Cancer-stricken Fawcett close to death/dead

[hesnothere]

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/entertainment/06/25/09/cancer-stricken-fawcett-close-death-report

LOS ANGELES - Cancer-stricken star Farrah Fawcett has been given her last rites and could be close to death, ABC News reported Thursday.

Sources close to the "Charlie's Angels" actress have told veteran television interviewer Barbara Walters that the 62-year-old actress may have only hours to live, ABC reported.

Walters made the disclosure in comments to the "Good Morning America" breakfast television show.

"I'm not sure if she's going to make it through the day," Walters was quoted as saying. "She's had her last rites."

Heavy sigh...

[ElleGee]

Damn......

[ElleGee]

She died

cnn headline

Actress Farrah Fawcett, star of TV's "Charlie's Angels," has died after a battle with cancer, her representative says.

[hesnothere]

She died

cnn headline

Actress Farrah Fawcett, star of TV's "Charlie's Angels," has died after a battle with cancer, her representative says.

Just so sad...

[4diego]

I figured she would when they said that her dad was coming from Texas to be with her. You figure, he has to be up there in years so it had to be bad for them to bring him to LA. That's such a shame.

[sandooch]

My heart and prayers go out to her and her family.

[suzski]

RIP, lovely lady.

[eden123]

I feel so sad I could cry. What a horrible shame.

[BeanieLuvR]

So very sad. She was a beautiful lady. I remember getting my hair cut to look like her hair when I was a teen. Prayers of comfort for her family.

[candygirl]

By BOB THOMAS, Associated Press Writer Bob Thomas, Associated Press Writer – 11 mins ago

LOS ANGELES – Farrah Fawcett, the "Charlie's Angels" star whose feathered blond hair and dazzling smile made her one of the biggest sex symbols of the 1970s, died Thursday after battling cancer. She was 62.

The pop icon, who in the 1980s set aside the fantasy girl image to tackle serious roles, died shortly before 9:30 a.m. in a Santa Monica hospital, spokesman Paul Bloch said.

Ryan O'Neal, the longtime companion who had reunited with Fawcett as she fought anal cancer, was at her side, along with close friend Alana Stewart, Bloch said.

"After a long and brave battle with cancer, our beloved Farrah has passed away," O'Neal said. "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."

She burst on the scene in 1976 as one-third of the crime-fighting trio in TV's "Charlie's Angels." A poster of her in a clingy swimsuit sold in the millions.

She left the show after one season but had a flop on the big screen with "Somebody Killed Her Husband." She turned to more serious roles in the 1980s and 1990s, winning praise playing an abused wife in "The Burning Bed."

She had been diagnosed with cancer in 2006. As she underwent treatment, she enlisted the help of O'Neal, who was the father of her now 24-year-old son, Redmond.

This month, O'Neal said he asked Fawcett to marry him and she agreed. They would wed "as soon as she can say yes," he said.

Her struggle with painful treatments and dispiriting setbacks was recorded in the television documentary "Farrah's Story." Fawcett sought cures in Germany as well as the United States, battling the disease with iron determination even as her body weakened.

"Her big message to people is don't give up, no matter what they say to you, keep fighting," her friend Stewart said. NBC estimated the May 15, 2009, broadcast drew nearly 9 million viewers.

In the documentary, Fawcett was seen shaving off most of her trademark locks before chemotherapy could claim them. Toward the end, she's seen huddled in bed, barely responding to a visit from her son.

Fawcett, Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith made up the original "Angels," the sexy, police-trained trio of martial arts experts who took their assignments from a rich, mysterious boss named Charlie (John Forsythe, who was never seen on camera but whose distinctive voice was heard on speaker phone.)

The program debuted in September 1976, the height of what some critics derisively referred to as television's "jiggle show" era, and it gave each of the actresses ample opportunity to show off their figures as they disguised themselves in bathing suits and as hookers and strippers to solve crimes.

Backed by a clever publicity campaign, Fawcett — then billed as Farrah Fawcett-Majors because of her marriage to "The Six Million Dollar Man" star Lee Majors — quickly became the most popular Angel of all.

Her face helped sell T-shirts, lunch boxes, shampoo, wigs and even a novelty plumbing device called Farrah's faucet. Her flowing blond hair, pearly white smile and trim, shapely body made her a favorite with male viewers in particular.

A poster of her in a dampened red swimsuit sold millions of copies and became a ubiquitous wall decoration in teenagers' rooms.

Thus the public and the show's producer, Spelling-Goldberg, were shocked when she announced after the series' first season that she was leaving television's No. 5-rated series to star in feature films. (Cheryl Ladd became the new "Angel" on the series.)

But the movies turned out to be a platform where Fawcett was never able to duplicate her TV success. Her first star vehicle, the comedy-mystery "Somebody Killed Her Husband," flopped and Hollywood cynics cracked that it should have been titled "Somebody Killed Her Career."

The actress had also been in line to star in "Foul Play" for Columbia Pictures. But the studio opted for Goldie Hawn instead. "Spelling-Goldberg warned all the studios that that they would be sued for damages if they employed me," Fawcett told The Associated Press in 1979. "The studios wouldn't touch me."

She finally reached an agreement to appear in three episodes of "Charlie's Angels" a season, an experience she called "painful."

She returned to making movies, including the futuristic thriller "Logan's Run," the comedy-thriller "Sunburn" and the strange sci-fi tale "Saturn 3," but none clicked with the public.

