All language subtitles for [English] Farrah Fawcett_ Behind Closed Doors [DownSub.com]

-She's the stunning Texas beauty
who takes Hollywood by storm.

-Farrah Fawcett was probably

the world's
most famous sex symbol.

-When she smiled at you,
that was devastating to people.

You couldn't stop
thinking about her.

-It wasn't just her beauty.

It was just the whole package.

-A legendary poster
would make her famous.

-She came to the bedroom door
in the red suit, and I said,

"Yeah, I think
this could be good."

-"Charlie's Angels"
would make her a star.

-Here comes this show
of three young women

who don't seem to own any
undergarments chasing killers.

-Was it jiggle TV? Yeah.

By the same token,
"Charlie's Angels"

has three women kicking ass
and taking names.

-But she risks it all when she
walks away from the hit show.

-I wanted the shows
to be about something.

-She followed her own path,

and she took a lot
of grief for it.

-After marriage to Lee Majors,
she bounces back

with a passionate romance
with Ryan O'Neal.

-Before there was Brad
and Angie,

there was Farrah and Ryan.

-They were very much in love,
fiery as well.

-Determined to prove she is
more than a pretty blonde,

she takes another risk
in her career.

-She decides to do
Off-Broadway.

-People were totally
knocked out.

-I remember thinking,
"I'll never do anything

this powerful again."

-But no amount of professional
succeeds could prepare her

for a devastating
personal diagnosis.

-Farrah was so shocked to be
diagnosed with cancer.

-Her whole world
was coming apart.

-Farrah fought for every
last second of life.

-We take a look at the life
and legacy of the original angel

and poster girl next door,
the actress...

-I would like to be
very successful in films,

hopefully being taken seriously.
-... the artist...

-She never felt more
like herself

than when she was just wearing
a t-shirt

and had her hands
in a bunch of clay.

-...the icon.

-She decided to be a boss
when men were running Hollywood.

-What's interesting is that
everything's unpredictable.

♪♪

-This is "Farrah Fawcett:
Behind Closed Doors."

Hello and welcome
to "Behind Closed Doors."

I'm Natalie Morales.

Farrah Fawcett is
an all-American icon

known for her looks
and girl next door attitude.

In a 1980s TV commercial
for the American Cancer Society,

a young, glowing Farrah says,

"When you've got health,
you've got it all."

Well, decades later the world
would be shocked to learn

the original Charlie's Angel
has a rare form of cancer.

From the unexpected moves
she makes in her career

to the men she gives
her heart to,

Farrah admits her life
is full of contradictions.

Toward the end of her career,
the sexy and alluring pinup girl

wants to remembered
for one thing -- surviving.

But three years after
being diagnosed,

her story of survival
comes to a painful end.

-Farrah Fawcett's
private battle

with cancer
becomes very public.

The actress has been
struggling with her illness

since being diagnosed in 2006.

-Ryan called me and said,

"If you want to see Farrah,

you've got to come now."

She was so beautiful
and so beautiful in death

with her little short hair
and just, you know, so peaceful.

♪♪

It's hard to lose a friend
like that.

-We were all holding her hand

and, you know,
telling her we loved her,

and she just looked so,
so peaceful.

-And then all the machines
flatlined, and she was...

She was gone.

-Actress and icon
Farrah Fawcett died

this morning
after a long battle with cancer.

-I was getting ready to board
a plane and saw on the screen

that my aunt took a turn
for the worse,

and by the time I had landed,
you know, she had passed away.

-We didn't think anyone even
knew she was in the hospital,

and there were
a hundred paparazzi all over,

hiding in the trees,
in the bushes, whatever,

and the minute we walked out,

they somehow knew.

-I just couldn't believe it,

and actually I thought
it wasn't true.

That's just -- The tabloids
and the entertainment shows,

they were just saying
that she had passed away

and that that really
didn't happen

because I just
didn't want to believe it.

-Actress Farrah Fawcett...
-The actress who became famous

as one of Charlie's Angels
died today at the age of 62.

-We understand, of course,
Ryan O'Neal was at her side.

He came out here earlier.
-Is she okay?

-How's she doing?
-Farrah is gone.

-Oh, my god.
-She's gone, Ryan?

-She's gone.

-The morning that Farrah
passed away,

I was being interviewed,

and somebody went outside
and turned on their phone

and said, "We need to leave.

Michael Jackson is dying."

-I was being interviewed
about her death,

and I was emotional
and talking about it.

In the middle of the interview,
the crew says,

"Sorry. We got to go.
Michael Jackson just died."

-"Los Angeles Times" saying
Michael Jackson has died,

50 years old.

-His death will surely be seen

as one of those iconic moments
in American life.

-The fact that Farrah died
on the same day

that Michael Jackson died

sent her obituary to the inside
pages of the newspapers.

What happened in the process
was that a lot of people

were never reminded
of the impact

she made
culturally on this society.

-I felt that completely
overshadowed the day

that she died,

that there was
so much press on him

and that we didn't get
to see what she did

and the person that she was,

but I talked
with friends of hers,

and we talked about this
at the funeral,

that she probably wouldn't have
wanted it any other way.

-What do you think Farrah
would've thought?

In some ways, she almost
had second billing.

-The bane of her existence
were tabloids and gossip

and the negative press
when they hounded her,

and I think she would've
sort of in a way gone,

"Thank God, somebody else
is taking the heat."

-She would say,
"Wouldn't you know

that Michael Jackson
and I would die the same day?"

But I think having
all the attention

go to Michael Jackson
was really a blessing because

she always wanted that privacy.

-Women, of course,
idolized Farrah.

They wanted to be her.

They imitated her.
They had her hair.

Men loved her.

What was it about Farrah?

-She just had something
very special about her,

special presence.

She was beautiful, but it wasn't
just her beauty, you know?

She was sexy in a sort of
all-American girl kind of way,

but she had
a great sense of humor.

It was her smile.

I think it was just
the whole package.

-She was one of those people
who was constantly talked about,

everything she did,
everything she didn't do.

-Farrah is an icon, you know?

She's one of
the very few celebrities

who only needs a first name.

There's only one Farrah.

-It's not her talent.
It's not her acting skill.

It's her ability to be alive,

to be joyful, to flirt,

to embrace this life
that she had.

You want to be a part of that.

-This was the girl next door
that we loved,

that was really sexy,
that was funny,

but somebody
we really rooted for.

I think her impact, certainly
on American pop culture,

cannot be overestimated.

♪♪

-Farrah Leni Fawcett
has a humble

beginning in
Corpus Christi, Texas,

born February 2, 1947,
to homemaker Pauline Fawcett

and oil-field
contractor James Fawcett.

The blonde beauty grows up
with sister, Diane,

in a close-knit Catholic family.

-It certainly wasn't luxurious.

My grandfather worked tons.

He didn't make a lot of money
but did the best they could.

-Her dad was, like,
a John Wayne type.

He helped shape her
to be really tough

and not to take any BS.

-Her family
was everything to her.

She called him Daddy,
and Pauline...

Everybody called her Pauly.

-To know why Farrah Fawcett
is so beautiful

you'd only look at her mother,
Pauline Fawcett,

and you see where heredity
and genetics come to play.

You're very lucky, Farrah,
to have that mother.

-Mrs. Fawcett, where did you
get the name Farrah?

-I just made it up.

I came up with it,
and it's Farrah Leni, L-E-N-I.

-At what point did you realize

that your looks would set you
apart, would take you places?

-Kindergarten.

I wanted very much
to not be looked at

or not be separated from,

like I told you, the norm.

-But you were.
-I was, yes.

-At an early age,
Farrah realizes

the attention she receives
for her beauty is not all good.

-When I was going to a Catholic
school in the first grade,

it was about three blocks away,

and I walked to school,
and I walked home.

It was by this huge
cotton field,

and on the way home,
my very first day of school,

a high school boy, we suspect,
was there and said,

"You want some candy?
Come with me,"

and I said, "No, no," you know?

"Don't talk to strangers,"
mother had told me,

and he tried pulling me
into this field

of which I just was hysterical,

threw my books down,
ran away, scraped my knee.

He tried to pull my panties
down, you know?

It was a terrible experience.

I don't remember too much
about it,

but that did happen so that,
I mean,

from the first grade
literally until college,

I never walked to school
or went to school by myself.

It freaked my mother
out so much,

and she felt so responsible,

and the police were saying,
"Now what did he say to you?"

