- You're an angel. That's what they tell me. - When Charlie's
Angels came on the air, it was like an explosion. - [Announcer] Please
welcome Farrah Fawcett. (audience applauding) - Whew! - She brought television
into a new era. She brought sexuality
into a new era. - The way you
talked was changing. Fashion was changing. (camera clicks) - Farrah's red
bathing suit poster, was the most famous
poster ever made. - You had to have guards
everywhere you went. We were rockstars. - [Interviewer] Do you
ever get used to it Farrah? - No, I don't think so. - She made choices based
on how her creativity could most blossom. - [Woman] She could fight. She could be her own woman. - Go ahead then! - She was on top of the world, and that's when
everything changed. - [Man] Farrah catches Ryan
in bed with the redhead. - I was mortified. - And they're just
screaming at each other. - James Orr and
Farrah begin to date and then disaster struck. - She continued the
fight until the very end even after he quit
and then went back and smashed up his
house some more. - You're scaring me, Cathedra. - She was channeling the pain
she was feeling into her part. - People say, why did
you cast Farrah Fawcett? I said, "What do
you mean why did I? Look at what she did!" (screaming) - Do you love mommy? - No. (groaning) - [Man] One of the
heartbreaks of Farrah's life is what happened
to her son Redmond. - She felt that she
failed her child. - She was looking for somebody who was selling
drugs to her son. She was there to kick his butt. - Cameras are rolling. - She would always
take care of others, and she wasn't paying
attention to her health. - [Woman] Farrah was
diagnosed with cancer. It was a very
devastating time for her. - She fought in a
deeper way than people gave her credit for. - [Female Paparazzo] Farrah! - [Woman] When you
look at her life, you see somebody
who never gave up. She fought to be taken seriously and will continue
to be an inspiration to young actresses forever. - [Woman] She is tough. - [Man] Mesmerizing. - [Man] Fearless. - [Woman] Firecracker. - [Woman] Smart. - [Woman] Provocative. - [Woman] Wildly underrated. - [Woman] A spitfire. - [Woman] She was an icon. - [Woman] She was this eight
by 10 glossy bigger than life. And sexy and beautiful, but
there was a deep side of her. - [Man] She wasn't just sexy. She was free. - I'm not that easy to tame, no.
(laughs) (light piano music) ♪♪ - [Greg] Farrah was
the cool aunt, and she would talk to you in a way that other
relatives didn't. I'll always remember that. She was amazing. My mom and her
were really close. And before she had Redmond,
I would go out there and spend every summer with her. I mean, what a cool aunt
that even wants me around. She and I would continue to
write letters back and forth. That's how sweet she was. Just like little
things like that. Meant the world to me. We were just always
really close. She just thought that I
would be a good caretaker since I never really
asked for anything or didn't want any
of the adulation or didn't really want any part
of that universe out there. Now we're just kinda
trying to follow her wishes and be a good steward. I have box after box after box of just random things
that anyone would have in the top drawer
of a nightstand, and it'd take years to be
able to catalog all the things that, you'd find. You could go for days in
here and find trinkets and mementos and pictures
and articles and... It's just, you know,
someone's entire life. Honestly I've never
seen this until now. Just, so 65, I'm assuming it's Farrah's high
school yearbook, 1965. W. B. Ray High School
in Corpus Christi. Farrah and I, my grandfather,
in the kitchen out in LA. Just hanging out one summer
day trying to figure out what we're gonna eat. My mom and Farrah and
Jimbo, my grandparents. They've got the Fawcett smile. I mean, it's immaculate. All of them have perfect teeth. All of them super happy. Oh! here's one of Farrah, black
and white, as a little girl back in Corpus Christi. - She's a border girl, down
here by the Mexican border, and they grow 'em tough there. She used to tell me,
I'm walking to school. In the summer, she would
step on scorpions, barefoot. Gimmick, kind of a game. (laughs) Oh my God! - She was just really
close to her mom and dad. Pauline and Jimmy were
very down-to-earth. I think that they just gave
good values and morals. Her dad kinda reminded
me of John Wayne. He never had boys, so he had
two girls, Diane and Farrah. And I think that he kinda
shaped them a little bit to be tough and independent. - She had a very close
relationship with Diane. She said, "You know, I
learned a lot from my sister." Farrah told me a story
once where she was young, and she was walking home alone. A boy in her school much
larger than her, followed her and pulled her in the bushes and proceeded to
pull up her skirt and try to have at her
and she fought him off. I honestly believe
