoted as saying she didn’t want to do it, the series that is. Aaron Spelling persuaded her. Anyway, I had the great fortune of being an extra on a television movie, years ago and she was on set with John Schneider. I was just an extra and she went out of her way, to come over to the table I was seated at with another extra, during a break (I think they were setting lights) and she talked to us. She was so sweet and so beautiful and I have never forgotten that. She radiated an inner beauty that many people do not house or even have. I’ve met many physically beautiful people over the years, and some are as vacant and empty as a Styrofoam cup. But Cheryl was not. Anyway… I have meant to post this for quite sometime. She also said a very nice quote about Farrah’s passing, “I’m terribly sad about Farrah’s passing. She was incredibly brave and God will be welcoming her with open arms.”
And, for the record, I was perusing images of Cheryl yesterday on-line, umm, let’s just say, I don’t think anyone looks as good in a bikini as Cheryl did.
The date mistake
What does a typo reveal? Are you stressed? Tired? Sad? I knew Fawcett’s birth date. I’ve known it for years. As I was updating the site, I typed 02.07.1947. Every time I typed it. Even on pages where her birthday was prominently written, sometimes, directly below as I typed. Today, I am sad. Saddened that this talented woman is gone. Gone from this plane of existence at any rate. She did touch my life. I didn’t get to know her or visit her at home, but I did get to enjoy her work. Her radiance and her persona. I don’t every remember not watching whatever it was she was in. I remember, vividly, re-renting Logan’s Run (this is when VCR’s first came out and they were the size of a briefcase) and bicycling from my house to the video store. It was on the other side of town from where we lived, but I would watch it over and over again. I think I just re-wound the section she was in though. Anyway… I was hooked. So, today I’m feeling sad about the loss of Farrah. And as I’m someone who is careful about typos, edits, and mistakes, it is more of a “in touch” kind of mistake. One that reminds me, I’m human, I feel and I cared about someone else in a admirable and respectful way without any expectation other than to be impressed.
Farrah Forever
June 29, 2009 PM
Tomorrow is Farrah’s funeral. A sentence I was hoping I wouldn’t ever have to write or consider. I have admired her since I was ten years old and she debuted on Charlie’s Angels. What an impact Fawcett had on so many. She wasn’t just a Texas beauty with the thousand watt smile, she was this athletic, strong and independent woman who strived to seek out and achieve what she determined was what she wanted. She went on to prove herself as an actress, garnered six Golden Globe Nominations and multiple Emmy nominations. She was a mother and artist and, more importantly a friend to those she knew and loved. She surpassed what was expected and predicated for her. Forever remembered as the girl in the red swim suit, the former’s Charlie’s Angels star was so much more. As Ryan O’Neal said to Meredith Vieria, “You loved her for all the right reasons.” She was and is an ICON of the seventies. But her career spanned four decades. She was twenty-nine years old (old in Hollywood standards today) when the unblinking eye of a camera catapulted her to stardom before there was internet or cell phones or even VCRs. She had the kind of media blitz unparalleled by even today’s standards. She was an American beauty with a name as original and beautiful as she was. So, as she is laid to rest, remember her fight, the awareness she brought towards Anal Cancer, the removal of the stigma attached to it, and the frailty of life. Farrah said it best in several ways, first her greatest desire was simply to go on living and second, “What are you fighting for?”
Steve McKinnis
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Farrah Fawcett: Friends, family, and colleagues pay their respects
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Farrah Fawcett: Friends, family, and colleagues pay their respects
Jun 25, 2009, 01:44 PM by Mike Bruno
Farrah Fawcett died on June 25 in Los Angeles after years of battling anal cancer. She was 62. Here, friends, family, and colleagues who were touched by the American icon express their sadness, admiration, and condolences.
RYAN O'NEAL (Fawcett's longtime companion)
“After a long and brave battle with cancer, our beloved Farrah has passed away. Although this is an extremely difficult time for her family and friends, we take comfort in the beautiful times that we shared with Farrah over the years and the knowledge that her life brought joy to so many people around the world.”
Jun 25, 2009, 01:44 PM by Mike Bruno
Farrah Fawcett died on June 25 in Los Angeles after years of battling anal cancer. She was 62. Here, friends, family, and colleagues who were touched by the American icon express their sadness, admiration, and condolences.
RYAN O'NEAL (Fawcett's longtime companion)
“After a long and brave battle with cancer, our beloved Farrah has passed away. Although this is an extremely difficult time for her family and friends, we take comfort in the beautiful times that we shared with Farrah over the years and the knowledge that her life brought joy to so many people around the world.”
JACLYN SMITH (costar on Charlie's Angles)
“Farrah had courage, she had strength, and she had faith. And now she has peace as she rests with the real angels.”
KATE JACKSON (costar on Charlie's Angles)
"I will miss Farrah every day. She was a selfless person who loved her family and friends with all her heart, and what a big heart it was. Farrah showed immense courage and grace throughout her illness and was an inspiration to those around her. When I think of Farrah I will remember her kindness, her cutting dry wit and of course her beautiful smile. Today when you think of Farrah remember her smiling because that is exactly how she wanted to be remembered...smiling."
CHERYL LADD (replaced Fawcett on Charlie's Angles)
“I’m terribly sad about Farrah’s passing. She was incredibly brave, and God will be welcoming her with open arms.”
ALANA STEWART (longtime friend)
"There are no words to express the deep sense of loss that I feel. For 30 years Farrah was much more than a friend, she was my sister, and although I will miss her terribly I know in my heart that she will always be there as that angel on the shoulder of everyone who loved her.”
ROBERT DUVALL (costar in The Apostle)
“Farrah had an outstanding talent, better than most feature-film actresses that I’ve seen. She was great to work with and will be missed.”
CRAIG J. NEVIUS (friend and producer of the 2009 documentary Farrah’s Story and 2005 reality show Chasing Farrah)
"Farrah was and is the true definition of an ‘icon.’ She was of her time but transcended her time. As unique as her name, Farrah was a completely original combination of poster girl, serious actress, tabloid celebrity, role model, talk show personality and social advocate: her career spanned more than four decades and personified the tremendous power and influence of entertainment on our culture. Not many stars can be credited with inspiring both a hair style and changes in legislation (surrounding domestic violence and more recently patient privacy). And she did it without posturing or campaigning but by simply choosing her own path and making her own rules. Farrah remained relevant to the very end. She will be remembered as the modern Mona Lisa and so much more. I will remember her as my friend.”
BARRY BOSTWICK (worked with Fawcett on Charlie's Angels and Spin City)
"I still remember, even before Charlie’s Angels, following her around a Bloomingdale's totally entranced by her beauty and charisma. I was the luckiest guy in the world to both work with her on Charlie’s Angels and then again having her play my love interest on Spin City. Her contribution to the industry has been nothing short of dynamic.”
Additional reporting by Jennifer Armstrong, Dan Snierson, and Tanner Stransky.
