Farrah Fawcett Dies After 3 Year Battle With Cancer

Farrah Fawcett Dies After 3 Year Battle With Cancer
KTLA News

10:45 AM PDT, June 25, 2009

LOS ANGELES -- Farrah Fawcett has died after a long battle with cancer.

Fawcett, 62, died at St. John's Medical Center in Santa Monica at 9:28 a.m. Thursday morning with her longtime love, Ryan O'Neal, and her friend Alana Stewart by her side. O'Neal told reporters waiting outside the hospital this morning only that "she's gone."

O'Neal later released this statement:

"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."

Her death brings an end to a 3 year battle with anal cancer which later spread to her liver.

Fawcett, a native of Texas, is the daughter of James Fawcett and Pauline Evans.

She attended the University of Texas in Austin, graduating with a degree in Microbiology, but still wanted to be an actress.

After winning a campus beauty contest, she was spotted by an agent, who encouraged her to pursue acting.

After graduating, she moved to Los Angeles. Her all-American look helped her easily land roles in various television commercials for such products as Ultra-Brite toothpaste and Wella Balsam shampoo.

In 1968, she met actor Lee Majors, star of the popular TV series "The Big Valley" (1965).

In 1970, she won her first major role in the film adaptation of the Gore Vidal novel Myra Breckinridge (1970).

In 1973, she and Majors married, and the following year, she won a recurring role in the crime series "Harry O" (1973).

A supporting role in the science fiction film Logan's Run (1976) brought her to the attention of producer Aaron Spelling.

Spelling cast her in what was to become her trademark role in the TV series "Charlie's Angels" (1976).

She played a private investigator who worked for a wealthy and mysterious businessman, along with two other glamorous female detectives, played by Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith.

The show immediately became the most popular series on television, earning record ratings and a huge audience.

Farrah left the show at its peak to pursue a movie career.

The move drew a negative reaction from many fans. As a result of that and some poor script choices, her career briefly hit a slow spot.

In addition, she and Majors separated in 1979.

In 1981, she met Ryan O'Neal, a friend of her husband's, and they became friends and spent a great deal of time together. In 1982, she filed for divorce, which Majors readily agreed to. Soon, she and O'Neal were a couple and moved in together.

She made a major comeback when she starred in the searing story of a battered wife in the TV movie The Burning Bed (1984), based on a true story. Her performance landed her nominations for both an Emmy and a Golden Globe.

The following year, she and O'Neal became the parents of a son, Redmond O'Neal. She tried to continue her momentum with a starring role in Extremities (1986), but while she garnered some positive reviews, the show was not well-received.

In 1995, she surprised her fans by posing for "Playboy" at the age of 48 and it became the magazine's best-selling issue of that decade.

Her relationship with O'Neal was deteriorating, however, and in 1997, they broke up. The break-up took a toll, and at that time she received very bad publicity when she appeared on "Late Show with David Letterman" (1993) and gave a rambling interview, sparking rumors of drug use.

The couple eventually reunited, but never married.

In September 2006, Fawcett began to feel strangely exhausted. She underwent two weeks of tests and was told the devastating news: She had anal cancer.

O'Neal, with whom she had a 17-year relationship, again became her constant companion, escorting her to the hospital for chemotherapy.

"She's so strong," the actor told a reporter. "I love her. I love her all over again."

She struggled to maintain her privacy, but a UCLA Medical Center employee pleaded guilty in late 2008 to violating federal medical privacy law for commercial purposes for selling records of Fawcett and other celebrities to the National Enquirer.

"It's much easier to go through something and deal with it without being under a microscope," she told the Los Angeles Times in an interview in which she also revealed that she helped set up a sting that led to the hospital worker's arrest.

Her decision to tell her own story through the NBC documentary was meant as an inspiration to others, friends said. The segments showing her cancer treatment, including a trip to Germany for procedures there, were originally shot for a personal, family record, they said. And although weak, she continued to show flashes of grit and good humor in the documentary.

"I do not want to die of this disease. So I say to God, `It is seriously time for a miracle,"' she said at one point.

There was no immediate word on funeral arrangements.