And I can only remember,
you know,

terrible things that he said
which I can't repeat,

but that was a pretty
horrific experience

when I was so young, you know?

-At 7?
-Mm-hmm, 7.

-She liked to have the family
around her a lot.

She liked a close circle
of people around her,

and she was, I would say,
like, fiercely

wanting to have people
she could trust around her.

-Her mother, when she would
take her to the grocery store

and put her in the little cart
and push her around,

other mothers would come up
and say,

"Your daughter is an A-N-G-E-L.

She's an angel,"
and people even then

when she was a little girl
could not stop staring at her.

And Farrah once told me
that she didn't like fame

because everybody
kept staring at her.

-I still don't like
walking into a room

and having people turn
and look, you know?

I'd rather sneak in,
sort of observe,

gradually, you know,
start talking to people,

so I don't think I've ever
really gotten used to that.

-In high school,
Farrah wins the title

of most beautiful student
every year.

-She was a big deal
in high school.

At a very young age,
she had a presence.

-There's certain people
that have it.

Whatever it is, she had.

I mean, just the smile,
the sweetness, just different

from just about
anyone else you'd ever meet.

Word spread throughout

the University of Texas
at Austin

when Farrah arrives to campus
with her mom in 1965.

-Yeah.
-I took her to school

the first day of college,
and she made me stay a week

in the little room with her
and my little dog.

-When I first went to school,
my dad, to college, you know,

he said, "Concentrate
and really,

you know, work hard,"

and my mom said, "Have fun.

Have fun," you know?

-It's hard to explain because
as gorgeous as she was,

she was so natural and sweet,

and so you just liked her.

She was easy to like.

-So the prettiest
and wealthiest young women

that came to
UT joined sororities,

and the Tri Deltas immediately
took one look at Farrah

and said, "We want you,"

and there's this tradition
back then.

-Pledge night,
all the pledges go out

in front
of their sorority houses,

and all the boys come
and check them out.

-We have to remember this was
a very different era, right?

The Tri Delts would actually
be lined up

to be viewed by the men.

-And anyone that makes a good
impression on the guy,

he can stand in line
to ask her out on a date,

and Farrah was at the end,

and the line of guys
went out the yard,

through the gate
and around the block literally.

♪♪

-I was asking, I mean, how did
all these guys know about her

because it was
the beginning of the year,

but I think that from
high school,

her legend followed her.

-You had to book a date
with her,

you know, weeks in advance,
if not months.

-I don't know
what that was about.

Blonde, I don't know?
Yeah, that was...

That I really didn't understand,

sort of the dating thing,

the sorority, fraternity,

and all that emphasis
on dating and guys lined up.

-She really did have a date
for every breakfast,

lunch, and dinner,

and she really did have people
who carried her books around.

I think a lot of that had to do
with her absolute magnetism.

-She was always ahead
of her time,

always wearing clothes
before anybody else was.

By the time they were doing it,
she was changing.

She wore those little
short cowboy boots

with her little short skirts.

She was edgy and pushed things
a little bit.

-I've got all these pictures,
and she just stands out.

She's always really tan
and has this amazing smile

and always seems happy.

-According to journalist
Skip Hollandsworth,

she was a free spirit.

-She took off her shoes
at dances and danced barefoot

at the parties,
which nobody had seen before.

She showed up for class wearing
short cutoff jean shorts,

which no one had seen before.

She took art classes.

She did female sculptures
of nudes.

She had this kind
of independence.

It might've been a kind
of sexuality

that people didn't understand
at that time,

but she wasn't overtly sexual.

-Farrah's freshman year
she's named one

of the 10 most beautiful women
in the college yearbook.

-It was an unheard of honor
for her

to get named to that position.

It always went to the seniors,
the great beauties

who had been around
UT for four years.

She made it her freshman year,

and that caught the eye
of a talent scout,

and he began to call her.

-He saw my photograph,

and he started calling
my freshman year,

so it became a big deal --
Hollywood.

You know, he'd always say,

"It's David Mirisch from
Hollywood," not Los Angeles,

so it became kind of a joke.

I mean, you know,
Hollywood is calling again,

and for the first year, I didn't
pay any attention to it.

"Oh, yeah. That'd be nice.
Thank you,"

and, you know,
but he was persistent.

He kept calling and calling.

-The publicist tries to
convince the beautiful coed

to come to Hollywood,
but Farrah turns his offer down

and embraces college life
in Austin

where she first majors
in microbiology

but finds her calling
in the art department.

She changes her major and begins
studying with artist

and sculptor Charles Umlauf.

-And then that's what it was
all about for me, art.

-She was studying under Umlauf

who was her mentor and,
I think, she was his muse.

She quickly learned that art
was what she loved.

-She was a really good artist,

and so she excelled
in his classes,

but when she gets
to the sculpture,

she nails it.

-By Farrah's junior year,

the Hollywood publicist
is still in pursuit.

-He was determined that he was
going to represent her.

He called every day

and sometimes
several times a day,

and then he called her parents.

-Finally in 1968,
just after her junior year,

Farrah convinces
her parents to let her

try her luck in Hollywood.

-I wasn't doing anything
for the summer,

and I think my boyfriend
was going to Europe,

and so I decided to go out
for the summer

but always with the thought
that I would go back to college.

-Farrah is a free spirit.
You couldn't tell her no.

You were better off
just letting her figure it out,

so if she wanted to go,
she was going to go.

-She had no acting skills,
nothing,

but she decided to take
her destiny in her own hands.

-And so the 21-year-old beauty
chooses to take a risk

leaving Texas behind
for a shot at Hollywood.

♪♪

♪♪

-Welcome back to
"Farrah Fawcett:

Behind Closed Doors"

where friends and family give us
an inside look at the life

and legacy
of this girl next door

turned pop culture icon.

It's the summer of 1968,
a tumultuous time in America,

and amid the upheaval,
a relatively unknown Farrah

leaves college in Texas

to pursue a career
as an actress.

With no training
and no experience,

the 21-year-old art student
takes a shot at Hollywood.

♪♪

-Her dad moved her out there
and moved her into the YWCA.

-We took her out in July,
and she says,

"Well, I'm going to try it,
and if it don't work,

I'll be back home in September."

- They wouldn't even let Daddy
take the luggage up,

so Daddy felt pretty confident

that since they wouldn't let
a man, her father,

in to take her luggage up.

But his last words
to the publicist was,

"And if anything happens
to my daughter,

be sure I'm going to kill you."

♪♪

-But of course she becomes
the object of fascination

among young Hollywood men
out there,

including a young star
named Lee majors.

-If John Wayne had been,
sort of,

shrunk down to TV star size,
he'd be Lee Majors.

You're talking about
a swaggering, macho,

athletic guy, a man's man.

-Once met him, I mean,

he's the only person
that I dated out here.

I'm very shy,
and so when he picked me up

and we got in the car,
I think, you know,

I definitely was intimidated
and obviously then more shy,

and he was then extremely shy,

so we just rode in silence.

-Within weeks of arriving
to California,

Farrah signs a contract
with Columbia Pictures.

She lands bit parts in TV
shows and films and stars

in a variety of commercials.

-My parents just thought,
"This is just such a ridiculous

amount of money.
What are you doing?"

-As Farrah fashions a new life
in Hollywood,

she abandons her plan
to return to college.

-One day, Lee said to me,

"Farrah and I are engaged
and wonder

if you would photograph
an engagement photograph,"

so I took these photos of them
very posed, Victorian style.

Shortly after that,
they decided to get married,

and Lee said to me if I would
photograph their wedding,

he would give me
exclusive rights

to sell the wedding photos.

They said, "Oh, we're going to
get married in the garden

of the Bel-Air Hotel.
It's very top secret."

Well, I showed up early,

and there were already
paparazzi in the trees.

I mean, there were telephoto
lenses coming out of the bushes.

-I was ringbearer in her
and Lee Majors' wedding,

so it was really cool
because Lee Majors

was the Six Million Dollar Man.

I mean, Farrah was my aunt,

but now I was going
to have this guy

who could beat up Bigfoot
and jump over trains.

-So she became
Farrah Fawcett Majors,

and she tried to be
the perfect little wife.

She believed in the idea
of being a homemaker,

of being someone who stood
by her man and was his support.

♪♪

-Farrah's career gets a boost
from guest appearances

on her husband's popular

"Six Million Dollar Man" series,
and in the mid-1970s,

Farrah lands two more gigs
that will prove life changing.