Fawcett fared better with television movies such as "Murder in Texas," "Poor Little Rich Girl" and especially as an abused wife in 1984's "The Burning Bed." The last earned her an Emmy nomination and the long-denied admission from critics that she really could act.

As further proof of her acting credentials, Fawcett appeared off-Broadway in "Extremities" as a woman who is raped in her own home. She repeated the role in the 1986 film version.

Not content to continue playing victims, she switched type. She played a murderous mother in the 1989 true-crime story "Small Sacrifices" and a tough lawyer on the trail of a thief in 1992's "Criminal Behavior."

She also starred in biographies of Nazi-hunter Beate Klarsfeld and photographer Margaret Bourke-White.

"I felt that I was doing a disservice to ourselves by portraying only women as victims," she commented in a 1992 interview.

In 1995, at age 50, Fawcett posed partly nude for Playboy magazine. The following year, she starred in a Playboy video, "All of Me," in which she was equally unclothed while she sculpted and painted.

She told an interviewer she considered the experience "a renaissance," adding, "I no longer feel ... restrictions emotionally, artistically, creatively or in my everyday life. I don't feel those borders anymore."

Fawcett's most unfortunate career moment may have been a 1997 appearance on David Letterman's show, when her disjointed, rambling answers led many to speculate that she was on drugs. She denied that, blaming her strange behavior on questionable advice from her mother to be playful and have a good time.

In September 2006, Fawcett, who at 59 still maintained a strict regimen of tennis and paddleball, 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.

Born Feb. 2, 1947, in Corpus Christi, Texas, she was named Mary Farrah Leni Fawcett by her mother, who said she added the Farrah because it sounded good with Fawcett. She was less than a month old when she underwent surgery to remove a digestive tract tumor with which she was born.

After attending Roman Catholic grade school and W.B. Ray High School, Fawcett enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin. Fellow students voted her one of the 10 most beautiful people on the campus and her photos were eventually spotted by movie publicist David Mirisch, who suggested she pursue a film career. After overcoming her parents' objections, she agreed.

Soon she was appearing in such TV shows as "That Girl," "The Flying Nun," "I Dream of Jeannie" and "The Partridge Family."

Majors became both her boyfriend and her adviser on career matters, and they married in 1973. She dropped his last name from hers after they divorced in 1982.

By then she had already begun her long relationship with O'Neal. Both Redmond and Ryan O'Neal have grappled with drug and legal problems in recent years.

[gmyers]

At least she wont suffer anymore. But its sad she's gone.

[YankeeMary]

This is very sad! RIP Farrah!

[OkeDoke]

I hope her father made it to her bedside before she passed.

[Mini]

OMG...I was so hoping she would make it but she put up a great battle and its good to know she wont suffer anymore you know she had to be in pain

[SurferGirl]

She was so talented and I know she will really be missed.

[meltodd69]

Now she is truely an angel! Spread your wings and fly lovely lady. You will be missed.

[MistyWolf]

RIP Farrah .. you are free from pain and suffering and will always be remembered.

Prayers to the Fawcett family and friends.

[jeanea33]

so sad....

[Mini]

Farrah Fawcett's jailed son will get a day pass to attend his beloved mother's funeral.

Redmond O'Neal, behind bars at the Pitchess Detention Center in California, will be escorted by deputies of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department to the sad farewell.

O'Neal, 24, can trade his prison-issue outfit for a suit and tie before the funeral at a downtown Los Angeles cathedral for the late "Charlie's Angels" star.

The date of the funeral was not yet set.

"He will be able to wear a suit," confirmed department spokesman Steve Whitmore. "Protocol is that he will still be in handcuffs and leg cuffs."

Redmond, Fawcett's troubled son with actor Ryan O'Neal, was jailed April 5 for a probation violation - heroin possession.

Authorities granted him two opportunities to visit his dying mother, the last one on May 15. He learned of his mother's Thursday morning death while still in county lockup.

Fawcett, 62, died after a three-year battle with anal cancer.

http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip,/entertainment/2009/06/26/2009-06-26_farrah_fawcetts_jailed_son_redmond_oneal_grante d_pass_to_attend_her_funeral_afte.html

[YankeeMary]

Farrah Fawcett's jailed son will get a day pass to attend his beloved mother's funeral.

Redmond O'Neal, behind bars at the Pitchess Detention Center in California, will be escorted by deputies of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department to the sad farewell.

O'Neal, 24, can trade his prison-issue outfit for a suit and tie before the funeral at a downtown Los Angeles cathedral for the late "Charlie's Angels" star.

The date of the funeral was not yet set.

"He will be able to wear a suit," confirmed department spokesman Steve Whitmore. "Protocol is that he will still be in handcuffs and leg cuffs."

Redmond, Fawcett's troubled son with actor Ryan O'Neal, was jailed April 5 for a probation violation - heroin possession.

Authorities granted him two opportunities to visit his dying mother, the last one on May 15. He learned of his mother's Thursday morning death while still in county lockup.

Fawcett, 62, died after a three-year battle with anal cancer.

http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip,/entertainment/2009/06/26/2009-06-26_farrah_fawcetts_jailed_son_redmond_oneal_grante d_pass_to_attend_her_funeral_afte.html

How great is that? I am glad he gets to go. I can't imagine not being allowed to go to my own mothers funeral.

[krisharry]

So sad. I remember playing Charlie's Angels as a kid, such fun we had. We had a target range with dart guns w/the Angels on them and all the trading cards too.