EW.COM Kate Jackson Interview
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Farrah, Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith at the Emmys (2006)
Breaking her silence for the first time since her Charlie's Angels co-star Farrah Fawcett passed away yesterday, Kate Jackson (right, with Fawcett in 2006 at the 58th Annual Emmy Awards) chatted with EW exclusively today. The former Angel talks about how hard it is for her to talk about her dear friend, the first time she saw the "gorgeous, magnificent, glorious" Fawcett, and the legacy that the Hollywood legend left behind. Here is what Jackson told EW:
"I didn’t plan to do any interviews today. I was just going to go to the place that Farrah and I were together the last time we were together during this three years and just sit. But I love her so much. There’s no way that I couldn’t be part of a tribute to her, and you know, just give people my impressions of who Farrah is.
"I just remembered a minute ago that right after I came to Hollywood from New York, I went to my first party where there were Hollywood people, and I walked in the door, and I knew that Lee Majors was married. I saw Lee Majors. He was the first star I had ever seen. Then I realized someone was with him, and I was almost blinded by the most gorgeous, magnificent, glorious girl about my age, who was talking and laughing with him. I just froze and stared, and I thought to myself, 'Oh God, the competition is really bad around here.' And it [turns out the girl talking with Majors] was Farrah. I told her that later when we finally met because we didn’t meet that night—we officially met doing Charlie’s Angels—that she was the person that almost made me go home. I told her that she was darn lucky that I was still here to do this show because I almost went home because of her, when I saw her I thought, 'Oh God, I better go home and, you know, be a teacher or something.'
"She was so funny, and we had the best time that year that she did Charlie’s Angels because we got into the habit of just sort of ad-libbing on camera and trying to make the other one laugh, or doing something unexpected. I remember once, where other actors and actresses fight for their close-ups, we fought to see how tightly together we could get our heads so we could do a tight three that would be as tight as a close-up. We just wanted to go home! We were so tired! There was one scene… Jackie [Jaclyn Smith] was sitting on one end of the couch, and I was sitting on the arm of the couch leaning over toward her, and Farrah was standing behind the couch, behind us, leaning forward so that all of our heads were real close together. It was 11 o’clock on a Friday night, and you know, we finally said to the director, 'Now that’s a close up, isn’t it? It’s as close as you can get! Look, we’re all in there, and our heads aren’t even cut off.' So she had some line and was supposed to walk out the door. She said the line and straightened up and started to walk out the door with that energy, you know, and as she walked out, she just sort of tapped me on the shoulder. She knew what was going to happen. I completely lost my balance and fell off the arm of the sofa. They kept rolling and I said, 'I can’t believe you did that!' She was walking out the door and looked back at me and laughed. It was actually in the show. I saw it in the show that week. They left it in! They left in a lot of the stuff we did.
"When the first year of Charlie’s Angels ended, our friendship didn’t. It just grew stronger and closer through the years. I don’t know what the connection that the three of us have is, but it is there, and it is something extremely special. I think that is the reason the show worked. I think it’s even better than the movies because we truly cared about each other and still do. It was a pleasure and a privilege.
"It was not easy at times to be able to be with her these last three years and to be able to continue laughing. There was always, if few words were spoken, a zinger, though. Then there’d be a little light laugh, even through everything. She was just extraordinary and bright and as sharp as they come and beautiful and her courage, I just… I don't even know what to say about that. She was never a follower; she was always a leader. Her choices were her choices."
Applegate urges fans to make donations in honour of Fawcett
Cancer survivor Christina Applegate has urged fans to make donations in the honour of late Farrah Fawcett, who recently lost her fight to the deadly disease.
Farrah died aged 62 at Saint John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California, after losing a two-and-a-half year battle with anal cancer on Thursday.
Christina, who battled breast cancer last year, pleaded fans to donate money to cancer research based charities as a tribute to the late actress.
"Today please donate money to a great cancer organisation for research,” The Daily Express quoted her as saying on her Twitter.com page. “This damn disease has taken another. We must find a cure. Farrah RIP," she added.
Sunday, 28 June , 2009, 12:35
Source: Sify.com
Site updated
Fawcett in THE BURNING BED
I echanged e-mails with Mike Pingel this AM. I won't copy and paste that but his tribute to Farrah, is sweet, sincere and touching. The site has been updated and I will write more later as I sort through my thoughts. The quotes and articles coming about are good to read and only confirms what I always thought, Farrah, was truly as special on the inside as she was on the exterior.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Updates
Farrah as Holly in LOGAN'S RUN
Sadly and with great remorse I write that Farrah has passed. I was away, with my family, when I learned on-line, she was gone. Ryan and Alana were with her. I was unable to update the site, in general, nor would I have been doing so on the date of her passing.
My prayers and thoughts go out to her family, her friends and all of those who cared. Again, my sincerest deep felt wishes to Fawcett's family and loved ones.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Plastic Surgery
I’ve been holding off on commenting on some of the really mean and ugly articles that have circulated about Farrah in the past and most recently stating that in the end, Fawcett didn’t resemble herself.
First, no one, I would think, would consent to undergoing surgery to change, alter or “re-fresh” themselves without thinking or hoping to look/resemble who they were in years gone by. Especially someone who is famous and knows they will be compared via split screen and scrutinized for every line, crease or evidence of aging. Most of Hollywood, and for that matter, most of the world now; refreshes/renews and revitalizes by way of a surgeon.
If you look at Fawcett prior to 2000, she’d lost the muscular structure in her jowls, face and appeared very thin in her facial features. I would surmise that someone promised her that they could enhance and refresh what was lost.
Now, Farrah was extremely athletic. As we age, our bodies change and when/as you get older, and you loose weight or tighten up, the muscular structure changes. It was most apparent in Fawcett’s face. I still think she was beautiful but I would crumble as most would under the kind of criticism so easily passed around Hollywood. Having lived in Los Angeles for three years, I saw many friends go “under the knife.” Most were in their thirties. The pressure to be beautiful and ageless in Hollywood is very real and the reality is many actors/actress’s try to preserve what was there to maintain a financial income.
One very good friend, a very successful actress commented to me, “What am I going to do if I don’t have work?” She did not feel like she could work in the normal mainstream of America because of her notoriety and work as an entertainer. She had a full face-lift and wasn’t even 35.
In Fawcett’s case, the results were mixed. Her famous smile was rarely seen, her nose was off centered and too thin but the fullness of her face was back but over exaggerated. Over time, the fillers faded and Fawcett, at some point, corrected or had corrected the work that was done previously and by 2006, looked like her old self again.
I don’t know what she had done, and frankly, I don’t care. But the malicious writings and outright ugly speculation about what she did and why is really of no interest to me. It really diminishes who she was as an artist. Before hair enhancement or veneers, or surgeries were the norm, Farrah was the “IT” girl without any prosthetics or procedures. She also didn’t do anything surgical, I believe, until she was in her fifties.
It seems awfully easy to target someone who is no longer here to defend or explain themselves. And the real question here is why should she. Is it really anyone's business? She was a talented actress, a mother and someone who fought a valiant fight with Cancer. She didn’t go quietly. She had a great deal of pain and suffering and really just wanted to live. Fawcett was always more than her outer shell and to be diminished as the summation of just that and what developed later is truly sad, disrespectful and really hypocritical. The reality is plastic surgery is a reality for many people, not just in Los Angeles.
Like everyone, Fawcett saw things about herself she didn’t like. Even in her famous swimsuit poster. She didn’t like her legs, she thought she should’ve sucked her stomach in more, and she thought her smile was too big. Everyone has an Achilles heel, regardless of how seemingly beautiful they are. The reality is many people will get and seek out surgery to change, alter, correct or enhance what they already have or don’t have.