♪♪

First, a role in a pilot
for a new Aaron Spelling show

about three female detectives.

The second, a photo shoot
that will result

in one of the most iconic
posters ever.

-I got a telephone call
out of the blue

from a man back in Ohio,

and he said he had a contract

to photograph Farrah Fawcett
for a poster.

We arranged to do it
at their home.

It was just myself and Farrah.

Farrah was doing her hair
and doing her makeup,

and I walked around
and picked locations,

and she came out
in a one-piece white suit,

and we went down
and started photographing.

-After shooting rolls of film,
McBroom and Farrah

aren't convinced
they have the perfect shot.

-And I said, "You know, Farrah,

the publisher said
that he wants you in a bikini,"

and she said,
"Well, I don't like bikinis,

but I have other suits
that you'll really like."

And she came to the bedroom door
in the red suit,

and she said,
"Is this anything?"

And I said, "Uh, yeah.
I think this is --

I think this could be good."

In my truck I had an old Mexican
blanket, and sure enough,

the blanket happened to have
the same color as her suit,

and I said,
"Let's go to the tennis court.

We'll take some pictures,

and toward the end of that roll,

I just stopped, and I said,
"Farrah, we've got it."

♪♪

-That poster took off.

It sold 12 million copies,

and teenagers,
including myself at that time,

put that poster
on the bedroom wall.

-Every male human being
in the world

seemed to have purchase a copy

or knew of someone
who had that photo.

-I mean, you're talking
about a gorgeous girl

who's clearly braless just
hanging out in what could be,

like, somebody's rec room.

It was sunkissed
California natural beauty,

and that became emblematic

of the look of the '70s.

-I remember playing in a tennis
tournament with her.

Right during that time, outside
the clubhouse there were,

like,
hundreds of screaming girls,

and she was kind of
overwhelmed by it.

I mean, it happened so quickly.

-Farrah's image makes a lasting
imprint on pop culture,

appearing everywhere
from "Saturday Night Fever"

to "Saturday Night Live."

-Boy, oh, boy. I am so mad

at Farrah Fawcett Majors.

She's so conceited.

She has never called me once.

[ Laughter ]

-The Farrah pinup is

the best-selling poster
of all time,

and that Aaron Spelling
detective pilot,

"Charlie's Angels,"

premiers as a hit series
on ABC in September 1976.

-Here comes this show
of three young women

who don't seem to own any
undergarments chasing killers.

♪♪

People flocked to the show.

It was our form of relaxation,

and we were sort of
hypnotized by Farrah.

-This was TV time.
This was before the Internet.

There wasn't so many
different flavors.

There were hit TV shows,

and they were
everybody's favorite,

and you could think of very,
very few icons

who made it to being
on people's walls.

♪♪

-Word of mouth was the only
social media that existed,

and so for Farrah's level
of fame to go viral in a sense

required you telling your buddy,
telling your friend,

telling your sister, telling her
best friend, telling your mom.

It really required, in a sense,

the whole nation
talking about you.

-Farrah's female-driven show
is the first of its kind,

but some critics call
the show "family-style porn"

and "jiggle TV."

-Women were burning their bras
to make a political statement.

-Mm-hmm.

-You were taking yours off
to make...

-Let them burn it.
They burned it.

-...jiggle TV.

-No. I just never wore one.

I don't like the straps
pressing down.

I'm not sure I really see
the point even today.

I never wore one.

-"Charlie's Angels"
gave with one hand

while taking away
with the other,

so was it jiggle TV?

Yeah, because everybody
was jiggling.

By the same token,
"Charlie's Angels,"

make no mistake, had three women
as the lead of that show

and three women
who were firing guns

and karate chopping people
and kicking ass

and taking names,
so baby steps, you know?

You have to take the good
with the bad.

They were objectified.

They were sex symbols,

but they were also sex symbols
who were in charge.

-With the commercial success
of "Charlie's Angels,"

Farrah's poster sales
and her star power explode.

-I remember seeing hair spray
and shampoo

and conditioner
with her picture on it,

and a Farrah Fawcett pillow,
Farrah Fawcett bracelet.

-So one day, she's Farrah,

and then the next day
she is this icon

that people still identify with
and still talk about the hair.

-Farrah's hair becomes iconic

and is copied by millions
of women around the world.

-It came across like she had

to do nothing
in order to look great.

She introduced
that kind of a look.

-The "New York Times"
of all people,

the "New York Times,"
said it was probably

the most famous hairstyle
in all of human history.

-But behind closed doors,
life is far from perfect

for the breakout star
of "Charlie's Angels."

-I don't think I was
quite prepared

for the demands that it took
day after day after day.

There was no down time,
you know?

You finish a show and then start
wardrobing for the next show

at 10 or 11:00 at night

when you haven't really
even read the script.

So I think that I became

just overwhelmed by that.

-Farrah's newfound fame also
takes a toll on her marriage.

-She's told me this that,
you know,

Lee really wanted her
to be at home

and a, you know,
housewife and everything.

-It's difficult for actors
who live together or are married

and both have strong careers
going at the same time.

♪♪

♪♪

-"Charlie's Angels"
is a breakout

television series in 1976,

and with fans returning week
after week

to watch
the first-of-its-kind

female cast,

the Angels quickly become
a cultural phenomenon,

but for the franchise's
most widely known star,

the work is far from angelic.

-I didn't feel that they
appreciated being picked up

at 4:45, getting there at 6,

leaving, sometimes,
fishing work at 9 or 10,

having to do a wardrobe
fitting for the next show,

of which you've just
been handed the script.

It didn't seem, to me,
the way things should be.

-Having initially been made
famous by her looks,

Farrah grows tired of only
being seen as a sex symbol

and wants more depth
in the storyline.

-I'd gone about as far
as I could with the character

unless they started going
in a direction

more about the girls,

you know, maybe taking a visit,
going home,

having some problems.

They didn't feel the same,
you know, the producers,

so it was just, I think,
creative differences.

-I wanted the shows to be
about something.

We could look the way
we looked.

Their comeback was,
"We have a formula.

It works.
Let's not mess with it."

Mine was, "We have a formula.
It works.

Let's go that extra step."

-As the cast and crew continues
to film the series,

behind the scenes,

Farrah is fighting to change
the terms of her contract.

-I had done the poster already,
so I had 10% of that,

and I knew because
of the poster,

there was going to be
a "Charlie's Angels" poster,

a mug, a whatever,
a t-shirt, everything,

so they offered 2 1/2%,
and I said, "No."

They said, "The other girls
said, 'Yes,'"

and I said, "No."

So they kept coming back,
the eighth show,

the 10th show, the 12th show,
and I think I said,

"I'm from Texas.
I don't like to negotiate."

It's a -- I don't like it,

that, "I'm not
going to change my mind."

-She had never signed
her contract

because she had never agreed to
all the points in the contract,

and a great deal of that hung
on merchandising.

She was a lot more savvy to what
having a significant piece

of your own face
and name could mean.

-So for the whole 22 episodes,
I kept saying,

"But I haven't signed
my contract."

I think they just were used
to people doing what they said

and not really believing
that I say what I mean,

and I mean what I say,
so it was time to move on.

-She was not satisfied to make
her mark on her beauty alone.

I mean, she quit
"Charlie's Angels"

after 22 shows saying

that the producers were not
letting her grow as an actress.

-And her kind of going her
own way shows you

that she didn't want
to be held down.

She wanted to make her
own decisions.

She wanted to be in control
of her career.

I mean, that's, for a lack of
a better term, pretty ballsy.

-There was no bigger producer
in Hollywood than

Aaron Spelling.

He had "Charlie's Angels."
He had "Love Boat."

He had "Fantasy Island."

He was practically programming
all of ABC at that point,

and "Charlie's Angels"
ended the first season

as the fifth highest
rated show on TV,

and he didn't want to mess
with success there,

and as a result,
it became litigious.

-Spelling-Goldberg Productions
files suit against Farrah

claiming breach of contract.

Following two weeks of trial,

the lawsuit is settled
out of court.

Farrah can leave the show,
but there is a catch.

-The resulting settlement
was that she had to make

six guest appearances
on the third

and fourth seasons of
"Charlie's Angels,"

which she fulfilled.

-I think the settlement
was something like she was paid

a very, very nice sum of money

for each of the episodes
she had to appear in.