that's where she got that tough side from. That she could fight. That she could be her
own woman and be strong and take anything on. - Let me ask you something using a Yiddish word. Where do you get the chutzpa? You know what it means. Where do you get the guts to
control your life like you do? - My parents, I don't know. Maybe I'm from Texas, that's it. - Her closeness to her parents, was really really special. Her mother was that one person that was always
there to cheer on. (upbeat music) Took her to college. Stayed there in Austin to
make sure she was okay. - I helped her over
the fence one time when she wasn't supposed
to be going out. I'd go open the gate so
she'd be able to come back in when she wanted to. - You could've got her expelled. I didn't know that was going on. - (laughs) No, you didn't. - By the end of her
first week of college, she had her entire sorority
day calendar full up. Rumors got started that
she danced barefoot at one of the fraternity parties
while other girls watched in appalled fascination. Everybody knew the name Farrah before her freshman
year was over. - Alright, so this
UT yearbook from '67. I heard she was legendary
even in art school this big at that time. Apparently, she was so
amazing and had dates lined up for weeks that everyone
on campus knew her. - She was one of the
10 most beautiful girls at the University of Texas, and Hollywood started calling and Farrah just, you know,
just blows it off, and they kept
calling and calling. - She was an art major and
I was a art history major, so we were in the same building and I would see
her all the time. Professor Umlauf took her
under his wing and taught her. They did a lot of news,
a lot of sculptures. She learned a lot about the
body, and she was really good. And then she left us and
went to Hollywood (laughs). (rock and roll music) - She came to California, and she was put under
a contract by a studio and they were paying her
$300 dollars a month. And she'd say, "Nancy, they
were just giving me lessons. "Just trying to get
rid of my accent." She said they'd spends
hours with her saying, "No, Farrah, it's
not oil. It's oil." And she said she
just couldn't say it. - You promised to
teach me tennis. - Oh, well, tennis is
a very simple game. Just put the racket
in that hand. Now here we have
a nice forehand, and here we have
a nice backhand. Then we have a nice
both hands like that. - On the court, tiger. I'll change and meet you. - The first time I met Farrah was way before Charlie's Angels. I was shooting a Max
Factor commercial, and she was shooting
another one. We were going in and out of
this pool, and it was winter, and it was freezing. And then we'd run back to
the sauna and sit in there until we got warm. We were both Texas girls. She had grown up in Corpus. I grew up in Houston, but there was just sort
of this immediate bond. She was not just
interested in herself. She was interested in you
and what you had to say. She was a listener and
you know, in that moment of sitting there with her, I knew I could be
good friends with her. - I met her two weeks. She'd been out here two weeks. - [Dinah Shore] Oh. - And I just kinda captured
her, just, that was it. - When Farrah came to Lee's
life, Lee was the big star. He was on The Six
Million Dollar Man. Lee and Farrah together
were a great couple. They were both into sports. Lee was a fantastic athlete
and a great-looking guy, and Farrah was also
obviously a beautiful girl. ♪ Let Noxzema cream your face ♪ ♪ Hey hey hey ♪ ♪ so a razor won't ♪ ♪ Whoa ♪ - She had just done the Noxzema
commercial with Joe Namath and she had done some
guest appearances on TV. Lee Majors got Farrah on
The Six Million Dollar Man many, many times, so her
career was really catapulted by Lee Majors. - He's the reason
I came to see you. - Why? Because you're jealous? - No, I need help. - Of course, you've
always needed help. That's what I mean. (upbeat music) - I think he saw in
her something special. I mean everything about her. Her singing, her beauty,
her smile, her hair. She had a quality
that at the time was unique and
different and special. - I was Farrah
Fawcett's tennis coach. She called me up and she said, "I wanna have a tennis
lesson, come up to my house." So I went up there and she
was sitting by her pool. She said, "I'm just finishing
up her photo shoot." And it was just the
photographer and Farrah and me. She was doing her own hair and she kept saying
to the photographer, "I wanna go play tennis." And then she'd look
off to the side. The house had a glass door. She'd look at her reflection
to see if her hair was okay. She was as calm as a cucumber. It's mesmerizing to watch
because she didn't sweat. And then the photographer said, "Okay, Farrah, just
give me one more shot." And I still remember it vividly. She just went like this. Like that. She smiled and then of
course, you'd like to think that she was smiling
at you and that was it. She got up and she
