Her beauty routine was simple
Fawcett didn’t rely on elaborate skincare. She claimed that a sandy beach was “the greatest dead skin cleanser” (Beauticate). She often wore minimal makeup and even did her own hair and makeup for the swimsuit poster without a mirror, according to her friend Nels Van Patten.
Her makeup artist, Patrick Foley, later recreated her favorite lipstick shade in collaboration with Nude Envie.
Secret behind her hair
Fawcett’s feathered hair remains iconic. Hairstylist Allen Edwards once described creating the look: ”The way you do it is by blow drying hair mostly with a brush and just curling the ends with a smaller brush… then you clip it and by the time you finish the hair is dry, you take the clips out, turn your head upside down and boom there you have the Farrah. People went crazy over it.”
One of Farrah’s hairstylists was Jose Eber, who in the 1980s styled some of Hollywood’s biggest names (including Cheryl Ladd and Raquel Welch). According to Eber, Farrah had ‘good hair and a lot of natural wave,’ but she often did her own hair.
”She’s very talented, she can do it very well herself,” Eber told The Pittsburgh Press.”
Meeting Lee Majors was love at first sight
Fawcett married actor Lee Majors in 1973. She told People that when Majors first saw her in a photo in his agent’s office, he called her shortly afterward. She recalled, “It was love at first sight, I guess,” and added that she “melted into a thousand pieces” when they met. They separated in 1979 and divorced three years later. Majors noted in 2019, “There was a year or so when I think I saw her two weeks in one year. It’s very difficult with careers like that. This business is tough.”
Tennis helped her land Charlie’s Angels
Fawcett’s role as Jill Munroe catapulted her to stardom. Her former assistant Mike Pingel told Closer Weekly that the three leads were “not only breaking the ceiling of being three leads on their own show, but they were number one in the ratings. It was just lightning in a bottle.”
Her tennis skills, honed with Lee Majors while playing with producer Aaron Spelling, helped secure the role, and a tennis storyline was even added for her character.
Replacing Susan Sarandon off-Broadway
Fawcett wasn’t just a pretty face. She starred in the off-Broadway play Extremities in 1983, replacing Susan Sarandon, and received some of the best reviews of her career. She reprised the role in the 1986 film adaptation, earning a Golden Globe nomination. Her 2003 Broadway appearance in Bobbi Boland, however, was unsuccessful.
Substance abuse rumors
Fawcett’s image suffered in the late ‘80s and ‘90s. A 1997 Late Show with David Letterman appearance left viewers speculating about substance abuse, which hur husband at the time, Ryan O’Neal denied.
”It was her first time on the show. She was just nervous,” her publicist said.
A few months later, Fawcett told the host of The Howard Stern Show that her antics were just her joking around, partly to promote her Playboy pictorial and video. She said what looked like random glances around the theater was really her spotting and reacting to fans in the audience.
Charlie’s Angels and her personal life
Fawcett left Charlie’s Angels after one season, reportedly wanting to avoid typecasting. She told People in 1979, ”The industry was furious with me and hostile because I was a TV sex symbol who wanted to be an actress. People thought I was really pretentious, and for months no one would touch me.”
During her marriage to Majors, she still made it home from set to cook dinner. She said in 1989, ”Lee was silent. He didn’t talk. He didn’t support my leaving the show. He thought I should come home and make the dinner.”
”None of us wears a bra”
Fawcett was eager to explore her creative side, but the producers of Charlie’s Angels couldn’t promise her the kind of artistic satisfaction she wanted. She told The Washington Post, “I want them to start showing she’s had some hard knocks, too, and cries, and is sad. Who’s gonna care about her if all she does is say, ‘Ooo! This week I get to play the hooker?’”
At the same time, Fawcett recognized the limits of being on a show often dismissed as “jiggle TV.” She once reflected, “When the show got to be No. 3, I figured it was our acting. When it got to be No. 1, I decided it could only be because none of us wears a bra.”
The Tonight Show
Back in August 1978, Farrah Fawcett appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson to promote Somebody Killed Her Husband, and fans watching the clip today can’t help but notice — she was absolutely at the peak of her career. Radiant in a stunning red dress, Farrah had the effortless glow of a true star.
She wasn’t just a beauty queen on screen — Farrah was truly gorgeous inside and out, a talent and presence that today’s late-night TV can hardly touch.