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By Kate Blake, Editor TEH

I was a little girl when Charlie’s Angels burst onto the pop culture scene and Farrah Fawcett became an overnight sensation. Her tan skin, soft husky voice and the feathered blond hair were features every girl wanted to emulate. When she posed for a certain poster that went up in the bedrooms and lockers of young males all over the country- the Texas native became an icon for the clean California look of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Farrah was only on one season of Charlie’s Angels but it is the role most people associate her with the most.

She went on of  course to do a number of other acting roles that garnered her critical acclaim. The TV movie The Burning Bed was the film that brought battered wive’s syndrom into our popular lexicon. She played a woman who killed her husband after years of abuse. She also starred in a mini-series Small Sacrifices with her long time love Ryan O’Neal which won critical acclaim.

Farrah was a regular in the tabloids though she didn’t really live her life on display as so many Hollywood types do. She had a very high profile marriage to the Six Million Dollar Man Lee Majors and even appeared breifly in the first season of his second tv series The Fall Guy. After their marriage ended, Farrah found love with Ryan O’Neal. They had a son together – Redmond. Farrah acted and spent much of her time working on her other passion- her art. She painted and sculpted and was very accomplished at both. This was a woman who knew the value of balance in her life and expressed herself through a variety of creative outlets.

She was diagnosed with late stage anal cancer in 2007 and the fight for life became her constant battle. At her side was her good friend Alaina Stewart ( ex-wife of Rod Stewart and George Hamilton) . Farrah had Alaina film her battle with cancer and the documentary was aired last month on NBC as “Farrah’s Story”. Critics claimed it was self serving but I didn’t see any of that in the film. What I saw was a woman not yet done with life who was determined to beat the odds and live and was willing to do whatever it takes to do so. Along the way she hit some huge walls- one of which was when her personal medical records were leaked to the tabloids from UCLA where she was receiving treatment. Her battle with the tabloids led to the state of California adopting strict regulations on patients data and doling out severe punishment to violators of the trust. Farrah’s battle has rolled out to many other states protecting personal information for millions.

Her much publicized trips to Germany for treatment was documented in her film. The treatments she was receiving were a type that had not yet been approved in the US but were approved in Germany. These were specific chemotherapy treatments that targetted the cancer that had moved into her liver. The  documentary showed Farrah going through the painful treatments that left her sick, weak and exhausted. That she stuck with them showed her will to live. After some time- she got the news they worked and went through a brief period of remission.

During all of this- she and O’Neal reconnected. He stated he fell in love with her all over again. Their son has had an ongoing battle of his own with drugs. O’Neal’s daughter Tatum has had a long history of drug problems too. Their parental worries and Farrah’s illness gave them a reason to bond together and rediscover what they loved about each most. This week they had announced that after more than twenty years of their on again off again romance they were going to marry. It didn’t happen.

Farrah passed away yesterday at the age of 62. She leaves her son, her father and Ryan along with a host of friends and fans who will miss her. I suspect this will very hard on her father who is in his 80s and has lost both of his daughters to cancer and lost his wife several years ago as well. Our hearts reach out with love and compassion for Farrah who has passed on beyond the pain of illness now and to those she left behind.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 26th, 2009 at 11:26 am and is filed under Celebrity News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.