In my mind Fawcett will always be beautiful and not just physically.
Sent to dailymail.co.uk
GEOFFREY WANSELL considers himself a “reporter?” To site “Awfulplasticsurgery.com” as a source and “in the words of one leading plastic surgeon” and “one Hollywood insider explained”… these aren’t sources, they are “veil thin” references that probably only exist on “ask jeeves” or “Google.” To speculate about drug use, alcoholic binges and staying in bed all day, that’s all baseless without something tangible and concrete. This is a mean spirited attack. It’s like reading a general outline, an article researched via the internet, with innocuous sources to create something vindictive and spiteful to titillate the reader. My father always told me, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” And my journalism professor in college said three things are paramount to any story, “the source, the source, the source.” Highlight the career of someone deceased. It's shameful and disgusting what you've written here. I hope your obituary isn't as acerbic.
Sent on 7/2/09
Note: Article link below. The above is in response to what was written.
Source: dailymail.co.uk.
Sent on 7/2/09
Note: Article link below. The above is in response to what was written.
Source: dailymail.co.uk.
Mean Spirited Poison Keyboard Article.
IF you don't want to read a NASTY article about Fawcett, don't read this POST.
My Notes on this...
GEOFFREY WANSELL should turn in his reporting credentials. To site “Awfulplasticsurgery.com” as a source and “in the words of one leading plastic surgeon” and “one Hollywood insider explained”… these aren’t sources, they are “veil thin” sources that probably only exist on “ask jeeves” or “Google.” To speculate about drug use, alcoholic binges and staying in bed all day, that’s all baseless without something tangible and concrete. This is a mean spirited attack. It’s like reading a general outline, an article researched via the internet, with innocuous sources to create something vindictive and spiteful to titillate the reader. Have some respect for someone who was talented and did garner six Golden Globe nominations and three Emmy nominations for their work. It’s not always about winning the award, as your negative article is slanted to stating. Farrah Fawcett proved she was more than a poster, the focus on her personal (though speculative trials as written here) and tribulations are really more telling of an author who wants to demean the subject. I don’t think anyone, in Hollywood, goes in for any kind of surgery wanting or desiring to not look like themselves. When there is so much emphasis in a town and industry that really embraces youth and always looking like you did thirty years ago, I can only speculate on the reasoning there, but regardless of what was done or wasn’t, she will always be in my mind, a courageous woman, who loved her son, wanted to be a good mother and fought a great battle to overcome Cancer. She surpassed what people expected of her (solely based on her looks) and proved herself a talented actress. My father always told me, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” And my journalism professor in college said three things are paramount to any story, “the source, the source, the source.”
Charlie's Angels actress Farrah Fawcett dies of cancer with her family at her bedside
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 9:36 AM on 26th June 2009
Charlie's Angels star Farrah Fawcett yesterday lost her two-year battle with cancer.
The 62-year-old actress, who became an icon to millions during the 1970s, died in a hospital in Los Angeles surrounded by her family and friends. A devout Catholic, the Charlie's Angels star was read the last rites this morning. It had been her last wish to marry actor Ryan O'Neal, who she had a son with during a stormy relationship that lasted for 27 years. But the wedding was not believed to have taken place due to the amount of medical care she needed. O'Neal, 68, was at her side throughout her final days and was seen leaving the hospital after her death in tears.
In a statement O'Neal said: 'After a long and brave battle with cancer, our beloved Farrah has passed away.
'Although this is an extremely difficult time for her family and friends, we take comfort in the beautiful times that we shared with Farrah over the years and the knowledge that her life brought joy to so many people around the world.' O'Neal said they planned to honour Fawcett with a funeral service at the Catholic cathedral in Los Angeles within the next few days.
Throughout Ms Fawcett's cancer battle - which was chronicled in a recent TV documentary Farrah's Story - the pair have been inseparable.
The actress's Charlie's Angel co-star Jaclyn Smith said: 'Farrah had courage, she had strength, and she had faith. And now she has peace as she rests with the real angels.'
She died just an hour after her troubled son Redmond, 24, was due in court to face a judge over his ongoing drug case. He failed to turn up at court for his 9am hearing because of his mother's worsening condition and his case was put back to 1.30pm. It is not known whether he will be granted special leave to attend his mother's funeral from prison.
Fawcett was first diagnosed with rectal cancer in 2006 and had surgery to remove a tumour that year. But a year later the cancer had returned and had spread to her liver.
FARRAH THE FALLEN ANGEL: HOW DRUGS, ALCOHOL, BOTCHED SURGERY AND AN ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP WITH RYAN O'NEAL DESTROYED THE 70S ICON, BY GEOFFREY WANSELL
That wholesome, toothy grin atop a breast-revealing red bathing suit beamed down from an astonishing 30 million posters around the world for a decade or more after 1976 - and transformed its owner from an aspiring shampoo model into one of the most admired and lusted after women of her generation. Yet, as the years passed, and long before her final battle with cancer began, the strikingly beautiful face of Farrah Fawcett, who died in Los Angeles yesterday aged 62, was ravaged by drugs and alcohol - as well as less than successful plastic surgery - and saw her descent from a modern goddess into a dreadful parody of a once stunning woman.
By the time of her death, Fawcett was barely recognisable as the all-American beauty who once claimed the hearts of Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, George Clooney and, most famously of all, the star of the film Love Story, Ryan O'Neal.
Indeed, as the years sped by, Fawcett became as famous for her tumultuous personal life as for her talents as an actress or a poster girl. That was less than just. For Fawcett - who married her fellow 1970s television star Lee Majors, forever known as the bionic Six Million Dollar Man, in July 1973 - was an accomplished actress who might have made her name in the first series of Charlie's Angels, as a female private eye, but went on to demonstrate her considerable range.
In particular, she was to prove that she could display agonising emotion in a string of acclaimed performances in dramas such as The Burning Bed, in 1984, in which she played a battered and bewildered wife and - shortly afterwards - in Extremities on both stage and television as a rape victim who turned the tables on her attacker.
Yet, tragically, her personal life, with its domestic violence, drug use, addiction to alcohol and a desperate desire to retain her youth by cosmetic surgery, came to overshadow her true abilities.
Indeed, by the end, Fawcett's life had descended into soap opera - not least in her relationships with men, and notably O'Neal, who was at her bedside when she died, together with their 24-year-old son, Redmond. The truth is that her years were fraught with drama - and domestic violence. O'Neal's actress daughter Tatum maintained that her 6ft 1in tall father beat Fawcett repeatedly during their turbulent relationship. 'Farrah was innocent,' she maintained. 'Dad was a Svengali for her. He took over her life, but there was a price. He had a terrible temper and was very violent.'
For her part, Fawcett would only admit: 'Ryan was a physical person. He was a bully, but I was never afraid of him.' Drugs were another of the demons that haunted Fawcett's life.
Though she liked to maintain she never touched them - a claim that was hard to sustain - what is not in doubt is that Redmond has had serious drug problems. In 2004, Fawcett broke down in tears in a Texas courtroom when she admitted that her son was 'still addicted to heroin'.
A year earlier, prosecutors had agreed to dismiss a cheque forgery charge against him on condition that he complete a drug treatment programme. But he failed to do so and was taken back to court.