-At the very end,
the settlement,

we had to sign papers
that we would not say

what the settlement was

because when she came back
to "Charlie's Angels,"

they didn't want the other girls
to know what she was making

because they were making
somewhere around $10,000

or less an episode,

and Farrah was getting
$150,000 per episode,

but we went through,
you know,

a lot of hell
to get to the end of it.

She was blacklisted in Hollywood
because no one would hire her,

or they'd be party to a lawsuit.

-Farrah messed
with the big boys,

and she messed with their money,

and that's very hard to do
and get away with,

and I think back then,
it was probably even harder.

-Word spreads in the industry

that there might be
legal problems

for anyone who employs Farrah.

-For her to get blackballed

and then come out
and fight that contract,

it's amazing,
kind of like a pioneer

and pushing forward and saying,
"I'm not going to take this.

You're going to fight me
on this contract,

and you're going to
keep me from projects,

but I'm going to move
forward and take,

find roles
that are good for me."

-She had just left
"Charlie's Angels."

Did she tell you
what she was looking for?

What was it she wanted to do
with her life, at that point?

-I don't know if she had a real
plan, at that point, you know?

Because of everything
that had happened,

a lot of people
didn't want to use her

because she left
"Charlie's Angels."

So she went through a period

that was kind of
like a dry period.

-If somebody had said to me,

"These are the steps
that are going to happen.

"You'll be sued.
You'll be this.

You can't work,"
would it have changed anything?

Probably not.

I sort of think things happen
for a reason.

I went on,
and I did something else.

-"Somebody Killed Her Husband,"

Farrah's first movie as a star,
is a box office bust in 1978.

Critics sarcastically
call the film,

"Somebody killed her career."

Farrah's next two films,

"Sunburn"
and "Saturn 3" also flop,

and many critics
write Farrah off.

-Farrah Fawcett,
She suffered, of course,

at the hands of critics in her
recent feature film appearances.

-I think there was
fair criticism,

certainly, and I think
that there was unfair criticism.

I think sometimes when I read
the criticism,

it sounds like I not only acted
in the films,

but that I produced them,
and I directed them,

and I thought,
"Wait. Wait a minute.

Wait a minute. There were
other people involved."

I think a little bit of it
has been unfair.

-She hadn't acted
a whole lot up until then,

so when you're known
for being beautiful,

it's really hard
to convince people

that you're a good actress
because they're too busy saying,

"Wow. She looks good
in that outfit,"

or "Whoa. Look at that."

The odds are stacked against her

that she'd be able
to get past that.

-It's not only my films,
you know?

It's everything I do, I take
a lot of verbal abusive for.

I think that now,
I've just grown to accept it,

so this is the way it is for me,
and I just have to accept it,

and I think I improve
with every film.

-While she tries to pick up
the pieces of her career,

her marriage to Lee Majors
is falling apart,

and when Lee invites actor

Ryan O'Neal to their house
for dinner,

the fractured romance
takes an unexpected turn.

-Ryan was somebody who knew
how to charm and disarm

and really woo women,

and the proof was in the number
of high-profile relationships

he had had,
all with very beautiful women,

some of whom he married,

some of whom
he had children with,

and he clearly was ready
to move onto his next conquest.

-In an interview with Ireland's
"The Late Late Show,"

Ryan explains the moment

he first laid eyes
on his friend's wife.

-And there she was
in the driveway.

My god, she was breathtaking.
I mean, "Who's that?"

He said, "That's my wife."

-Weeks later, Lee heads out
of Hollywood for work,

and he asks his friend, Ryan,
to check in on Farrah.

-Ryan loved to talk about it.

I do know that Lee asked him,
Ryan, to take care of Farrah,

which maybe wasn't
such a good idea

because it was
instant attraction.

-Be careful what you wish
for because, yeah,

Ryan checked in on her,
all right,

and the rest
is somewhat history.

-Lee Majors
and Farrah Fawcett divorce.

-Maybe I took some pressure
off the judge

because I made the decision
to give her the house

because she deserves it.

She deserves it.

She's a nice lady,
and I still love her very much.

-I think my life is filled
with contradictions,

but there comes a time
when you grow up.

You start making
your own decisions.

However, I think that
we got married

because my parents
were constantly, you know,

on my case about not being
married and living together.

-By now, she was in the arms
of Ryan O'Neal.

-Before there was Brad
and Angie,

before there was Brad and Jen,
there was Farrah and Ryan

doing all sorts of things
that kind of ensured

they would stay
in the headlines,

first and foremost,
not getting married.

That kept everybody watching
them and wondering,

"Are they going to get engaged?
Are they going to get married?"

and they were a real source
of fascination.

-You called them
the Golden Couple then, right?

-They really were.

They would walk into a room
or to a party,

and the room
would almost get quiet

because they were just
so spectacular together.

I mean, they weren't just,
you know, like, Ken and Barbie.

I mean, he would tell his funny
stories, and she would chime in,

and they'd disagree
over something.

-They were very much in love,
like,

all over each other,
very passionate couple,

I would say, fiery as well.

-It was a big change.

You know, Ryan having children,
Tatum and Griffin and Patrick.

I mean, there's a lot of moving
pieces, right there,

so there's just a lot,
a lot going on.

-Farrah finds a new partner
in Ryan,

but her career is struggling.

So the beautiful pinup girl
takes a risk no one expected.

-I would like to be
very successful in films,

hopefully being taken seriously
as a dramatic actress.

♪♪

♪♪

-Welcome back to

"Farrah Fawcett:
Behind Closed Doors."

The success of both
"Charlie's Angels"

and her famous poster
launches Farrah Fawcett,

but when the star
abruptly leaves her hit show,

her career suffers,

and she lands
in a string of movie flops.

Wanting to be known
as a serious actress,

Farrah returns
to television in 1981,

playing a wife believed to have
been murdered by her husband.

-She'd always be offered
these fluffy roles,

and then she did
"Murder In Texas,"

which was the TV
or the movie of the week,

and that was the first time
she played a,

you know,
a serious television role.

-That role was a little more
demanding,

a little more serious.

In fact, before that,
I had chosen to not do

a lot of the scripts
that were sent to me

because they just perpetuated

the same character
that I had played,

just a different version
of a pretty girl.

-Farrah next sets her eyes
on a gritty unglamorous role

in New York City's
off-Broadway play "Extremities."

-Originally,
Susan Sarandon was in it,

and Susan's time in it
was running out,

and so a lot of thought
went into

who would be able to do
a very strenuous role,

a very dramatic role.

-The role is of a woman
who escapes from

and then tortures
a serial rapist.

The play includes graphic scenes

that explore the horrors
of rape and revenge.

-And I have to be honest.

Farrah's name never came to mind
until one night,

I got a phone call
from Farrah's agent,

and she said, "Hey, Bob.

"Did you ever think of
Farrah Fawcett

to replace Susan?"

My first reaction was,
"That's crazy.

"How could we entrust this role
to the blonde girl

from 'Charlie's Angels'?"

-The agent convinces Ackerman
to at least meet Farrah

before saying, "No."

-She showed up
with Ryan O'Neal.

We didn't fly her in.

She flew herself from LA
to New York,

and she met me at the theater,

and we worked together for

I would say probably
two or three hours.

I was instantly moved by her.

There was this passion
inside of her

to prove that she could do it.

-The creativity of
the work itself

is what was important to me,

and I saw a chance to take

a character and go with it.

-Farrah earns the part

and though she has
no formal stage training,

prepares for her
1983 New York stage debut.

-Only about two or three
weeks rehearsal

before she had to go on.

It's very risky move for any
actor who has not been onstage

to suddenly go
from doing film work

to acting in front of
a live audience.

-A risky move for sure,

but according to those
who knew Farrah,

that was the way
the Texas beauty lived her life.

-She lived by
the statement that,

"Life is sweetened by risk."
What did she mean by that?

-She loved taking risks.

She loved doing things
that people

wouldn't expect her to do.

She'd never done theater,

and she wanted to go to
a different level in her career.

-It was extraordinary to see
what happened.

All of the critics showed up
for her opening night,

and she wowed everybody.

-I did not know she even
had that in her.

It was night after night,
she was up there fighting.

-And that was the greatest
I ever saw in my life.

I remember hearing people say,

"I would never have dreamed
that's Farrah Fawcett."

-In a fight scene,
Farrah breaks her wrist

and is forced to end her

off-Broadway run after
three months,

but the impact of the theater
experience on her career

is longer lasting.

