Farrah got about three hours’ run on her passing before the King of Freaks pushed her off stage and out of the news. Which is completely a shame because Farrah was one of the Great Texas Women, and her passing deserved more attention.
Born in Corpus Christi, she went out to Hollywood in 1968 after attending the University of Texas for a couple of years. As a Tri-Delt pledge, she was the star of campus, which is particularly difficult to do at Texas, given its size. An attorney I once tried a case with attended UT the same year as Farrah (and was in the Texas Cowboys service group), and knew her and her friends very well. This guy told me she was absolutely radiant in person, and men would do anything just to meet her. He said most women also hated her pretty intensely, and would make up accusations trying to get her in trouble (universities had much more restrictive rules for freshman than today). Another prominent lawyer once told me a completely hilarious story about Farrah's father, which I can't (or won't) repeat here. Just ask me and I'll tell it to you though.
After leaving for Hollywood, she became an instant smash, almost 10 years later in Charlie’s Angels. Before then she became known in commercials and TV show guest appearances. I was only nine, but I remember very clearly seeing her in the Joe Namath-Noxzema commercials, thinking “who is this and how can I see more of her?” That’s the same way I thought of my first grade teacher Mrs. Stubbs. Which is weird that of all the things I’d remember from 1973, that was it. That and moving to Kingwood, of course.
She didn’t really hit until 1976, with first the poster, then Logan’s Run, then Charlie’s Angels What’s interesting about that show is that if you watch it today, it looks like its just cheese. Hot girls in shorts. Hot girls running through fields. Hot girls at the pool. Hot girls on a chain gang. But at the time, seeing women solve crimes and arrest bad guys, without much of any help from a man, was still kind of groundbreaking. It took quality acting to give that kind of show some degree of believability. The other interesting thing about Farrah on that show was that she was only on it for one season. We immediately associate Farrah with Charlie’s Angels, but she made that image in only one season (maybe 16 shows).
It would have been incredibly easy to keep cashing those fat Aaron Spelling checks, but she left the show to find more challenging parts. While she may not have had the same sort of commercial success, she did manage to display considerable acting ability. She starred in The Burning Bed, winning an Emmy for playing an abused spouse. Later she starred in Extremities, playing an assault victim looking for revenge. Farrah had initially played the role in the off-Broadway production. She won critical acclaim playing a minister’s wife in The Apostle. Co-star Robert Duvall gushed about her acting ability.
Her personal life had lots of difficulties, which she fought to overcome. Partner Ryan O’Neal’s long-time alcoholism, and his son’s drug use, were the sorts of challenges Farrah dealt with. The David Letterman interview was a low moment, albeit extremely funny. I did like that while interviewing whack-job Joaquin Phoenix recently, Dave said “we owe an apology to Farrah Fawcett.” People forget she was on Letterman to promote her appearance in Playboy, which, I may say, was stunning. At 50, she had a better body than 90% of most 25 year olds. And by that, I mean the articles were great in that edition. It was Playboy’s biggest selling issue of the 1990s. Towards the end of her life, she had a reality show that was very open about her cancer and her treatment. The show no doubt raised awareness about cancer treatment and the struggles cancer causes for victims and their families.
In short, she was one of the great Texas women. Strong, resilient, beautiful, loyal, smart, funny, fun, magnetic, radiant, gracious. She sought challenges in life. She lived with integrity. She died with class.
Born in Corpus Christi, she went out to Hollywood in 1968 after attending the University of Texas for a couple of years. As a Tri-Delt pledge, she was the star of campus, which is particularly difficult to do at Texas, given its size. An attorney I once tried a case with attended UT the same year as Farrah (and was in the Texas Cowboys service group), and knew her and her friends very well. This guy told me she was absolutely radiant in person, and men would do anything just to meet her. He said most women also hated her pretty intensely, and would make up accusations trying to get her in trouble (universities had much more restrictive rules for freshman than today). Another prominent lawyer once told me a completely hilarious story about Farrah's father, which I can't (or won't) repeat here. Just ask me and I'll tell it to you though.
After leaving for Hollywood, she became an instant smash, almost 10 years later in Charlie’s Angels. Before then she became known in commercials and TV show guest appearances. I was only nine, but I remember very clearly seeing her in the Joe Namath-Noxzema commercials, thinking “who is this and how can I see more of her?” That’s the same way I thought of my first grade teacher Mrs. Stubbs. Which is weird that of all the things I’d remember from 1973, that was it. That and moving to Kingwood, of course.
She didn’t really hit until 1976, with first the poster, then Logan’s Run, then Charlie’s Angels What’s interesting about that show is that if you watch it today, it looks like its just cheese. Hot girls in shorts. Hot girls running through fields. Hot girls at the pool. Hot girls on a chain gang. But at the time, seeing women solve crimes and arrest bad guys, without much of any help from a man, was still kind of groundbreaking. It took quality acting to give that kind of show some degree of believability. The other interesting thing about Farrah on that show was that she was only on it for one season. We immediately associate Farrah with Charlie’s Angels, but she made that image in only one season (maybe 16 shows).
It would have been incredibly easy to keep cashing those fat Aaron Spelling checks, but she left the show to find more challenging parts. While she may not have had the same sort of commercial success, she did manage to display considerable acting ability. She starred in The Burning Bed, winning an Emmy for playing an abused spouse. Later she starred in Extremities, playing an assault victim looking for revenge. Farrah had initially played the role in the off-Broadway production. She won critical acclaim playing a minister’s wife in The Apostle. Co-star Robert Duvall gushed about her acting ability.
Her personal life had lots of difficulties, which she fought to overcome. Partner Ryan O’Neal’s long-time alcoholism, and his son’s drug use, were the sorts of challenges Farrah dealt with. The David Letterman interview was a low moment, albeit extremely funny. I did like that while interviewing whack-job Joaquin Phoenix recently, Dave said “we owe an apology to Farrah Fawcett.” People forget she was on Letterman to promote her appearance in Playboy, which, I may say, was stunning. At 50, she had a better body than 90% of most 25 year olds. And by that, I mean the articles were great in that edition. It was Playboy’s biggest selling issue of the 1990s. Towards the end of her life, she had a reality show that was very open about her cancer and her treatment. The show no doubt raised awareness about cancer treatment and the struggles cancer causes for victims and their families.
In short, she was one of the great Texas women. Strong, resilient, beautiful, loyal, smart, funny, fun, magnetic, radiant, gracious. She sought challenges in life. She lived with integrity. She died with class.
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