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Her final battle with cancer showed her true character
of TheColumnists.com
O Death where is
thy sting?
In the case of Farrah Fawcett, the TV goddess passed away on
the same day as Michael Jackson died and got eclipsed in most
press coverage.
It reminded me of Queen Elizabeth II’s address to the Commonwealth
on the death of Princess Diana and her footnote at the end also
noting the passing of Mother Teresa.
One Internet site noted Ray Charles died on the day of Ronald
Reagan’s funeral and Groucho Marx passed away the same week
as Elvis.
In Farrah’s case we were prepared to bid farewell to her
because we knew about her long struggle with cancer and how she
had cheated death several times.
And Farrah was a far more accessible icon than Michael Jackson.
Recent stories about him dwelt on his weirdness while profiles
on Farrah praised her courage and bravery and the happiness of
her long time relationship with Ryan Neal.
News reports said Farrah was 62, which really floored me. And
that’s because nobody who’s ever been a TV star really
ages. I’d just been watching the DVD of the first season
of "Charlie’s Angels" where Farrah burst forth
as a healthy TV sex symbol. And the more I watched the more I
remembered about that peculiar phenomenon.
It was in late June, 1976, that ABC showed the first episode
of "Charlie’s Angels" to visiting TV critics at
the Century Plaza hotel. In those days individual videocassettes
for critics were virtually unknown, so we dutifully assembled
in the hotel’s Grand Ballroom to view the pilots of all
three networks. There was no Fox network yet and none of the
other mini-networks either. No cable networks were taking part
back then.
The pilot, which aired in March as a TV movie, was manufactured
by ABC’s chief source of programming, producer Aaron Spelling,
and it was hopelessly dopey but a feast for girl watchers. Three
long-stemmed lovelies ran up and down California beaches in swim
suits, improbably cast as detectives while the voice of John
Forsythe told them via the intercom what case to tackle next.
Kate Jackson, who played Sabrina, was the best known, having
appeared in a few movies and starring in "The Rookies"
TV series. I thought Jaclyn Smith, who played Kelly, was the
most gorgeous with her manners and air of slight superiority.
And the third was a lithe, tousseled blonde from the short-lived
series "Harry-O"--Farrah Fawcett-Majors.
ABC held a lavish party across the street at its still unfinished
Entertainment Complex and a breathless PR type told me the network
had imported 5,000 shrimp for the occasion. Photographers jostled
to get revealing shots of the pert three some and then there
was a mass press conference.
The questions and the answers were inane but Farrah seemed particularly
flustered by the whole thing and flubbed lines, looked startled
and didn’t seem to realize what was going on. I do remember
she said she was the last to be cast because ABC had demanded
at least one blonde and then she giggled.
This was the beginning of Farrah fever and by the time the series
debuted in September her famous poster, showing Farrah in a swimsuit
with her flowing hair and great big smile, swept the nation.
Over 12 million copies were sold.
She owed everything to manager Jay Bernstein, who carefully orchestrated
the campaign to emphasize her athleticism, her niceness (she
was then married to Lee Majors), her all-American charm. Farrah
dolls, T-shirts with her likeness, towels, you name it, soon
spurted forth from the amazing Bernstein campaign.
The series benefited from all the notoriety and the surging ratings
blew away the competition (CBS’s new series "Blue Knight"
and NBC’s "The Quest"). But Jackson and Smith
were more than a little miffed all the attention went Farrah’s
way.
.Farrah was born in Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1947, youngest
of two sisters. She’d been kicking around L.A. since 1968
in a succession of small parts. For nine years (1973-82) she
was married to actor Lee Majors–during these years she insisted
on the credit Farrah Fawcett-Majors. In 1982 she hooked up with
Ryan O’Neal and son Redmond was born in 1985.
If a poster had made Farrah a superstar, she quickly blew her
chance at film stardom. First, she took Bernstein’s advice
and walked away from "Charlie Angels," triggering a
huge lawsuit from Spelling and ABC that temporarily blocked her
from working anywhere else. A compromise was released: She returned
to the show for yearly guest appearances.
But the movies she chose for her new found fame were box office
bummers: "Somebody Killed Her Husband" (1978), "Sunburn"
(1979) and "Saturn 3" (1979) and she quickly became
something of an industry joke.
But Farrah demonstrated perseverance and fought back with an
off Broadway stint in the play "Extremities," playing
a rape victim. In 1984 she shone in the TV film "The Burning
Bed" as a battered wife and garnered the first of three
Emmy nominations. She took a Golden Globe nomination when a filmed
version of "Extremities" appeared in 1996.
She excelled in difficult material in TV movies: as Nazi hunter
Beate Klarsfeld, as Barbara Hutton in "Poor Little Rich
Girl" and as photographer Margaret Bourke White, who faced
Parkinson’s Disease. She convinced as convicted killer Diane
Downs in the TV miniseries "Small Sacrifices."
I remember chatting with her on a Toronto TV set (1995’s
"Jewel") and she was determined to seek out challenging
material. “That poster!” she said in mock outrage.
Still a handsome woman, she’d undergone a number of cosmetic
procedures that made her look surprised and wide eyed. She was
no longer naive about the business, but surprisingly well informed.
Yet a return to TV series work alongside Ryan O’Neal (1991’s
"Good Sports") was short-lived. She continued with
guest stints on "Ally McBeal" and "Spin City"
and was opposite Richard Gere in the film "dr. T and the
Women." And she displayed a sense of humor—witness
her strange appearance on David Letterman (Was she stoned?) that
she swore was a put on.
Fawcett was diagnosed with anal cancer in 2006 and underwent
painful chemotherapy and radiation but the cancer returned in
2007. She traveled to Germany for treatments listed as holistic
but in April was back in hospital –doctors said the cancer
had spread to her liver. Son Redmond was allowed to visit her,
shackled –he was serving time for drug addiction.
The documentary "Farrah’s Story," filmed by Fawcett
and pal Alana Stewart, ran on NBC May 15 and reached nine million
U.S. viewers.
Farrah died at 9:26 a. m. in a Santa Monica hospital, O’Neal
at her side.
For me, watching on DVD the dewey Farrah of 1976, incredibly
beautiful and so very naive, was a heart-wrenching experience.
Because this Texas beauty proved herself so much more than just
another sweet, young thing. She evolved over the long run as
an actress of substance and a woman of true courage.
©2009 by Jim Bawden. This column first posted June 29, 2009.
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