-Her role in "Extremities"
changed the perception of her,

and the project that she most
wanted to do, "The Burning Bed,"

which she could never get
anybody to take seriously,

especially with her
playing the lead role, happened.

-Based on a true story,
"The Burning Bed"

is a TV movie
about an abused wife

who reaches her breaking point
and kills her husband.

-The very fact that she wanted
to do that movie, to me,

spoke an enormous amount
about her interests

and her commitment to
break out of any kind of

narrow definition

of who she was
and what she could do.

-Farrah
embraces the gritty role,

appearing decidedly unglamorous.

-It was a role that no one

would have ever read
that script, probably, and said,

"Oh, Farrah Fawcett
for that role,"

but she fought for that role.

She wanted it.
-There was a big debate.

Were people going to tune in
to see her in something

where she didn't
look blonde and cute?

And experts said,
"It could go either way."

It could be a big flop, or it
could be a huge ratings success.

-"The Burning Bed"
airs October 8th, 1984

and at the time,
is NBC's highest-rated

made-for-TV movie ever.

Farrah is nominated for both
a Golden Globe and Emmy Award.

-It made Hollywood
take her seriously,

and she became very,
very sought out

for miniseries
and movies of the week.

-I remember thinking,

"I'll never do anything
this powerful again," you know?

"I've done it."

-Soon after "The Burning Bed"
aired, Farrah,

myself, and the producers
received letters and phone calls

from people
who were using the film

to help legislation get passed.

Back then, there was still
very much of an onus

that it was the woman's fault,

and so the film began to have
a real impact in the culture

and in specific policies

and ways that abused women
were being treated.

-While filming
"The Burning Bed,"

37-year-old Farrah

finds out she's about to take on
one of her life's biggest roles.

-Are you expecting a child?
-Mm-hmm.

-That's very nice.
Aren't you happy about that?

-Mm-hmm.
-All right.

-Haven't had too much time
to think about it, you know?

Of course I'm happy.

-Are you going to marry
Ryan O'Neal?

-I don't know.

-After four years together
and with a child on the way,

many wonder if the couple
will announce plans to marry.

-I'm independent.

I'm secure.

I don't need a piece of paper
to say that I'm going

to be faithful,
or I'm gonna be committed.

I mean, that's my choice.

-She'd been married once.

Her and Ryan
had separate accounts.

You know, "You pay for this.
I pay for that,"

and I don't know that she just
wanted to go through that again.

-Redmond James O'Neal is born
January 30th, 1985.

-She loved him
more than anything.

It's, um, she adored that boy.

-Her strawberry-blond baby
is what she would call him.

Oh, she was fascinated,
fascinated with him.

-And I would love my child
to be able to live

a somewhat normal life.
Is that possible?

-Is it possible?
-I don't know. I hope so.

I'm going to try, you know,
with the values

that I bring from Texas
and my parents.

-Our little boys
were the same age,

and she sent Redmond
to the school

where my son was going.

She'd call me every day,
"Okay. What's going on today?"

and there wasn't an event
that she missed.

-When she would get a part
and have to be

on location for
two or three months,

they'd pack everybody up,
and they would all go with her.

-When she was on-set,
she was always calling him

or constantly seeing how he
was doing or what was going on,

very involved in it,
I guess, as much as you can be

when you're doing the work
that she was doing.

-Redmond was the most important
thing to her,

and, you know, the problem is,
when you live a life like that,

it's hard for the child
to live a normal life.

It's just a very
different world.

-She wanted Redmond to have
a normal childhood

with a constant presence
of his mom and his dad.

At the same time, she wanted
her career to gain a foothold,

so she was devoting herself
more to projects

like the Diane Downs story.

-The 1989 TV movie
"Small Sacrifices"

is based on the true story
of Diane Downs,

a young woman sentenced to life
in prison for the murder

and attempted murder
of her three children.

Farrah stars alongside
real-life love Ryan O'Neal

and receives
her second Emmy nomination

and fifth
Golden Globe nomination.

-She basically helped create
the television-movie industry

starring in TV movies,
always getting huge ratings

and never just playing
the kind of giggly blonde girl

but abused wife, et cetera.

-She took great pride in being
able to shed the beautiful image

and show people that she was
an actress, a serious actress.

-You think that women's roles
are superior on television,

is that right,
rather than the big screen,

more to choose from?

-I think that, yes,
I think there are better roles,

I think because women actually
get to carry the picture,

at least play a more active

rather than passive role
with the exception of,

I think, maybe four
or five features a year.

I know that "The Burning Bed"

I really don't think
would've been made as a feature.

-When was I decorating
her house,

there would be a pile of scripts
next to her bed,

so I really feel
there came a point

where she really had a choice
of what she wanted to do,

and she wasn't going
to take the easy route.

-Professionally, Farrah's
career is on track and thriving,

but her personal life
begins to unravel.

♪♪

♪♪

-Farrah Fawcett becomes known

as the 1980s queen of TV movies

as she plays a string of tough
roles of strong-minded women,

but in 1991, the beauty queen
turned serious actress

appears in her
first comedy series,

a sitcom with her longtime love,
Ryan O'Neal.

-They did a little sitcom
together called "Good Sports,"

which was a critical disaster.

-When that failed and crashed
and burned pretty quickly,

I think we'd all started to just
kind of lose interest in them,

and that may be, in part, what
helped bring about their demise.

-What were she and Ryan
like together?

-They loved each
other passionately.

I think when people love
each other as passionately

as she and Ryan did,

they have also got to be
very volatile, and they were.

-They were both stubborn.
They were both powerful.

They were both famous, and they
had a fascinating life together.

-Farrah has a streak,
and Ryan has a streak,

and so sometimes,

you know, it could be
a little combustible.

-California's 1994 Northridge
earthquake

destroys Farrah's home.

It's a natural disaster

with lasting repercussions
for Farrah and Ryan.

-That was a hard time for her.

We had just finished
decorating her house.

It was perfection.
It was her place to be,

and literally, the earthquake
broke it in half.

That was around the same time
she and Ryan were breaking up.

Her whole world
was coming apart.

-You could just see that

the dynamics
had definitely changed.

This wasn't paradise any longer.

-Much of her career
was in the past.

She was not doing anything
except for these

few little movies
and occasional TV roles.

-Farrah had turned
down requests

to pose nude
throughout her career,

but at age 48,
in this issue of "Playboy,"

she decides to do her
first nude pictorial.

-I change with the seasons,

and just when you think
you know me, the seasons change.

-She probably would've loved to
make a return to the big screen,

and I know she did a few things

but not at the same magnitude
that she had before.

She kind of made the resurgence
with "Playboy,"

but she probably
would've rather made that

in a serious role
in a large film.

-Farrah's "Playboy" issue

becomes the best-selling
of the 1990s.

However, her relationship
with Ryan is turbulent.

In 1997,
the couple calls it quits.

-I just happened to be there
in California that day.

We were in Farrah's bedroom,

and I guess they had had
some kind of an argument,

and she said,
"Well, just, vamanos."

He just left, and she went on.

-Mm-hmm.
It's very complicated.

It's going through
ups and downs and...

bad and, you know, good.

It was a very difficult,
difficult decision,

and I think you always --
He will always be in my life.

I mean, I think the best thing
that we ever did

was produce our son,

so you can't take that element
out of the whole,

and you know,
what's interesting is that

everything's unpredictable.

-At 50, the newly single Farrah
appears once again in "Playboy."

This time, she creates this
accompanying pay-per-view video,

in which the former art student

uses her naked body
as a paintbrush.

-The "Playboy" TV special,

the "Farrah Fawcett 'Playboy'
TV Special,"

but it was very much
about owning her

very many talents
along with her aging beauty.

-I did "Playboy" --
What was it?

December 1995,

and I didn't really fulfill

what I set out to do,

and for me,
that's just not acceptable.

-And I asked her if there was
some guiding force in her life,

and she said she wanted to die

knowing that she had fulfilled
this line from Shakespeare,

"Age cannot wither her,

nor custom stale
her infinite variety of life,"

and that is Farrah.

She never wanted to slow down.

She never wanted to stop.

She never wanted age
to take over.

She always wanted
to be young Farrah.

-To promote the "Playboy" video
and photo spread,

Farrah goes on a press tour,
including one stop

that would become infamous
on "David Letterman."