These personal dramas were to take their toll on the emotionally demanding actress.
In 1997, when she finally split from the overweight O'Neal after a 17-year affair punctuated with ferocious rows, she descended into despair - drowning her sorrows with tequila and cannabis, locking herself in her bedroom for hours at a time and staying in bed until mid-afternoon.
As she spiralled out of control, she turned to reality television, making a toe-curling, six-episode show about herself called Chasing Farrah for an obscure cable channel. That did nothing to help her reclaim her fame or popularity. Only a few years ago, Movieline magazine asked ironically: 'Try this multiplechoice question: Farrah Fawcett is (a) a Seventies icon who's an underrated actress; (b) a celebrity shoplifter and drug addict; or (c) a nut top pure and simple.' Tragically, it wasn't entirely a joke.
Her reputation had been shot to pieces by a notorious appearance on the David Letterman show shortly after her break-up from O'Neal, during which she mumbled incoherently for almost 20 minutes. The American tabloid press insisted that she had both drug and alcohol dependency problems. But the 5ft 6in Texas-born star firmly denied it, maintaining that she didn't even drink - 'except for champagne and tequila'.
Every bit as depressing was Fawcett's refusal to acknowledge that she could grow old gracefully, a decision that led her into ever more disastrous cosmetic surgery. One internet site, Awful Plastic Surgery.Com, even dubbed her 'the new bride of Wildenstein' - a reference to the grotesque cosmetic surgery undertaken by American heiress Jocelyn Wildenstein.
'In 1998,' the site said acidly, 'she looked older, but still nice. By 2003, with cheek implants and a nose job, she looked deformed.' In addition to full facelifts, as well as eyebrow and eye lifts, the star also had the tip of her nose raised, 'leaving her nostrils gaping', in the words of one leading plastic surgeon.
'The tragedy for Farrah is that it didn't save what might have been a wonderful career,' one Hollywood insider explained. But then Fawcett was never actually very interested in becoming an actress. The girl christened Mary Ferrah Leni Fawcett, born in the small oil town of Corpus Christi, Texas, in February 1947, was the daughter of an oil field contractor. She had started out so innocently, all but unaware of her striking beauty when she reached the University of Texas in 1966 to read microbiology.
Gregg Lott, an American footballer who was her boyfriend at university, described her at the time as 'gorgeous - like a frisky palomino, all legs, teeth and spirit'. Modelling and casting agencies started to call on account of her staggering looks, and Fawcett dropped out of university after a year to try her luck in Hollywood, where she changed her first name to Farrah.
'I never had a burning desire to be an actress,' she said later. 'I came to Hollywood as a lark.'
Lark or not, her looks rapidly started winning her small roles on seriessuch as The Flying Nun and The Partridge Family.
Shortly after arriving in Los Angeles, she had her first brush with the law, when she was convicted of stealing a pair of nylons from a department store and placed on probation.
Nevertheless, it was her introduction to actor Lee Majors, eight years her senior, in 1968 that changed her life. The couple rapidly became a Hollywood legend, and shortly after their marriage he got the part of Colonel Steve Austin, the bionic Six Million Dollar man, blessed with apparently superhuman powers in the eponymous television series.
Majors became a star overnight, and Fawcett - who renamed herself Fawcett-Majors - appeared as a guest in four of her husband's early episodes. Those shows, together with that poster of her wearing a swimsuit, created a sensation. She attracted the attention of producers Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg, who cast her as Jill Munroe, one of three Charlie's Angels in the 1976 television series. As one producer put it: 'Farrah is the one everyone remembers. She epitomised the freedom of women in the Seventies. She was a free spirit.'
Fame was to transform Fawcett - inflating her already headstrong nature into 'one giant ego' - but it also brought problems to her marriage. Majors hated his wife's sudden success and started to insist that she should be home every evening at 6.30 to put his supper on the table.
Trapped between her husband and her career - and furious that she was being paid only £5,500 per episode - Fawcett announced she was leaving Charlie's Angels at the end of the first series in 1977. Furious, Spelling and Goldberg sued her for breach of contract and won. As a result, she was forced to appear in a further six episodes during the next two years, though a £3million contract with cosmetics giant Faberge consoled her, as did the £250,000 a day she was capable of earning for television commercials. But she was gaining a reputation for being 'difficult'.
In 1979, when Majors left to go on location, he asked his close friend (the article on-line breaks here)
After Charlie's Angels, Fawcett wanted to show her range and some of her best work featured characters who were victims or caught in domestic turmoil. She was a battered wife in The Burning Bed, a rape victim in Extremities, the unfaithful wife of a preacher in The Apostle and a mentally unstable woman in Dr. T and the Women. Fawcett's hair set a fashion trend and was one of the most talked-about styles in Hollywood. The New York Times called it 'a work of art that looked as if it had just come out of the sea and been tossed by the wind into a state of careless perfection' and was 'emblematic of women in the first stage of liberation - strong, confident and joyous.'
Fawcett was nominated for three Emmys and six Golden Globes but never won.
Before stardom, Fawcett had small roles in 1960s and '70s television shows such as Mayberry, R.F.D., Three's a Crowd, I Dream of Jeannie, Marcus Welby, McCloud, The Flying Nun and The Partridge Family.
Source: dailymail.co.uk.
NOTE: click the link and leave the author a message.
My Notes on this...
GEOFFREY WANSELL should turn in his reporting credentials. To site “Awfulplasticsurgery.com” as a source and “in the words of one leading plastic surgeon” and “one Hollywood insider explained”… these aren’t sources, they are “veil thin” sources that probably only exist on “ask jeeves” or “Google.” To speculate about drug use, alcoholic binges and staying in bed all day, that’s all baseless without something tangible and concrete. This is a mean spirited attack. It’s like reading a general outline, an article researched via the internet, with innocuous sources to create something vindictive and spiteful to titillate the reader. Have some respect for someone who was talented and did garner six Golden Globe nominations and three Emmy nominations for their work. It’s not always about winning the award, as your negative article is slanted to stating. Farrah Fawcett proved she was more than a poster, the focus on her personal (though speculative trials as written here) and tribulations are really more telling of an author who wants to demean the subject. I don’t think anyone, in Hollywood, goes in for any kind of surgery wanting or desiring to not look like themselves. When there is so much emphasis in a town and industry that really embraces youth and always looking like you did thirty years ago, I can only speculate on the reasoning there, but regardless of what was done or wasn’t, she will always be in my mind, a courageous woman, who loved her son, wanted to be a good mother and fought a great battle to overcome Cancer. She surpassed what people expected of her (solely based on her looks) and proved herself a talented actress. My father always told me, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” And my journalism professor in college said three things are paramount to any story, “the source, the source, the source.”
Charlie's Angels actress Farrah Fawcett dies of cancer with her family at her bedside
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 9:36 AM on 26th June 2009
Charlie's Angels star Farrah Fawcett yesterday lost her two-year battle with cancer.
The 62-year-old actress, who became an icon to millions during the 1970s, died in a hospital in Los Angeles surrounded by her family and friends. A devout Catholic, the Charlie's Angels star was read the last rites this morning. It had been her last wish to marry actor Ryan O'Neal, who she had a son with during a stormy relationship that lasted for 27 years. But the wedding was not believed to have taken place due to the amount of medical care she needed. O'Neal, 68, was at her side throughout her final days and was seen leaving the hospital after her death in tears.