got her tennis racket. No big deal. - The poster came out
and became so popular that it became the highest
selling poster in the world. It not only took
over the imaginations of teenage boys like me, but everybody knew
about the poster. Then she did something that
no one could predict again. This does not look like
someone who's about to cause this cultural
upheaval in America. (slow music) - This is Farrah's
wedding album. I was about five. Here's a great picture of
right before her wedding, something I always
remember her doing when she'd put on her makeup, sitting on the counter while
she's talking to my mother. Based on the look
on my mother's face, it looks like she's maybe
lecturing Farrah a little bit, but it's kinda standard. Another picture marking
my lack of enthusiasm. I remember the horrible
outfit I had on. I remember having a job. I was the ring bearer. I got bit by a swan. Quite honestly, I was more
interested that Lee Majors was gonna be my uncle and Farrah wasn't the star
that she became at that point. So, she's just my aunt, and she's marrying
someone really cool. - Farrah was a traditional girl. She grew up in a
traditional upbringing. She was very close to her dad. She was daddy's little girl, so then she became
Lee's little girl. - When she came to Hollywood, she was the classic Texas girl. Polite, sweet,
deferential to men. She meets Lee Majors. He marries her quickly and then wants her to
be a stay-at-home wife. One of the great rumors
about their relationship was that Lee told her
that in her contract she had to quit
shooting by 6 pm, so that she could get back to
the house and cook him dinner. And Farrah, in response,
supposedly said, "If you want me in the bedroom, "then you go find
someone else to cook "and clean our dishes." - Was Lee a very
controlling husband? He was a man's man. He was a hunter and
she's a gourmet cook, and he wanted her cooking
those delicious meals and making German
chocolate cake. I just think he wanted
his wife at home. Did he want her to
do Charlie's Angels? I don't think so. - [Narrator] Once upon a time,
there were three little girls who went to the police academy. (exciting music) - When Charlie's
Angels came on the air, it was like an explosion. Everybody watched it. There were only three
networks at the time, so everybody was home
watching the show. Fashion was changed
because of it. The way you talked was
changed because of it. - That was like one
of the first times where women were seen
not just as beautiful but as a role model and
that they were detectives and solving crimes. It was a different view
than what people had before. - Television had, prior
to Charlie's Angels, sort of stock,
enjoyable, warm, friendly but not necessarily
sexy characters. What Farrah brought to
television in the '70s was the sexuality
and it wasn't dirty. It wasn't promiscuous, but
she embraced her sexuality by jiggling through these shows. And it's sort of equivalent
to what Elvis did in music. - Three women in the
lead, not three men. Women had been playing
nurses and wives and homey. I mean we were out
there doing our thing and catching the bad guys. - Well, let me show you, okay? (gun firing) (brakes screeching) - Don't! - Hold it. - With Farrah and I,
there was an innocence. Kate had done a series. So we were like these sort
of innocent girls going in and Kate was the leader
and bossing us around. We sort of let her lead
us, which was interesting because she would prepare for
a scene in a very unusual way. She'd let out the
stream of (laughs) words that we didn't wanna, you know, from Texas we
wouldn't say in public and we'd go, why do you do that? And she said, "Well,
it frees me up, "so I can't embarrass myself." Was new for both of us
and there was a bond. - I have fond
feelings of working with Kate and Jackie. We really had an
extraordinary relationship, totally void of jealousy
and petty things. It was a delight to
work with those girls, and I was very naive. Was a time when I was very
innocent and work was fun. - Probably one of the
greatest summers of my life was the summer
that went out there and stayed with Farrah
the entire summer that she did Charlie's Angels. I got to see how
movies were made. I kinda got traded off
amongst all the girls, whether it was Kate
Jackson or Jaclyn Smith or even their stand-ins. I mean they were all just
kinda shuffling me around, so, from my standpoint,
it was fantastic. Running around the studios
somewhat unsupervised. Access to all the coke I wanted. You know, Coca-Cola. Stuff like that
was a kid's dream. (upbeat music) - We were known as jiggle
TV, which was so silly. Aaron Spelling and Lynne
Goldberg had their hand on the pulse of what
America wanted to see and we radiated on the screen. - Okay, let's both
stop playing games. For starters, you
can drop the Tracy. It rhymes with Stacy and Macy
and all those other jive names hookers like to latch onto. - I'm not your