-We were running late
because Farrah

didn't feel that her hair
was quite right,

and we had to put her
eyelashes on in the car.

It was tense.

I was so relieved that
she actually got onto the show,

that the way that she acted
on that appearance,

it was secondary.

-But Farrah's behavior in this
"David Letterman" interview

will follow her
the rest of her career.

-To prove that art sort of,
like, they --

Wow. They receive it in, um...

[ Laughter ]

-I really thought I was
looking out the window.

-Yeah. It's -- Yeah.

-I think the "David Letterman"
appearance made

a lot of people question,
"What was going on with Farrah?"

She seemed distracted.

There were rumors immediately
that she was on drugs.

-I could really say
with great confidence

that she wasn't using drugs
before she went on that show.

Everybody was like, "Wow.
She was acting really odd."

People didn't understand

that she was just trying
to play a role.

-Even before the feedback
came about her, I thought,

"She is being that girl,

that character that she's tried
to push herself so hard out of,"

and then to do it
at the interview, I think,

was a shock for everybody after
the work that she had done,

but that's what she was doing,
putting on her persona

that I think she thought
people wanted her to be.

-I promoted things,

but it's different when you're
sort of promoting yourself,

and there's nudity
of any sort involved.

I was very uncomfortable
with that.

I don't think that I really
thought about me

having to get out there
and you know, talk about it.

It just sort of snowballed.

-That really disturbed her

because she had spent
such a career of people

trivializing her and then
her working for respect,

and then, you know, at age 50,

she had sort been
trivialized again.

-Yes. Yes.
I have some regrets about that.

I don't think that I really
was able to achieve

what I was so --
I had such conviction, you know?

I have regrets about
a lot of, you know,

a lot of different things,

so I don't think it's really
good to dwell on it.

I mean, it's gone. It's past.

-This same year, Farrah appears
opposite Robert Duvall

in his film "The Apostle."

-It got some critical attention
at the time,

but it was one of those
independent movies that lasted

for about half a second
in the public's imagination,

yet Duvall was one of the great
masters of Hollywood cinema,

could get any actress
in Hollywood

he wanted to work with him.

It would be a feather
in her cap,

and I said, "Seriously,
you hired Farrah Fawcett?"

and he says,
"What are you talking about?

Do you not know what kind of
great actress she is?"

and I hung up the phone,
and I thought,

"It's unbelievable.

"She's had the same effect
on him, Robert Duvall,

as she's had
on somebody like me."

-It meant so much to her

to be able
to do that with Robert Duvall.

That validates her being
a legitimate actress.

This isn't about beauty.
This is about acting.

-"The Apostle"
earns good reviews,

but when Farrah begins
dating director James Orr

and allegations
of abuse surface,

the spotlight is once again
on Farrah's personal life.

-For someone like Farrah who,
by that point in her career,

had played multiple victims
of domestic violence,

to then find herself
in a real life scenario

where she was being subjected
to violence, it was shocking.

-Orr is arrested for allegedly
pushing Farrah down,

slamming her head, and trying
to choke her during a fight.

Farrah appears on court,
and Orr is found guilty

of one count
of misdemeanor battery.

-She wasn't cracking up
or freaking out or anything.

She was a...

You know, she just thought that
she was right about the thing,

and she's a bulldog
when it comes to that.

She...

She just don't like
to be abused.

-Director Robert Ackerman who
first directed Farrah in 1983

in the he play "Extremities"
notices a change in the actress

when he directs her again
in the 2000 TV movie, "Baby."

-She was still the same sweet,
lovely person

that she always was, but she --
It was obvious

that she had been through
some very difficult times.

She would go into her trailer,
and she would --

It would be very hard
to get her out.

She seemed to have lost
a lot of, um,

I don't know,
a lot of her spark.

-With me, it's, uh,
I can't just slip by.

I'm judged, critiqued,
even when I pull back,

and I choose not to work.

I really want out
of the spotlight.

I want to have my life.

I have no control over that.

I'm in the press when I've...

there's no reason
I should be in the press.

-Farrah increasingly
spends more time

away from the spotlight.

-She just wouldn't go out.

She stayed in and just wanted to
know what I did for the evening.

She couldn't go out and do
anything or just have dinner

or not have a crowd
go around her.

-Farrah was very private.

She never told anyone anything
about her private life.

-To me, she was the "Mona Lisa."

You knew there was all this
other life going on in her

that she wasn't talking about.

What I sensed and what
she told me was that

she felt trapped by fame.

So you do wonder, as you wonder
about all great beautiful women,

what kind of secret sadness

pervaded the dark corners
of her life?

-My feeling is,
and my dad said this,

you know,
it's not how far you fall.

It's how quickly
you bounce back.

So careers are made of bouncing,

I think, bouncing.

♪♪

-Welcome back to

"Farrah Fawcett:
Behind Closed Doors."

In the '70s, she was the face
and body of jiggle TV.

In the '80s, she reinvented
herself as a serious actress,

with roles in "Extremities"
and "The Burning Bed."

In the '90s, after making
headlines for "Playboy"

appearances,
difficulties with an ex-love,

and an unsettling
"David Letterman" appearance,

Farrah Fawcett is once again
rebooting her life and career.

Now in her 50s, the former art
student returns to her passion.

-She loved art.

That was what she wanted to be
was an artist, a sculptor.

-And we've got her piece
right here.

It's beautiful.

-Yes, and she was
very, very talented.

-She kept making artwork
her whole life long,

and she would leave it
for years at a time.

But she kept it up.

-From female nudes
to sculptures

to abstract paintings.

-It was around all the time.
She would make some.

She would give it to us
in the family.

Her artwork from when
she was younger hung

on her walls in the houses.

It was either
my grandparents house,

and then they would send
something over,

and my mom would
send something back.

So they would trade
all this artwork.

-And she said she never felt
more like herself

than when she had her hair
pulled back in a ponytail,

and she was just wearing
a t-shirt

and had her hands
in a bunch of clay.

She really must have felt
connected to the artwork,

again in this role
as being a maker

and a creator
of whatever image she wanted

and not at the mercy of what
other people wanted from her.

-The reason that that art
was so important to her

is because no one could ever say
she was a good artist

because she was pretty,

because the two things
were not connected.

And so she knew the accolades
she got for art

were purely about her talent
and not about her looks.

-You know, artwork will always
tell the story for itself.

So if you just look at the marks
that she made it,

and how she did it,
and what she focused on,

you see that she really was
an empowered female.

-I'm constantly learning
about art, constantly,

and you would think
I would know so much.

I mean, you'd think I'd know
so much about acting now.

It's been 30 years.

But I'm always learning
the same with being a mother.

I think that you never stop
growing and learning

how to be a mom.

It's a challenge.

-Troubling for Farrah is her
now teenage son, Redmond's,

struggle with addiction,

a battle he faces
into adulthood.

-It's tragic.

I think, in the simplest terms,
it's tragic.

I mean, such a sweet boy,
such a loving boy.

I mean, amazing personality,

funny, extremely bright,

he's just had a tough go of it.

-One of the two things that you
two bonded over were your sons.

You had had some troubles
around the same time, as well.

-Well, I had been through some
issues with both of my sons,

who had struggled with addiction
when they were younger,

and as everyone
is pretty aware of,

Redmond had his problems
when he was a teenager.

And so Farrah and I
talked a lot about it.

We spent hours on the phone
talking about it.

-Separated since 1997,
Ryan and Farrah

find their way back
to each other four years later.

-It was tragedy that brought
Ryan and Farrah back together.

What happened?

-They had broken up
for period of time.

But Ryan was diagnosed
with leukemia,

and so she came back into
his life to be there for him,

and he went into remission.

-You can look
at whatever chapter.

You can read about this fight
or that fight or one

betraying the other or never
getting married, breaking up.

But the through-line of all of
that was they loved each other.

-They had a love that,

whether sometimes good or bad,
you know,

sometimes you end up going back
with someone if it wasn't great.

But then you break apart,
and go back together again.

I think they were good together
and bad together.

-With Farrah by his side,
Ryan is able to recover

and would stay in treatment
for leukemia

and ultimately came out
the better for it.

-But sadly, Farrah's sister
isn't so lucky.

-My mother was diagnosed
with lung cancer at first.

She was given three
to six months to live.

She ended up living a year
and a half.

Seeing my mom deteriorate
like that,

it was devastating for Farrah,
and the deterioration, you know,

it's long, and it's ugly,
and it's painful,

and it was hard on her.