In a statement O'Neal said: 'After a long and brave battle with cancer, our beloved Farrah has passed away.
'Although this is an extremely difficult time for her family and friends, we take comfort in the beautiful times that we shared with Farrah over the years and the knowledge that her life brought joy to so many people around the world.' O'Neal said they planned to honour Fawcett with a funeral service at the Catholic cathedral in Los Angeles within the next few days.
Throughout Ms Fawcett's cancer battle - which was chronicled in a recent TV documentary Farrah's Story - the pair have been inseparable.
The actress's Charlie's Angel co-star Jaclyn Smith said: 'Farrah had courage, she had strength, and she had faith. And now she has peace as she rests with the real angels.'
She died just an hour after her troubled son Redmond, 24, was due in court to face a judge over his ongoing drug case. He failed to turn up at court for his 9am hearing because of his mother's worsening condition and his case was put back to 1.30pm. It is not known whether he will be granted special leave to attend his mother's funeral from prison.
Fawcett was first diagnosed with rectal cancer in 2006 and had surgery to remove a tumour that year. But a year later the cancer had returned and had spread to her liver.
FARRAH THE FALLEN ANGEL: HOW DRUGS, ALCOHOL, BOTCHED SURGERY AND AN ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP WITH RYAN O'NEAL DESTROYED THE 70S ICON, BY GEOFFREY WANSELL
That wholesome, toothy grin atop a breast-revealing red bathing suit beamed down from an astonishing 30 million posters around the world for a decade or more after 1976 - and transformed its owner from an aspiring shampoo model into one of the most admired and lusted after women of her generation. Yet, as the years passed, and long before her final battle with cancer began, the strikingly beautiful face of Farrah Fawcett, who died in Los Angeles yesterday aged 62, was ravaged by drugs and alcohol - as well as less than successful plastic surgery - and saw her descent from a modern goddess into a dreadful parody of a once stunning woman.
By the time of her death, Fawcett was barely recognisable as the all-American beauty who once claimed the hearts of Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, George Clooney and, most famously of all, the star of the film Love Story, Ryan O'Neal.
Indeed, as the years sped by, Fawcett became as famous for her tumultuous personal life as for her talents as an actress or a poster girl. That was less than just. For Fawcett - who married her fellow 1970s television star Lee Majors, forever known as the bionic Six Million Dollar Man, in July 1973 - was an accomplished actress who might have made her name in the first series of Charlie's Angels, as a female private eye, but went on to demonstrate her considerable range.
In particular, she was to prove that she could display agonising emotion in a string of acclaimed performances in dramas such as The Burning Bed, in 1984, in which she played a battered and bewildered wife and - shortly afterwards - in Extremities on both stage and television as a rape victim who turned the tables on her attacker.
Yet, tragically, her personal life, with its domestic violence, drug use, addiction to alcohol and a desperate desire to retain her youth by cosmetic surgery, came to overshadow her true abilities.
Indeed, by the end, Fawcett's life had descended into soap opera - not least in her relationships with men, and notably O'Neal, who was at her bedside when she died, together with their 24-year-old son, Redmond. The truth is that her years were fraught with drama - and domestic violence. O'Neal's actress daughter Tatum maintained that her 6ft 1in tall father beat Fawcett repeatedly during their turbulent relationship. 'Farrah was innocent,' she maintained. 'Dad was a Svengali for her. He took over her life, but there was a price. He had a terrible temper and was very violent.'
For her part, Fawcett would only admit: 'Ryan was a physical person. He was a bully, but I was never afraid of him.' Drugs were another of the demons that haunted Fawcett's life.
Though she liked to maintain she never touched them - a claim that was hard to sustain - what is not in doubt is that Redmond has had serious drug problems. In 2004, Fawcett broke down in tears in a Texas courtroom when she admitted that her son was 'still addicted to heroin'.
A year earlier, prosecutors had agreed to dismiss a cheque forgery charge against him on condition that he complete a drug treatment programme. But he failed to do so and was taken back to court.
These personal dramas were to take their toll on the emotionally demanding actress.
In 1997, when she finally split from the overweight O'Neal after a 17-year affair punctuated with ferocious rows, she descended into despair - drowning her sorrows with tequila and cannabis, locking herself in her bedroom for hours at a time and staying in bed until mid-afternoon.
As she spiralled out of control, she turned to reality television, making a toe-curling, six-episode show about herself called Chasing Farrah for an obscure cable channel. That did nothing to help her reclaim her fame or popularity. Only a few years ago, Movieline magazine asked ironically: 'Try this multiplechoice question: Farrah Fawcett is (a) a Seventies icon who's an underrated actress; (b) a celebrity shoplifter and drug addict; or (c) a nut top pure and simple.' Tragically, it wasn't entirely a joke.
Her reputation had been shot to pieces by a notorious appearance on the David Letterman show shortly after her break-up from O'Neal, during which she mumbled incoherently for almost 20 minutes. The American tabloid press insisted that she had both drug and alcohol dependency problems. But the 5ft 6in Texas-born star firmly denied it, maintaining that she didn't even drink - 'except for champagne and tequila'.
Every bit as depressing was Fawcett's refusal to acknowledge that she could grow old gracefully, a decision that led her into ever more disastrous cosmetic surgery. One internet site, Awful Plastic Surgery.Com, even dubbed her 'the new bride of Wildenstein' - a reference to the grotesque cosmetic surgery undertaken by American heiress Jocelyn Wildenstein.
'In 1998,' the site said acidly, 'she looked older, but still nice. By 2003, with cheek implants and a nose job, she looked deformed.' In addition to full facelifts, as well as eyebrow and eye lifts, the star also had the tip of her nose raised, 'leaving her nostrils gaping', in the words of one leading plastic surgeon.
'The tragedy for Farrah is that it didn't save what might have been a wonderful career,' one Hollywood insider explained. But then Fawcett was never actually very interested in becoming an actress. The girl christened Mary Ferrah Leni Fawcett, born in the small oil town of Corpus Christi, Texas, in February 1947, was the daughter of an oil field contractor. She had started out so innocently, all but unaware of her striking beauty when she reached the University of Texas in 1966 to read microbiology.
Gregg Lott, an American footballer who was her boyfriend at university, described her at the time as 'gorgeous - like a frisky palomino, all legs, teeth and spirit'. Modelling and casting agencies started to call on account of her staggering looks, and Fawcett dropped out of university after a year to try her luck in Hollywood, where she changed her first name to Farrah.
'I never had a burning desire to be an actress,' she said later. 'I came to Hollywood as a lark.'
Lark or not, her looks rapidly started winning her small roles on seriessuch as The Flying Nun and The Partridge Family.
Shortly after arriving in Los Angeles, she had her first brush with the law, when she was convicted of stealing a pair of nylons from a department store and placed on probation.
Nevertheless, it was her introduction to actor Lee Majors, eight years her senior, in 1968 that changed her life. The couple rapidly became a Hollywood legend, and shortly after their marriage he got the part of Colonel Steve Austin, the bionic Six Million Dollar man, blessed with apparently superhuman powers in the eponymous television series.