ticket to a promotion if that's what you think. - I'm not LAPD. I'm a private investigator. - Out she comes
playing Jill Monroe, the private investigator
and the world changes. The culture of America changes. The show, of course,
was not very good, but it was
commercially brilliant. - When Charlie's Angels
first went to number one, we were caught up in the fanfare
and you had to have guards everywhere you went. We were rockstars. (audience applauding) - [Farrah] Sometimes in airports when people come up or
they're taking photographs, and all of a sudden, literally, a hundred people came
like can you sign this? It was only just starting. - There was this celebrity
tennis match in Palm Springs, and Valerie Perrine
and I were partners, and we couldn't play
tennis worth beans. And Farrah was, of course,
an incredible athlete, an incredible tennis player. She won the tournament. She won the gold Rolex
watch and I just remember outside of the tennis club,
they opened the doors, and there were hundreds
of screaming girls and they all wanted
the Farrah hair. She was like the
hottest thing going. - Women saw Farrah on television and went to the beauty
shop and had a Farr-do. Jennifer Aniston had a famous
flip for a year on Friends, but nobody did that
hairstyle after about a year. You can go to small-town
malls to this day and still see the
Farrah haircut. (upbeat music) - Back then the way she
was styling her hair, she would put it in
rollers, very large rollers and get the look that
she wanted to achieve. And I came and said
this is too much work. We don't need to use rollers. I just give it a haircut,
a layered haircut, very very layered, layered,
layered, layered, layered. But it was on Farrah, whatever
she was doing at the time, it was constantly photographed. The power that Farrah had
at the time was her hair. I mean, her hair was amazing. - When Faberge first asked me to put my name on a new shampoo, I said, I don't know anything
about making hair products, so I told them I like hair that's really clean
and smells fresh. I'm proud to have my name on it. (upbeat music) - She learned very, very quickly
that she had a voice. And not only did she have a
voice; her voice mattered. She knew her worth. She was labeled difficult
in this business by a lot of people. And that label probably came because she would ask
for a lot of money. She saw, the person with
the money had the power. - She could go over a contract
with a fine-tooth comb and come up with things that
even her attorney hadn't seen. - That's something that
people do not see about Farrah that I know all of her
family and friends know. She was very strong and she
would not be pushed around. - Couple of times I felt
that they were asking me to wear a bathing suit
and it wasn't justified, so I kind of put it back
on their lap and I said, "Why don't you rewrite it? "I mean you want me to be in
a bathing suit, I don't mind "because as an actress I
should be able to do anything, "but you have to make it valid." It has to be justified
to me as an actress that I have something to draw
on and can make it believable, instead of just saying
you walk into the room and you have on your bikini
and later on you'll say, "Oh, I was at the
beach by the way." I don't buy that, so
with the script I said, I handed it back to
them and I said let's, "I'm not a writer,
but I'm telling you "maybe how the character, "how I could make
the character work." Well, you're looking at a
fully qualified disco expert. I mean, I've danced everywhere. Regine's, Monique's,
Dirty Jack's. - Very impressive. - Farrah grew up in a time
where the women's movement was just beginning and it
hadn't really flourished. And when you came
out to Hollywood, if you looked like Farrah, which is extraordinarily
beautiful, you became a model. Or you became an actress
who was known for her beauty and I think that
she was stigmatized by being so beautiful and so, it was kind of
I don't need to hear what you're thinking
when in fact, she was one of the
smartest women I knew. - Is it tough when you've
got a bang on your head, and everyone thinks
you're just beautiful? - It is. It's annoying. Makes you, exasperated. Yeah, I think it's a
little bit of a curse. - I did see a growth in
Farrah after Charlie's. I think she thought, I
want a better script. I want a better director. I want to create
different characters. That kind of fame that
came off Charlie's Angels, you're not in reality and everybody's
at you and talking and saying, you need
to get out on your own. You don't need to
be one of three. It's confusing. - I changed as a
result of my work. I came into a town one way. I became successful
before I was ready for it or knew what I was doing. You know, kind of backwards. Success came before I had done what I thought was a good role. So I can't say that
I was really happy with my life or in my
career at that point. I know that if I was gonna
