Farrah Fawcett of TV’s ‘Charlie’s Angels’ Dies of Cancer at 62

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CHICAGO – Actress Farrah Fawcett, who rose to fame by starring in 29 episodes of TV’s “Charlie’s Angels” from 1976 to 1980, has died of anal cancer in the ICU at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, Calif., according to her representative. She was 62.

Throughout her carrier, Fawcett also was featured in “The Cookout,” “The Guardian,” “Spin City,” “Dr. T & the Women,” “Ally McBeal,” “Silk Hope,” “Man of the House,” “The Six Million Dollar Man,” “The Partridge Family” and “I Dream of Jeannie”.

Fawcett was diagnosed with anal cancer in 2006. She was pronounced dead at 9:28 a.m. on Thursday. Farrah Fawcett’s only child, Redmond Fawcett, was not present.

Longtime partner Ryan O’Neal along with Alana Stewart were at her bedside. Redmond Fawcett’s father is Ryan O’Neal. Redmond is 24 and is presently serving a prison term in California after recurring drug offenses.

A native of Corpus Christi, Texas, Fawcett was born on Feb. 2, 1947 as the younger daughter of a homemaker mother and her oil-field contractor husband. Fawcett married actor Lee Majors in 1973.

“I became famous almost before I had a craft,” Fawcett said in an interview with the New York Times in 1986, which was four years after her divorce from Majors. Fawcett was already involved with Ryan O’Neal by then.

She added in the interview: “I didn’t study drama at school. I was an art major. Suddenly, when I was doing ‘Charlie’s Angels,’ I was getting all this fan mail. I didn’t really know why. I don’t think anybody else did either.”

Update at 7:23 p.m. on June 25, 2009: King of pop Michael Jackson also died on Thursday.

By ADAM FENDELMAN Editor-in-Chief HollywoodChicago.com adam@hollywoodchicago.com