"This is Farrah Fawcett" ABC News documentary remembers America's golden girl 10 years after battle with cancer

Thursday, May 16, 2019 1:09PM

ABC News presents a two-hour primetime special on America's golden girl Farrah Fawcett. From that iconic red bathing suit poster to her role in the hit show Charlie's Angels, Fawcett took the 1970s by storm and captivated the nation with her every move. But in 2006 Fawcett was confronted with her biggest challenge when she was diagnosed with cancer and began an aggressive fight for her life. Now, almost ten years after her passing, ABC News reports on her life, career, fame and lasting legacy, told through new interviews with those who knew her best and rare footage from the intimate video diaries of her fight against cancer. "This is Farrah Fawcett" airs on Thursday, May 23 8 p.m. ET on ABC. Check your local listings.

The two-hour documentary features new interviews with actress Jaclyn Smith, Fawcett's co-star on Charlie's Angels; Alana Stewart, Fawcett's close friend who helped record her cancer battle for the two-hour documentary Farrah's Story; Bruce McBroom, the Hollywood photographer who shot Fawcett's iconic swimsuit poster; Mela Murphy, Fawcett's confidant and hairstylist; and Dr. Lawrence Piro, Fawcett's primary physician; and Dr. Ursula Jacob, Fawcett's physician in Germany who used alternative treatments for her cancer. The documentary also includes Barbara Walters' landmark interviews with Fawcett and with Ryan O'Neal, Fawcett's partner at the time of her death.

After attending the University of Texas Fawcett moved to Los Angeles and began her professional career. Fawcett first appeared in television commercials but quickly began starring in TV shows and then movies. Fawcett continuously sought out projects that she found challenging and worthwhile, including her groundbreaking roles in the films The Burning Bed and Extremities, which both exposed the dark truth of domestic violence and helped shine a light on victims. Fawcett's final project was Farrah's Story, which documented the harsh realities of cancer treatment. The film aired just weeks before Fawcett passed away at age 62.

The special is produced by ABC News. David Sloan is senior executive producer. Muriel Pearson is executive producer.

02.02.1947

02.02.1947
today is 
Farrah Leni Fawcett's
Birthday! 

http://www.myfarrah.com

Fawcett's Funny About Love

Farrah Fawcett images from CUT SCENE. 

Visit http://www.myfarrah.com.

CNN ARTICLE: Farrah in the morning

She would come walking across the lawn just after sunrise.

The days and nights had been long; everyone else, as darkness turned into dawn, looked wrung out and worn down and weary.

She just glowed.

"Morning!" she would say, flashing that zillion-watt smile, greeting each of us by name.

"Morning, Farrah," we would say back, feeling gray and dull in her presence.

This was at the La Quinta resort near Palm Springs, California, almost 20 years ago. The only piece of writing of mine that was ever turned into a feature film was being shot there. Farrah was one of the female leads.

At least she, and we, thought she was. More on that later.

She seemed to be an awfully nice person. That much I can tell you, from my limited time with her as she made that movie. She did her best to try to make the people around her forget just how all-reaching her fame was. There is a stratum of renown that is separate from the variety that accrues to most performers; Michael Jackson, who died on the same day as she, knew that type of renown, and so did she. Regardless of the role, she was always destined to be, in the eyes of the public, Farrah. That had to have been both a blessing and an encumbrance.

Most people in show business would do just about anything to possess that level of connection with the people out in the seats -- to move through life having everyone in the world feel they know you. It must be difficult, though, to bury yourself in a fictional part when, inside, you are resigned to the idea that, to the unseen ticket buyers in the darkness, you are, now and always, Farrah.

Any person with whom she had contact, however brief, would remember it for years. She understood that. She was golden, literally; it was her calling card. At breakfast, on the mornings she would join the crew, we would sit around long wooden catering tables, and there was a what's-wrong-with-this-picture aspect to the scene. These were mundane meals, and she was anything but. Or that's what we thought. Farrah? She was just getting ready to put in a day's work.

The movie itself -- it was called "Funny About Love"-- turned out to be quite forgettable. The male lead was played by Gene Wilder; the three women in his life were played, as the script was written, by Christine Lahti, Mary Stuart Masterson and Farrah. Everyone on the set seemed to get along, but what do I know? I'd never been on another set. After a lifetime of grunted hellos from assistant city editors, this was quite a change. Those dawns on the desert, those cast-and-crew breakfasts, those "Morning!"s from Farrah as she strolled across the grass.

Steve Allen, a luminary in the early days of television and a cogent observer of the world around him, said that when people see a person who is regularly on TV, it is as if the television performer emits a glow. The glow is invisible, yet it's there. And when a person who once was constantly on television suddenly isn't on television anymore, Allen said, it is as if the glow evaporates. It's gone.

Maybe he was right -- but with Farrah, the glow endured. It never went away. Another accomplished television performer -- Phil Donahue -- argued that there was no essential difference between Frank Sinatra's fame and the fame of a local TV weathercaster. Donahue's point was that you're either famous or you're not; there's no in-between. If you deliver the weather news on your town's most popular station, then everyone within the county line knows you. You're Sinatra.

The theory made a certain sense, but there was that qualitative difference to Farrah's fame. She could not have gotten rid of it if she had wanted to.

Yet no one always wins. The most blessed among us are subject to hurt. Here is what happened with that movie that was filmed on the desert:

Months after the final scenes were shot, I received a phone call from one of the producers. Opening weekend was approaching.

"Farrah's not in the movie," he said.

I didn't process the words.

"She asked for her name to be taken off the credits?" I said.

"No," he said. "She has been cut out of the final film."

The powers that be with the authority to make such decisions, the story went, after some screenings in front of test audiences had decided that the movie didn't work well with Farrah in it. So every single one of her scenes had been excised. The movie had been recut as if she had never existed.

Even when you're golden, it seems, life can blindside you and try to make you feel small. Even when, to those on the outside, it appears that you have everything, it can vanish. Somewhere, in metal film cans on some shelf or other, there are colorful motion images of a beautiful woman doing her job, images the world has never seen. "Morning!" she would call on her way to breakfast. She carried the sunrise with her.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/06/28/greene.farrah/index.html?iref=24hours

70s ICON FAWCETT

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Farrah Fawcett 1947-2009

From the naïf, buttoned-down shirts to the high-waisted denim flares, not only did Fawcett set the small screen alight but her look came to define a generation. The ‘Farrah Flick’ became the first must have celebrity hair style and the image of the actress in a swimsuit, head tilted back and grinning broadly, has sold over 12 million copies worldwide. She is consistently name-checked by designers when a 70s revival rolls round.

Original article here; http://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/fashion/celebrity-fashion/2011/03/70s-fashion-style-icons#!image-number=1