Majors became a star overnight, and Fawcett - who renamed herself Fawcett-Majors - appeared as a guest in four of her husband's early episodes. Those shows, together with that poster of her wearing a swimsuit, created a sensation. She attracted the attention of producers Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg, who cast her as Jill Munroe, one of three Charlie's Angels in the 1976 television series. As one producer put it: 'Farrah is the one everyone remembers. She epitomised the freedom of women in the Seventies. She was a free spirit.'
Fame was to transform Fawcett - inflating her already headstrong nature into 'one giant ego' - but it also brought problems to her marriage. Majors hated his wife's sudden success and started to insist that she should be home every evening at 6.30 to put his supper on the table.
Trapped between her husband and her career - and furious that she was being paid only £5,500 per episode - Fawcett announced she was leaving Charlie's Angels at the end of the first series in 1977. Furious, Spelling and Goldberg sued her for breach of contract and won. As a result, she was forced to appear in a further six episodes during the next two years, though a £3million contract with cosmetics giant Faberge consoled her, as did the £250,000 a day she was capable of earning for television commercials. But she was gaining a reputation for being 'difficult'.
In 1979, when Majors left to go on location, he asked his close friend (the article on-line breaks here)
After Charlie's Angels, Fawcett wanted to show her range and some of her best work featured characters who were victims or caught in domestic turmoil. She was a battered wife in The Burning Bed, a rape victim in Extremities, the unfaithful wife of a preacher in The Apostle and a mentally unstable woman in Dr. T and the Women. Fawcett's hair set a fashion trend and was one of the most talked-about styles in Hollywood. The New York Times called it 'a work of art that looked as if it had just come out of the sea and been tossed by the wind into a state of careless perfection' and was 'emblematic of women in the first stage of liberation - strong, confident and joyous.'
Fawcett was nominated for three Emmys and six Golden Globes but never won.
Before stardom, Fawcett had small roles in 1960s and '70s television shows such as Mayberry, R.F.D., Three's a Crowd, I Dream of Jeannie, Marcus Welby, McCloud, The Flying Nun and The Partridge Family.
Source: dailymail.co.uk.
NOTE: click the link and leave the author a message.
Shame on ABC & Barbra Walters
Although I thought the retrospective and special that Barbra Walters on 20/20 did in regards to Fawcett, overall, was good, I was very disappointed to see, once again, the photo of Fawcett in a wheelchair. It has been well documented and voiced by Farrah that she did not want to be photographed in a wheelchair and was very unhappy about the photo in question. It seems to me that Walters was either unaware or her entire staff at 20/20 wasn’t aware that this image was something that Fawcett didn’t want to be further disseminated. Disappointing that a journalist of Walters tenure didn’t do the research and know that this image should be deleted from the archives out of respect for Farrah.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Photographer of Farrah Fawcett swimsuit poster: 'It was Farrah's pose, Farrah's suit, Farrah's idea'
One of the sweetest, if most unimaginable, things about Farrah Fawcett is that she honestly didn't realize she was so pretty. Bruce McBroom, the photographer who shot her iconic red swimsuit poster, told TIME:
She was just beautiful in a really innocent way. She had no idea that she was that good-looking.
The gorgeous photograph was taken at her home, by her pool, with one of the photographer's old Mexican blankets as a backdrop. No stylists, no assistants, no art directors. Mr. McBroom said:
Farrah didn't like the way she looked in a bikini and didn't have one on her. So she would go in the house and come out in a swimsuit and say, "What do you think of this?" ... I shot rolls of film, and it just wasn't happening. She's a beautiful woman, but there wasn't anything that I would put on a poster. ... I said, "Farrah, are you sure you don't have a bikini? Something different?"
She went in to look around and came out of the back door and stood in the doorway in this red suit, and she said in her Southern accent, "Well, is this anything?"
And I literally said to myself, "Oh my God."
That was 1976. The poster has sold 12 million copies, according to a CNN report. Other reports place the sales number at aorund 6 million or more. Any way you figure it, the poster is a record-setter that still graces many dorm walls after more than three decades. That's what you call an icon.
Farrah Fawcett died in a Santa Monica hospital Thursday morning after a battle with anal cancer that stretched almost four years. She will be sorely missed.
Rest easy, angel.
June 25, 5:12 PM
Source: EXAMINER.com
Fawcett Remembered
Here is the article link to CNN.com
Here's what was posted on CNN:
(CNN) -- Farrah Fawcett, the blonde-maned actress whose best-selling poster and "Charlie's Angels" stardom made her one of the most famous faces in the world, died Thursday. She was 62. Fawcett's death was confirmed by Paul Bloch, one of her representatives at Rogers and Cowan, an entertainment public relations firm.
Fawcett, who checked into a hospital in early April, had been battling anal cancer on and off for three years.
Bloch told CNN that Ryan O'Neal, Fawcett's romantic partner since the mid-1980s, and her friend Alana Stewart were with Fawcett at Saint John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California, when she died. "Although this is an extremely difficult time for her family and friends, we take comfort in the beautiful times that we shared with Farrah over the years and the knowledge that her life brought joy to so many people around the world," O'Neal said in a written statement.
O'Neal is the father of Fawcett's son, Redmond O'Neal, born in 1985. Redmond O'Neal is in an intense rehabilitation program conducted in the Los Angeles county jail, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore told CNN on Thursday.
Fawcett's son was informed on Wednesday night by a grief counselor and a chaplain that his mother's death was imminent, and a grief counselor and chaplain also told him when she died, Whitmore said.
The young man, who is currently with a chaplain, has spoken with his father, Whitmore said.
Ryan O'Neal had recently told People magazine that the sex symbol was declining.
"She stays in bed now. The doctors see that she is comfortable. Farrah is on IVs, but some of that is for nourishment. The treatment has pretty much ended," he said in a story posted May 7.
Fawcett's cancer journey has been documented in a television special partly shot by the actress. Fawcett began shooting "Farrah's Story," by taking a camera to a doctor's appointment. Eventually, the film expanded to include trips overseas in hopes of treating the cancer.
The documentary aired on NBC on May 15.
Fawcett's beauty -- her gleaming smile was printed on millions of posters -- initially made her famous. But she later established herself as a serious actress. She starred as a battered wife in the 1984 TV movie "The Burning Bed." She appeared on stage as a woman who extracts vengeance from a would-be rapist in William Mastrosimone's play "Extremities."
She reprised the "Extremities" role on film in 1986. Other Fawcett films include "Logan's Run" (1976), "Saturn 3" (1980), "The Cannonball Run" (1981), "The Apostle" (1997) and the Robert Altman-directed "Dr. T and the Women" (2000).
To many, Fawcett will always be best known for her red-swimsuited image on the pinup poster, which sold a reputed 12 million copies after its release in 1976.
Fawcett was a model best known for bit parts, commercials and as "Six Million Dollar Man" actor Lee Majors' wife when she shot the poster in early 1976 at the behest of Pro Arts, a Cleveland, Ohio, company.
Photographer Bruce McBroom placed Fawcett -- then known as Farrah Fawcett-Majors -- in the Indian blanket-draped front seat of his 1937 Chevy and snapped away. Fawcett did her own hair -- a long, tousled cascade of blonde locks -- picked out the red bathing suit and chose the frame later used for the poster, according to a story in the Toronto Star.