-Farrah had come to terms
with lots of death around her,

but I think she kind of
threw herself into work,

and she just got back to work
and did what she did.

-In a change of pace
from the dark

and serious characters
she had become known for,

Farrah chooses
some comedic roles,

including an appearance
in the ABC series,

"Spin City"
and the film, "The Cookout."

-I think she had done it
with the dramatic roles.

So after she had done
"Burning Bed" and "Extremities"

and all those different
projects, I think she thought,

"You know what? I killed it.
Let's move onto something else."

-She's getting guest spots
on "Ally McBeal," the cool cat.

Like, she's just getting offered
these roles,

and I think people realize,

"If you offer it Farrah,
she might say yes."

-She had great comedic timing,
and obviously no one really saw

that with the work
that she had done before.

So I think that she was ready
to go down a different road.

-"Chasing Farrah,"
a reality series,

is Farrah's
next project in 2005.

The introduction to the show,
which lasts only one season,

features Farrah's parents.

But this would be the last
appearance Farrah

makes with her mother,

who passes away March 4, 2005.

-Crushed, absolutely crushed,
you know?

They were so close for so long.

She was really torn up
about my grandmother.

-That was really difficult.

They were her foothold,
her ground,

and always there and supportive,

and I think that was a really
sad time during her life that,

I mean,
to lose her mom and her sister.

-I feel like she got sick
shortly thereafter,

just missing her mother.

-Her mother was in the hospital
in Texas,

and Farrah was there,
and she was just there 24/7,

and she started having symptoms,

and she didn't do anything
about them.

And then her mother died,
and she still had her father

to try to take care of,
and I remember saying to her,

"If you don't take care
of yourself,

you're not going to be able to
take care of anybody else."

Farrah would always show up
for everyone,

at the expense of herself.

-And in August 2006,
Farrah shows up once again,

making a celebrated appearance
at the Emmys

with her
"Charlie's Angels" co-stars.

-At the Emmys,
the three Angels reunited.

They stole the show.
The three of them walked out.

They looked fabulous.

It was a standing ovation.

-She is the picture of health
at the Emmys.

But, in fact, Farrah is

experiencing some
frightening symptoms,

including unexplained bleeding.

-She eventually
went to the doctor,

and that's when she was
diagnosed with cancer,

and if Farrah had gone
to the doctor

when she first had symptoms,

she might very well
be alive today.

-She is diagnosed with

an aggressive form
of anal cancer.

-Farrah was so shocked
to be diagnosed with cancer

that she didn't even
believe them at first.

She thought,
"No, this can't be true."

I mean, there was no one
who seemed healthy or stronger

and more alive.

-With her friend
Alana Stewart by her side,

Farrah embarks on a series
of treatments in Germany.

But would they be enough?

♪♪

-I've always believed
in taking care of myself.

-In this early 1980s
public service announcement

for the American Cancer Society,

Farrah Fawcett
is the image of health,

beauty, and vitality.

-And when you've got
your health, you've got it all.

-But September 2006,

the former poster girl
is devastated to learn

that she now faces
a cancer battle of her own.

-Three words I never,
ever thought possible

that I would hear --

malignant, tumor, anal.

-You learned about her cancer
through the tabloids?

-My daughter Kimberly came in
and said,

"Mom, does Farrah have cancer?
It was just on the Internet."

I said,
"Oh, that's ridiculous."

I said, "That's those
ridiculous tabloids again."

So I called her and it took
a long time for her

to come to the phone,
and she said, "Hi," and I said,

"I just heard something.
It's not true, is it?"

And she --
there was this long pause,

and she started to cry.

She said, "Yeah, it's true."

She just hated the word, "anal,"
and it was very hard for her

to hear her name in the same
sentence as anal cancer.

-The 59-year-old begins
chemotherapy and radiation

at UCLA Medical Center in 2006.

-She was really determined
that she was going to beat this.

-The treatment went on
for three months,

and it was brutal, and then
after the treatments stopped,

she started to kind of slowly
regain her strength.

-Farrah celebrates her 60th
birthday in February 2007

with the news that her cancer
is in remission.

-She was looking forward
to starting painting again,

and she was just getting
back into her life.

Then suddenly the cancer
came back,

and then everything
changed from that.

-Just three months after being
declared cancer-free,

in May 2007,
doctors ask Farrah

to come to the hospital
for new test results.

Farrah takes a camera
along with her.

-Ryan's car broke down,
and so she had to go by herself.

So she grabbed her
little camera,

and she filmed it
because she wanted to remember

what the doctors
were telling her.

-The fourth word
I never thought

I would hear -- recurrence.

-Dr. Lawrence Piro
is one of the many doctors

who works with Farrah
through her illness.

-I'll never forget.

She was curled up on the couch
in my office,

kind of like a shivering kitten,

because she was just
so completely undone

by the fact that
this had come back so fast.

-And she had eight
or nine tumors in her liver,

and at that point, that was
practically a death sentence.

-It was Stage 4,

and the life expectancy
of someone with Stage 4

anal cancer can be very short

because there are not
a lot of effective treatments.

-But after the initial shock
was over,

she just became determined
to win out over it,

and she was trying to decide
what path she was going to take,

what treatment.

-We talked about what
the traditional options were,

and we talked about some
non-traditional options.

-I just happened to be
going to Germany,

to this clinic that I had gone
to several times,

and she called me and said,

"I'm thinking about
coming to Germany."

And I put her on the phone with
a doctor, and the doctor said,

"Yeah, I think we can help you."

And so she said to me,
"What do you think?"

And she said, "The doctors here
don't want me to go."

And I said, "Farrah,
if I encourage you to come here,

and it doesn't work, then
I'm going to feel responsible,"

and I said, "You really have to
talk to more doctors,"

I said, "and pray about it,

and then you have to make
your own decision."

-If she thought it was
going to work,

then there was no way you were
going to change her mind.

There was absolutely no way
to change her mind.

-She said, "I'm just going
to go to Germany

and then do alternative."

Farrah was always going to do
that other thing.

-The next day,
she called me back and said,

"We're coming tomorrow,"
and she and Ryan got on a plane.

♪♪

-Farrah arrives in Germany

to begin an alternative
course of treatment.

-She said, "Here, will you film
the doctors' meeting?

Because I want to remember
all of this," and I said,

"Well, I don't know
how to use this camera."

And she said, "Oh, it's
really easy. You can do it."

So I filmed the meeting,

and then we just started
filming everything,

and we started looking
at this film, and she said,

"You know, maybe we should
do this as a documentary

because there's so much
for people to learn."

-She filmed everything,
without regard

to whether she looked good
or how poignant it would be,

which I thought was really
amazing because here's a woman

whose fame, you know, was made
by extraordinary beauty,

and to be willing
to show yourself

in far less
than optimal circumstances...

I even remember hearing
someone in Hollywood say,

"Wow, like,
why would she do this?"

-I'm lying in bed,
trying to sleep...

-Anal cancer isn't something

that most people
would be comfortable

telling the whole world
they were dealing with.

But Farrah did not shy away
from making it very clear,

like, "This is the type
of cancer I have,

and this is what I'm intending
to do about it."

-The trips to Germany were
very rigorous for her.

They were long trips on a plane,

and then those treatments,
you know, were difficult,

and she had to drive,
within Germany, several hours

to go to the different places
that were doing things,

and she would be very sick
and driving in the car

and throwing up.

-The thing that was
so interesting about it

was we actually had fun

because she loved
getting away from cancer.

She said, "I don't want cancer
to be my life."

You know, we'd watch movies.
We'd eat pizza.

We'd go on little outings,

but anything just not to be
constantly reminded of cancer.

-♪ You know woman

-After months of treatment
and shuttling back and forth

between Germany and Los Angeles,
Farrah receives good news.

-The tumors had all shrunk.

They had all died.
They were gone.

I mean, she was literally
cancer-free.

-Wow.
-And...

Or tumor-free, because,
you know, with cancer, they...

-The cells are there, mm-hmm.

-The cells are still
in the body,

and that's what you have to work
on getting rid of

so it doesn't come back,

and it seemed
to be really working.

-All cancer journeys have
successes and failures.

We were very often sitting over
the monitor at the CAT scanner,

looking at the new scan

to reveal whether we made
progress or not.

-When her 61st birthday arrives
in February 2008,

Farrah has reason to celebrate.