stay in the business, I had to change. I mean, I wanted to change. t in ger or I'll never make
the party tonight! - Jill, thanks for everything. You're an angel. - Yeah, that's
what they tell me. - When Charlie's
Angels came on in 1976, it was such a sensation that half of America
tuned in to watch. Those three Angels got
20,000 fan letters a week and everyone was most
fascinated of all at Farrah. - Whenever people think
of Charlie's Angels, they think of Farrah Fawcett. She was only on
for the one season but made such an impact
on the show and she left. - [Skip] After showing up in
only the first season, she quits! She says she's not
growing as an actress and she wants to
do something else! Well, you know, everyone
in Hollywood thinks, how can she do this? - Farrah's resolve
as a business woman was one of her great attributes. You know, she did not
suffer fools at all and she was willing to
walk away from things. The resolve to walk away is
one of the strongest things I think any individual can do. You know, she had that. - It wasn't a
subject we discussed, leaving Charlie's Angels. I know she thought it was
the right decision for her. People say, well,
weren't you unhappy? And I thought, how
could I be unhappy for a friend who
wanted to leave? - It was hard for her,
after she left, to work. Because Aaron Spelling
and Len Goldberg said you're under contract,
you need to come back. That period, was a hard period for her. You know, I think certain
scripts maybe had been held from her. A lot of people didn't want
to work with Farrah because they felt she broke the
contract with Spelling-Goldberg. And she came back and it
was good to have her back but it wasn't the same. - I think that it sent
her in a really different direction to prove
herself as an actress and not just as this
beautiful poster girl. - There was a great segregation. If you did television, you
could never do a feature. And if you did features, you
would never do television. Now that's silly, but
that's the way it was. There was really a
class system then. So for Farrah to make that
leap was extraordinary. (plane engines roaring) (camera shutters tickering)
(crowd screaming) - [Reporter] Farrah! - Hello, how are you? - [Reporter] You haven't
made the first film yet and you've gotten
all this attention. How does it feel? - It feels great. - She just had left
Charlie's Angels and was invited to
do an appearance at the film festival in Cannes. - [Reporter] The photographers
are going bananas. - Bottom line, couldn't
get out of the car. - [Reporter] Farrah Fawcett
Majors has just arrived. - Thousands and thousands
of fans and paparazzi, it was a phenomenon. - [Reporter] Do you ever
get used to it, Farrah? - Um, no, I don't think so. - You were the only
personality in the world who had yet to have had a
worldwide box office smash but could demand
$750,000 going in and a percentage on a film. Do you believe that the
industry now accepts you? - I don't know
yet, I wouldn't say that I feel too secure
in that area yet. - [Host] How do you feel you
should be treated, Farrah? - I think I should be taken
a little more seriously. I don't think that
it's fair for them to have this show me attitude. - I mean, she did Sunburn and
Somebody Killed Her Husband. I don't think it
graduated to movie star the way she was maybe hoping. Looking back, is it because
she wasn't given good roles? - Farrah struggled at
times with the judgment. I think anybody in the
film industry does. From people putting
you in a pigeonhole, you're this, you're that,
she fought against that. She was surprising and
provocative and unexpected. - She was married
to Lee at that time and I think that she was starting to really grow
and explode and that was a little bit
of a competition there and sometimes that's
hard for men to handle. - What is the state
of your marriage now? - Well, we're separated. - Is it the basic
story of the woman becoming more
successful than the man? Growing up, having a
different feeling of herself and the marriage or the
man can't take that? - Well, I, yeah. Yes, I think so. I think that certainly
along with my success, I had to become
stronger certainly. I'm out there all day,
shooting for 16 hours a day, having to make decisions
and having to back myself up and feel strong about them,
but then I can't go home and have every
decision made for me. I mean, certainly,
there's such a conflict. So, yes I wasn't the
girl that he married. But I think I became better. - [Crowd] Farrah! - [Reporter] The
hype is on, it is on. This is how it goes
here at Cannes. Farrah Fawcett Majors,
the ex-Charlie's Angel's now a full-fledged movie star. (disco music)
(crowd yelling Farrah) - [Reporter] Every once in a
while, there's an actress who comes along who
instantaneously becomes more than a star, she
becomes a national phenomena. - She was bigger than
ever at that time. - That's great. - Farrah kept kicking, she