The poster, with Fawcett's million-dollar smile front and center, became a sensation.
Soon after the photo shoot, Fawcett was asked to join the cast of a new Aaron Spelling TV show, "Charlie's Angels," about a trio of female detectives who work for a mysterious man named Charlie, whose only appearance in the show was through his voice (supplied by John Forsythe).
Fawcett, who played Jill Munroe, was the last to be cast. Co-star Kate Jackson was the known name at the time, but thanks to her poster, Fawcett became the breakout star.
The highly rated TV series kicked off what came to be known as "jiggle TV," series full of pretty actresses who appeared in bikinis at the drop of a hat.
"Denunciations of 'massage parlor television' and 'voyeurism' only brought more viewers to the screen, to see what the controversy was about," wrote Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh about "Charlie's Angels" in their indispensable reference, "The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows."
ABC's "Three's Company" and CBS's "The American Girls" were among the shows that immediately followed, and shows such as "Baywatch" owe "Charlie's Angels" a debt.
But Fawcett didn't stay with "Angels" long. At the end of the first season, unhappy with her contract, she left the show and was replaced by Cheryl Ladd.
Fawcett's career stagnated for a time after "Charlie's Angels." She appeared in a handful of forgettable films and divorced Majors.
But her career received a major boost with her starring role in "The Burning Bed," a 1984 TV movie co-starring Paul Le Mat. Fawcett played an abused wife who sets fire to her husband's bed as he lies sleeping. Fawcett received an Emmy nomination for her performance.
Fawcett also became romantically involved with O'Neal around this time. The pair had a son, Redmond, in 1985.
In recent years, Fawcett has appeared sporadically in the public eye. She posed nude for Playboy in 1995. In 1997, she appeared on "The Late Show with David Letterman," an interview that became notorious for Fawcett's apparent incoherence. She later said she was just having fun with Letterman.
She reunited with her "Charlie's Angels" co-stars, Jackson and Jaclyn Smith, for an awards show in 2006.
Fawcett was born in Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1947. She married Majors in 1973; they divorced nine years later.
She was diagnosed with cancer in 2006.
Here's what was posted on CNN:
(CNN) -- Farrah Fawcett, the blonde-maned actress whose best-selling poster and "Charlie's Angels" stardom made her one of the most famous faces in the world, died Thursday. She was 62. Fawcett's death was confirmed by Paul Bloch, one of her representatives at Rogers and Cowan, an entertainment public relations firm.
Fawcett, who checked into a hospital in early April, had been battling anal cancer on and off for three years.
Bloch told CNN that Ryan O'Neal, Fawcett's romantic partner since the mid-1980s, and her friend Alana Stewart were with Fawcett at Saint John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California, when she died. "Although this is an extremely difficult time for her family and friends, we take comfort in the beautiful times that we shared with Farrah over the years and the knowledge that her life brought joy to so many people around the world," O'Neal said in a written statement.
O'Neal is the father of Fawcett's son, Redmond O'Neal, born in 1985. Redmond O'Neal is in an intense rehabilitation program conducted in the Los Angeles county jail, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore told CNN on Thursday.
Fawcett's son was informed on Wednesday night by a grief counselor and a chaplain that his mother's death was imminent, and a grief counselor and chaplain also told him when she died, Whitmore said.
The young man, who is currently with a chaplain, has spoken with his father, Whitmore said.
Ryan O'Neal had recently told People magazine that the sex symbol was declining.
"She stays in bed now. The doctors see that she is comfortable. Farrah is on IVs, but some of that is for nourishment. The treatment has pretty much ended," he said in a story posted May 7.
Fawcett's cancer journey has been documented in a television special partly shot by the actress. Fawcett began shooting "Farrah's Story," by taking a camera to a doctor's appointment. Eventually, the film expanded to include trips overseas in hopes of treating the cancer.
The documentary aired on NBC on May 15.
Fawcett's beauty -- her gleaming smile was printed on millions of posters -- initially made her famous. But she later established herself as a serious actress. She starred as a battered wife in the 1984 TV movie "The Burning Bed." She appeared on stage as a woman who extracts vengeance from a would-be rapist in William Mastrosimone's play "Extremities."
She reprised the "Extremities" role on film in 1986. Other Fawcett films include "Logan's Run" (1976), "Saturn 3" (1980), "The Cannonball Run" (1981), "The Apostle" (1997) and the Robert Altman-directed "Dr. T and the Women" (2000).
To many, Fawcett will always be best known for her red-swimsuited image on the pinup poster, which sold a reputed 12 million copies after its release in 1976.
Fawcett was a model best known for bit parts, commercials and as "Six Million Dollar Man" actor Lee Majors' wife when she shot the poster in early 1976 at the behest of Pro Arts, a Cleveland, Ohio, company.
Photographer Bruce McBroom placed Fawcett -- then known as Farrah Fawcett-Majors -- in the Indian blanket-draped front seat of his 1937 Chevy and snapped away. Fawcett did her own hair -- a long, tousled cascade of blonde locks -- picked out the red bathing suit and chose the frame later used for the poster, according to a story in the Toronto Star.
The poster, with Fawcett's million-dollar smile front and center, became a sensation.
Soon after the photo shoot, Fawcett was asked to join the cast of a new Aaron Spelling TV show, "Charlie's Angels," about a trio of female detectives who work for a mysterious man named Charlie, whose only appearance in the show was through his voice (supplied by John Forsythe).
Fawcett, who played Jill Munroe, was the last to be cast. Co-star Kate Jackson was the known name at the time, but thanks to her poster, Fawcett became the breakout star.
The highly rated TV series kicked off what came to be known as "jiggle TV," series full of pretty actresses who appeared in bikinis at the drop of a hat.
"Denunciations of 'massage parlor television' and 'voyeurism' only brought more viewers to the screen, to see what the controversy was about," wrote Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh about "Charlie's Angels" in their indispensable reference, "The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows."
ABC's "Three's Company" and CBS's "The American Girls" were among the shows that immediately followed, and shows such as "Baywatch" owe "Charlie's Angels" a debt.
But Fawcett didn't stay with "Angels" long. At the end of the first season, unhappy with her contract, she left the show and was replaced by Cheryl Ladd.
Fawcett's career stagnated for a time after "Charlie's Angels." She appeared in a handful of forgettable films and divorced Majors.
But her career received a major boost with her starring role in "The Burning Bed," a 1984 TV movie co-starring Paul Le Mat. Fawcett played an abused wife who sets fire to her husband's bed as he lies sleeping. Fawcett received an Emmy nomination for her performance.
Fawcett also became romantically involved with O'Neal around this time. The pair had a son, Redmond, in 1985.
In recent years, Fawcett has appeared sporadically in the public eye. She posed nude for Playboy in 1995. In 1997, she appeared on "The Late Show with David Letterman," an interview that became notorious for Fawcett's apparent incoherence. She later said she was just having fun with Letterman.
She reunited with her "Charlie's Angels" co-stars, Jackson and Jaclyn Smith, for an awards show in 2006.
Fawcett was born in Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1947. She married Majors in 1973; they divorced nine years later.