-We spent her birthday
in Germany,

and we gave a party for her,

and there were a few people
that happened to be there.

Redmond came over,
and I remember she said,

"This is the best birthday
of my life

because I'm alive."

-She wanted to just keep
blazing forward,

and that's what we did,
until we couldn't anymore.

♪♪

♪♪

-On her 61st birthday
in February 2008,

the "it" girl of the 1970s,
Farrah Fawcett,

is undergoing life-saving
cancer treatment in Germany.

Initially, Farrah began
filming her appointment

so she wouldn't miss anything.

Now she begins to think there
may be a higher purpose

in filming her journey.

-She'd started thinking
about maybe

turning it into a documentary,

and her idea was
that we'd do all this filming

and then go into
the editing room.

-After several positive weeks
in Germany,

Farrah returns home
to Los Angeles.

There are good days
and bad days.

-She's trying to carry
on her life

and not give over
her life to cancer.

But at the same time, you know,

we had to treat
all the symptoms,

and so it was just a constant
back and forth, back and forth.

-We're looking at
your liver again.

-In April 2008,

Farrah meets with her doctors
to look at her latest scans,

and what they see
is devastating.

The cancer is back
and spreading.

-We had been through
a lot of options,

and our options were getting,
you know, more and more limited,

and that moment was,
I think, the first moment

that Farrah really let it

into her true psyche

that maybe she was going
to die of this disease.

-Farrah and Alana returned
to Germany again,

and despite the prognosis,
it is not all bad times.

-Here we are,
these two girls on our own.

There were just so many
funny crazy things.

I just remember the one night,

when she was so sick
all night long,

and she was literally throwing
up, like, every 15 minutes,

and it was deserted there.

We were in this room, in this
private wing of the hospital,

and there was this little nurse

who didn't speak
a word of English.

And she kept fluttering
around Farrah,

and she kept putting
these heat things on her,

and Farrah kept
throwing them off.

And she finally walked out
of the room, and Farrah went,

"Oh, my God,
they've sent me a loon."

I don't know why that just
struck me as so funny,

and we started
to laugh about it,

and she's in the midst
of throwing up.

-Ready to get back home,
Farrah decides

to try a clinical trial
in California in August 2008.

-She decided to shave her
world-famous

glorious golden hair.

How hard was that for her?

-She went through almost
three years of treatments

without losing her hair,
and this one last trial,

this one last chemo
that she did made her hair start

to fall out in big clumps.

She just decided
to shave her head.

She wasn't going to let her
hair fall out clump

by clump and be the victim.

She was going to take the horse
by the reins and do it herself.

-Here, we're dealing
with Farrah,

who had the most famous
hair in the world.

Millions of women copied her
because of that hair.

Then just chop it off one day,

just gone, boom, gone,
no more hair.

-Fall turns to winter,
and Farrah spends the holidays

juggling treatment
with festivities.

But by the time her birthday
arrives again,

in February 2009, Farrah
takes a turn for the worst.

-It's no one's fault because
trials work for some people,

and they don't for others.

It caused the cancer to grow

at an unbelievable speed,

and by that time,
she was not well at all.

The doctors had suggested
she go back to Germany.

-Farrah and Alana make their
final trip to Germany.

One of the German doctors
warns Alana

that Farrah could die any day.

-We came back from Germany,

and some complications
set in and some things.

She got an infection
in her port,

and one thing led to another.

-The treatments had taken
their toll on her.

But there was not a time,
during those final days,

where she talked about dying.

There was not a time
where she ever gave up.

-Farrah is too ill to finish
overseeing her documentary,

but it premiers on NBC,
on May 15th, 2009.

It delivers the highest ratings
in NBC's Friday night

time slot in more than a year,
other that the Olympics.

-I had no idea that the degree
of interest that would be there.

People got to see who the real
Farrah Fawcett actually is.

♪♪

-She wanted to tell people,
"Don't give up,"

because that was going
to be her message

of the documentary is,
"Don't give up,"

because she was going
to be alive at the end of it.

You know, her plan was to
show people you could beat it.

-I recorded her last phone
call to me,

and it's so sweet and so tender,
and she said,

"We're just going to
grow old together beautifully."

-Things took a turn
for the worse,

and she had to go
to the hospital,

and she never wanted to die
in a hospital.

But she ended up
in intensive care,

and there was just no way
she could have even gotten home.

-All of her organs
were starting to fail,

and so that's when we knew
it was just a matter of time.

-After a nearly
three-year battle,

Farrah Fawcett
dies at the age of 62,

on June 25th, 2009.

-She fought the fight as hard
as anybody could ever do it.

-She was courageous,
and you could weave that

through her entire career,
and she ended it that way.

-Her doctor and the nurses
around her,

at the very, very last moments
of her life,

said they'd never seen anyone
hold on to life like Farrah.

-Farrah's loved ones
from Texas join Hollywood stars

in a private funeral for Farrah.

-It was beyond sad,

and, you know,
my grandfather's there,

and you never want
to bury your children.

I don't think there's anybody
who has lost someone

that didn't think,

"Could you have done
one thing more?

Could you have said, like,
one more thing?

You know, like,
how much you meant to us."

-I'm using what she taught me,

to survive, to go on,
to care for my son, Redmond.

-Redmond was facing some
serious issues with addiction,

fighting an uphill battle,
as well.

-Farrah's son, Redmond,
who was incarcerated

at the time of Farrah's passing,

is granted a release
from jail to say goodbye.

-He was at the funeral.

He came, and they allowed him
to carry her casket.

-Farrah would want Redmond
to feel loved and to be happy.

I think it's simple.

-Two years before her death,
Farrah had created

the Farrah Fawcett Foundation
to promote research,

assist patients
undergoing treatment,

and develop
prevention programs.

Today, her friend,
Alana Stewart, oversees it.

-Why is this important to you,
the work that you're doing here?

-It's something that would mean
an awful lot to Farrah.

I feel like it's a way
of carrying on her legacy

and her memory.

We are doing some
really important work

in cancer research,
in her name.

-Do you feel
a responsibility still,

in keeping her presence
in your everyday?

-I feel like
she's still with us.

Sometimes I'll look
outside my window,

and a hummingbird will appear,

and I always feel like
that's her,

coming to, like,
kind of check in and say hello.

-And the butterflies?

You're wearing
your butterfly shirt.

-Farrah died in June of 2009,

and I was pretty exhausted,
and so I went to this house

in Mexico that Farrah
and I had gone.

I was lying outside in the sun,
and right next to me

was the chaise where Farrah
would always lie,

and I suddenly was
just overwhelmed

with this feeling of sadness,
tears rolling down my face,

and I saw this white something
outside, fluttering around.

It was a big white butterfly,
like this big, and it flew over.

It had these big brown eyes,
and it looked at me

for, like,
three or four seconds,

and I was just looking at it,
and I just knew, you know?

And I just started crying,
and it flew away,

and I just know that
that was her saying to me,

"I'm okay. Don't be sad."

I know, I mean, it's just --

-I need a moment.

-It was the craziest thing ever.

I never had anything like that
happen to me before, ever.

I just feel like, you know,
her presence is still with us.

-She wanted to be remembered
for how she lived.

You know, remember the life,
remember the career.

A small town girl, really,

mushrooming into
this wonderful thing.

-It is a movie script.

It's a real life movie.

A little girl gets off the bus
from Texas, gets photographed,

is recognized for her beauty.

It doesn't have a happy ending,

but we're still looking
at photographs of her

in her happy days.

-She wasn't content to just
stay pinned up

on somebody's wall.

She was a fighter.

She was determined to defy
expectations and limitations.

-There was no question
that she was in charge.

People would stand up, allow her
to sit at the head of the table,

and it's very difficult

for women
in the entertainment industry,

particularly at that time,
to command a room that way.

-Farrah would want people
to know that she was a person

that enjoyed her life
to the fullest.

I was lucky to call her
my friend,

and I miss her every day.

-She was original.

I don't think there's ever been
anyone like her.

She came in at a time when
I guess the world was just ready

for this beautiful sexy
all-American golden girl,

and that's how I always
think of Farrah,

is our all-American golden girl.

-What will I be remembered for?
I don't know.

[ Clicks tongue ] Um...

Surviving? That'd be good.

How about surviving?

You know, in a business that's,

I think, very difficult

and especially difficult
for a woman.

♪♪

♪♪