Farrah Fawcett Biography

Actress. Born Ferrah Leni Fawcett, on February 2, 1947, in the coastal city of Corpus Christi, Texas. She was the second daughter of Pauline, a homemaker, and Jim Fawcett, an oil field contractor. She later changed her name to Farrah.

She attended John J. Pershing Middle School in Houston, Texas, a school which is now the magnet program for fine arts. From 1962-65, Fawcett attended W.B. Ray High School, where she held the title of "Most Beautiful Student" for all four years.

In the fall of 1965, Fawcett enrolled at The University of Texas at Austin, where she planned to major in microbiology and joined the Delta Delta Delta sorority. The following year, a celebrity publicist asked her to go to California to work as a model. Initially, her parents forbade her to go, however, in the summer of 1968 they conceded and accompanied Fawcett on her trip out west to Hollywood. Within two weeks of arriving, she landed a modeling contract. Immediately inundated with offers to star in TV commercials and print advertisements, Fawcett's plan to return to school fell by the wayside.

Fawcett remained in Hollywood and began a relationship with actor Lee Majors. The couple dated for five years before marrying on July 28, 1973. That same year, Majors began starring in his own hit TV series, The Six Million Dollar Man, in which Fawcett made several guest appearances.

On September 22, 1976, Fawcett debuted as former policewoman Jill Monroe in the TV series Charlie's Angels. Also starring fellow beauties Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith, the Aaron Spelling drama premiered to high ratings. However, critics had a dimmer view, classifying Charlie's Angels as "family style porn" and "jiggle TV."

During the show's first season, a poster of Fawcett dressed in a seemingly innocent red bathing suit sold 12 million copies. The image, which catapulted Fawcett to superstardom, epitomized her perfect combination of girl-next-door innocence and blonde bombshell sexuality. Furthermore, the layered hairstyle that she sported became such an overwhelming trend with American women that a Farrah Fawcett shampoo was launched.

Despite her overwhelming popularity, Fawcett didn't return for the second season of Charlie's Angels. Spelling, who wielded a large amount of power in Hollywood, sued the actress for breech of contract. Faced with a $7 million lawsuit, Fawcett settled out of court by agreeing to make periodic guest appearances on the show over the next few years.

Fawcett turned her attention toward film roles, appearing in Logan's Run (1976), Sunburn (1979), and Saturn 3 (1980), all of which performed poorly at the box office. The subsequent roles she was offered reflected the industry's doubts about her talent as a serious actress.

Although Fawcett was praised for her first dramatic television performance in the 1981 miniseries Murder in Texas, her appearance as a ditsy blonde in the film Cannonball Run (1981) was more typical of the scripts that came her way.