She was diagnosed with cancer in 2006.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Two Sides to Every Coin
I had the fortune of speaking with Greg Lott yesterday. He has been Farrah’s business partner with her official web site (http://www.farrahfawcett.us/.) since its inception. Their relationship and friendship has withstood the sands of time and Greg has spoken with her every day for the last eleven years (they've been friends for over forty years). Greg has been in Los Angeles since Easter when communication with Fawcett stopped. His main concern and focus is for her welfare.
I’d like to think that everyone surrounding Farrah is only interested in her well being, comfort and continued fight. To think the contrary of those directly involved is disturbing, sad and disquieting. Suffice is to say I don’t know Gregg, Alana, Ryan or anyone in Fawcett’s direct circle.
This website was created to celebrate the actress/actor Farrah Fawcett, her accomplishments on the screen, big and small. It’s been a hobby and one of the website’s I first built. It changes as I learn and grow as a designer and a web coder. But I’ve always attempted to steer clear of the gossip, the negative news stories and always veered as far away from the rumor mill that has engulfed Fawcett since her days on Charlie’s Angels.
I could hear the anger, hurt and frustration in Greg’s voice. Those are things you can not fake. There’s an urgency and a true love there for Farrah, in my opinion, and I guess I don’t see the harm or reasoning behind his excommunication.
The bottom line here is: when a family member or a true friend becomes ill, there are many things that are said, shared or stated in anger, pain, love, hurt, and basically a variety of emotions. The unfortunate side effect of living in a very technological society today is people often post things or write things that are baseless, inflammatory, or do a disservice to their own cause.
However, having lost a brother myself, and having watched as both of my parents fell ill (broken hip, Heart Attack, Pneumonia) and various hospital stays, the reality is as we grow older, regardless of how well we take care of ourselves, the body wears and deteriorates over time. It’s the natural process of life. Degeneration. But there are other maladies, such as Cancer, that can wreak havoc without us being able to comprehend why.
It’s not easy watching or witnessing someone in distress, in pain, suffering and clutching to hope and believing in miracles that sometimes, never come. But the only reason to severe or cut people away (aside from medical seclusion) is because there is something to be hidden or to remove people from their ability to say good-bye, good-luck or just a simple, “I love you.”
Fawcett has often been quoted as saying, “Positivity is essential.” So, in that vein wouldn’t it be in the best interest of everyone to lay down their arms, call a truce and let those that care and love and know her extend their good wishes?
I’d like to think that everyone surrounding Farrah is only interested in her well being, comfort and continued fight. To think the contrary of those directly involved is disturbing, sad and disquieting. Suffice is to say I don’t know Gregg, Alana, Ryan or anyone in Fawcett’s direct circle.
This website was created to celebrate the actress/actor Farrah Fawcett, her accomplishments on the screen, big and small. It’s been a hobby and one of the website’s I first built. It changes as I learn and grow as a designer and a web coder. But I’ve always attempted to steer clear of the gossip, the negative news stories and always veered as far away from the rumor mill that has engulfed Fawcett since her days on Charlie’s Angels.
I could hear the anger, hurt and frustration in Greg’s voice. Those are things you can not fake. There’s an urgency and a true love there for Farrah, in my opinion, and I guess I don’t see the harm or reasoning behind his excommunication.
The bottom line here is: when a family member or a true friend becomes ill, there are many things that are said, shared or stated in anger, pain, love, hurt, and basically a variety of emotions. The unfortunate side effect of living in a very technological society today is people often post things or write things that are baseless, inflammatory, or do a disservice to their own cause.
However, having lost a brother myself, and having watched as both of my parents fell ill (broken hip, Heart Attack, Pneumonia) and various hospital stays, the reality is as we grow older, regardless of how well we take care of ourselves, the body wears and deteriorates over time. It’s the natural process of life. Degeneration. But there are other maladies, such as Cancer, that can wreak havoc without us being able to comprehend why.
It’s not easy watching or witnessing someone in distress, in pain, suffering and clutching to hope and believing in miracles that sometimes, never come. But the only reason to severe or cut people away (aside from medical seclusion) is because there is something to be hidden or to remove people from their ability to say good-bye, good-luck or just a simple, “I love you.”
Fawcett has often been quoted as saying, “Positivity is essential.” So, in that vein wouldn’t it be in the best interest of everyone to lay down their arms, call a truce and let those that care and love and know her extend their good wishes?
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
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The Evolution of MyFarrah.com
Original Site: 2005
This was the first version of the site. I'd drafted out the entire site years earlier before I learned how to code. I believe I drafted it in Publisher (such a basic program now) in 1991. And though the site wouldn't debut for years, I kept the rough draft stashed away (the print out, I never did find the old Publisher file, I suspect it's on an old ZIP drive... remember those?) and eventually after years of working as a Marketing/Graphic Designer for companies in San Diego and Los Angeles I started developing and creating the site that you see today.
One of the earlier layout screens with links
This was one of the earlier entry pages. I continually updated the site as I learned more and wanted it to be more graphically interesting. This one was used in 2006 shortly after the original trio's appearance at the Emmy's in a tribute to Aaron Spelling. I thought the navigation was somewhat clunky and dated...
I came up with a more, what I thought interesting look. Based more on Farrah's artistic side. I was attempting, in my mind's eye, to create something I thought she'd like to see. For a while I had the two sites running, the more modern and the more traditional, but eventually scrapped both to go with a more magazine looking site.
This was one of the early entry pages. I abandoned entry pages, pretty much altogether shortly after I read how they circumvent site listing and search engines really don't index sites with entry pages... so these quickly went away from all the sites I design.
These were mock-ups for videos to be plugged in. Initially the plug in fit but didn't operate the same on all platforms. The text was small and hard to read.
Overall, I was pretty happy with the magazine type layout. I wasn't happy with the video plug in... it's now FLASH so nothing hiccups and you don't' get a weird error message when the video loads, it's already there. I found upon cross platform verification that things ran great on a PC but no so much on a MAC. Making sure your site runs the same, exactly the same on any platform is vital if you want to retain people looking at your site. It's also pretty embarrassing if you pull up your site to show off and it doesn't work or whacks out in front of people.
Over the years I have become very proud of the myfarrah.com website. At first I was a little embarrassed as it was always the first site people would mention. Usually with a, "So, you like Farrah huh?" And I would quickly blush. But I'm shy in general so I get embarrassed about pretty much everything.
In fact when I did meet Fawcett, I sat down the night before and wrote out a note in a book for her to read. I was consumed with worry about what I would say, how it would come out and I didn't want to stand there blinking. When I finally stood in front of her at the LA Museum of Art, I handed her my book and she quickly read the note and told me that I was "very sweet." I don't remember what I said to her. I remember telling Keith, "I really liked the book," and later made fun of myself for that comment. But I do remember thinking she has the greatest voice. I likened it to maple syrup in one of the banner screens. If maple syrup could talk it would have the voice of Fawcett.
Anyway, I don't know how long the site will stay as it appears now before I get bored with it and go a completely different direction. I hope you enjoyed this little trip down the evolution of myfarrah.com.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
thank you
To everyone who said a little prayer today for Farrah and all of those battling their own fight against cancer.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
We'll Say a Little Prayer for You!
This Sunday, June 14th at 2pm (pacific standard time) please say a little prayer for Farrah and all of those suffering from Cancer. Thank you to Mike Pingel for helping promote this on his website.
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