Farrah Fawcett: a life in pictures

Farrah Fawcett poses on a tennis court in Los Angeles in 1977 Photograph: AP

Perfect hair, dazzling smile – originally named Ferrah, she was born in Corpus Christi, Texas, in February 1947. She started her career as a shampoo and toothpaste model Photograph: SNAP/Rex Features

Farrah Fawcett, Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith in the 1970s American television programme Charlie's Angels Photograph: Rex Features

Farrah Fawcett and Lee Majors met in 1968 and married in 1973. She appeared with him in four episodes of The Six Million Dollar Man. Pictured here in 1976, they split in 1979 and divorced in 1982 Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis

Fawcett complained that starring in Charlie's Angels prevented her from getting the serious film roles she wanted. But she seemed to enjoy herself with Burt Reynolds in 1981's The Cannonball Run Photograph: 20th Century Fox/Sportsphoto Ltd./Allstar

Michael York, Farrah Fawcett and Jenny Agutter in Logan's Run in 1976 Photograph: Everett Collection/Rex Features

The record-breaking poster that defined the look of the 1970s – it hung on over 12 million boys' bedroom walls. Nasa put one in a time capsule and shot it into space in 1977. In 2007, GQ declared it 'the most influential piece of men's art of the last 50 years' Photograph: Everett Collection/Rex Features

Dubbed the 'Farrah flip', this was the hairdo copied by millions of women around the world Photograph: Rex Features

Fawcett meets Prince Charles backstage at the London Palladium in 1978 Photograph: AP

Tousled, casual, but still crowd-stopping at Cannes in 1978 Photograph: Mirkine/Sygma/Corbis

Fawcett in a scene from Sunburn in 1979 Photograph: Rex Features

With her parents, Pauline and James, in 1983. Her older sister, Diane, died of cancer in 2001 Photograph: Sipa Press/Rex Features

Ryan O'Neal And Farrah Fawcett in Deauville, France, in 1984. They moved in together in 1982, had a son, Redmond, in 1985 then split in 1997, but reunited in 2001 when Ryan O'Neal was diagnosed with leukaemia Photograph: Rex Features

She played a battered wife in the 1984 TV movie The Burning Bed, which gave her the best reviews of her career and led to the first of her three Emmy nominations Photograph: TISCH/AVNET/Allstar

She exuded tragic glamour as eight-times-married Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton in the 1987 biopic Poor Little Rich Girl Photograph: ITV/Rex Features

Fawcett arrives for the screening of Dr T and The Women, in which she shared the silver screen with Richard Gere, at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2000 Photograph: Aaron Harris/Getty

She played a movie star who hires a private investigator to track her cheating husband in Hollywood Wives: The New Generation. Melissa Gilbert and Robin Givens provided support in the 2002 movie, adapted from a Jackie Collins novel Photograph: Rex Features

Behind the lens for once, at New York fashion week in 2004 Photograph: Charles Sykes/Rex Features

Fawcett speaks during a tribute to Aaron Spelling at the Primetime Emmy Awards in 2006 Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters

At the Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner in Studio City, California, in 2006 Photograph: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Angels reunited: Fawcett, Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith walk onstage for a tribute to Aaron Spelling during the Emmy Awards in 2006, the year she discovered she had cancer Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters/Corbis