An icon of the 70s whose career expanded well into this decade. Farrah Fawcett lost her struggle with cancer today, passing away at the age of 62. The Charlie's Angels star had been back in the headlines in recent months due to her illness, which was the subject of May's NBC's special Farrah's Story.
Best known as the 70s pin-up whose hair was the first to inspire a national craze, Fawcett worked throughout her career to expand her repertoire, moving into Broadway work with 1983's Extremities and taking on a number of challenging TV movie roles. As late as 1997, after she'd done a controversial Playboy spread and gone loopy on Letterman, she had a supporting role in The Apostle, which earned her an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Actress.
Fawcett may be best remembered for the hair, the tan, and the Charlie's Angels gun, but her dogged efforts to move beyond being simply a sex symbol may well inspire starlets for decades to come. Especially in light of her fierce struggle against cancer over the last two years, Fawcett has most certainly gone down a fighter.
