Farrah Fawcett Dead

Farrah Fawcett dead at 62 after long battle with anal cancer

by Vicki Hyman/The Star-Ledger

Thursday June 25, 2009, 12:45 PM

RAY STUBBLEBINE/AP PHOTOFarrah Fawcett and Ryan O'Neal at the 1989 premiere of 'Chances Are.' Fawcett died after a 3-year battle with anal cancer today.

Farrah Fawcett, the 1970s jiggle icon known equally for "Charlie's Angels," her feathered hair, that skimpy red swimsuit, and her stormy love life, died this morning after a long struggle with anal cancer, Entertainment Tonight reports. She was 62.

Longtime love Ryan O'Neal, who recently promised to marry Fawcett, and her friend Alana Stewart, who filmed a documentary about her cancer battle, were by her side when she died at 9:28 a.m. PST at a Los Angeles hospital. Her only child, Redmond O'Neal, is in jail on drug charges, but did receive permission for a final visit with his mother a few weeks ago.

The Star-Ledger's Alan Sepinwall looks back at Fawcett's career.

JASON SZENES/EPAFawcett in the front row at New York Fashion Week in 2004.

Fawcett was diagnosed with anal cancer in 2006, and though it went into remission, it reappeared last year. She wanted to keep her struggle private, but the National Enquirer published stories about her health, apparently gleaned from hospital employees who illegally pried in her records. Fawcett even cooperated with a sting operation to flush out the prying employees.

As of a few months ago, Fawcett still had hope that she would beat cancer. Her doctor said in April that Fawcett "remains in good spirits with her usual sense of humor. She's been in great shape her whole life and has an incredible resolve and an incredible resilience."

Not long after, O'Neal confirmed that Fawcett hadstopped treatment, was bed-ridden and has lost most of her famed locks.

Barbara Walters said on "Good Morning America" this morning that Fawcett had received last rites, and that she had been too weak to marry O'Neal, as he had promised. Fawcett and O'Neal dated through most of the 1980s and 1990s, then reunited after O'Neal's own cancer scare a few years ago. Fawcett was previously married to "Six Million Dollar Man" star Lee Majors in the 1970s.

ABC/AP PHOTOFarrah Fawcett, right, Kate Jackson, left, and Jacyln Smith were the original 'Charlie's Angels.' Fawcett only spent a season on the show, but she's inextricably linked with it.

VINCE BUCCI/GETTY IMAGESJackson, Fawcett, and Smith were reunited at the 58th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards in August 2006.