moved into more and more fame and she liked who
she was becoming and Lee didn't like it. - Like so many couples,
let's be frank, there are marital pressures,
the marital problems that have been brought
about by your career and when you add it all up,
you add up the problems, you add up the success
and the stardom. Farrah Fawcett, is it worth it? - Absolutely, yes. - You know, two actors in a
relationship is not always easy. You have to really
feel confident and have your own sense of self. - She had a lot of energy
and a lot of charisma and a lot of... There was just so much to
her, you can't harness that. You just kinda have
to let that go. And anyone that's
gonna be with her has to know that you're gonna have to let her be who she is. And that would be a
successful relationship. - So Lee Majors
knew Ryan O'Neal. And so the story goes that
Ryan O'Neal comes over, and you've got to remember
who Ryan O'Neal was at that point in
American culture. He was the star of Love Story and he could have
anybody he wanted. And in he walks, to
Lee Majors' house to have a drink and
there sits Farrah and it was inviting the
fox into the henhouse. (disco music) - Farrah and Lee did divorce. Farrah had a budding career
and was taking off and she didn't go out there
to make meals for someone. - Once the news
broke that Lee Majors and Farrah were breaking
up and that Farrah was now seeing Ryan O'Neal, the Hollywood paparazzi
almost lost its sanity. Ryan and Farrah became the
Brangelina of their day. - When I first met
Farrah and Ryan, they were truly
Hollywood's golden couple. They just exuded glamor and fun and he was so handsome
and she was so gorgeous and they lit up any
room they walked into. - Ryan adored her and I'd
be on the phone with her and we'd be talking
and she goes, I've gotta hang up,
my honey's home! My honey's home,
that's what she'd say. - We always thought of Ryan
and Farrah as being married. They had just as much
of a marriage as anyone. But she never really
wanted to seal the deal. And Ryan always says
he asked her many times and that she didn't want to. - He gave her her
freedom, she gave him his, but they were a team. - Ryan has, I sense him
as somebody who likes to be in control. And you seem equally like
you wanna be in charge. What is that, how
does that jive? - Well, he is one of the
first men in my lives to, my lives, my life
(laughs) or my lives, to encourage my independence. He is very proud of me and
encourages me in my work. You know, which is
never to say, well, where are you when I need
you, you're off working? He's never done that
to me and I think that's why our relationship
has stayed so strong. - Ryan coming into
her life was a plus. You know, he'd been in
the business longer, he guided her, he was great
for her in her career. - The image of Farrah
Fawcett's absolutely contrary to Farrah Fawcett performance in her first New York
stage appearance. The play, called Extremities, is about a girl who was attacked
by a rapist in her home. Gene Shalit asked Farrah if
her insight into the role involved any personal
experience of rape. - No, no, unfortunately
and fortunately. um, I talked to a lot
of women who did and what seemed to be
a major theme though, with all of these
women, was, why me? - You can't do this to me! - Scream under the dirt,
like me under the pillow! When you're sucking for air! And you know that ------- are
for dirt. - She's beating some guy up and
shoving him in a fireplace. - She broke her wrist on that. I mean, that was physically
challenging for her. - When I was in rehearsal, umm. the director Robert Ackerman
said to me, this is great, I believe everything that you're
bringing to the character but but I don't see enough fear. I said, well, that's just
how I would react, you know? Maybe I cover my
fear with aggression. - Farrah had great
determination. You can't do what she did without a belief in
your own opinions. She went and
followed her own path and she proved to people
that she could act. And then she did
The Burning Bed, and her performance showed
this incredible depth and it showed what a
giant talent she was. - No, no, no. - Well, working with
Farrah from the beginning, she really knew what she wanted, she knew who she was and
then the actual filming was very interesting
and challenging and exciting because
she committed fully. - I can fix you so
you'll never go back! - Go ahead then! - One of the things I said
to Farrah and the producers is that I not only
wanted rehearsal time, which is almost never done, particularly in
television films, but I wanted to spend
several weeks with Farrah. And in that period of time, we went to several
different women's shelters, so when we began rehearsals, Farrah and I had a
much stronger bond and then when the film came out and it started to have an impact
on laws around the country, you know, it's like we
had come full circle. - [Reporter] It wasn't
until 1984 and the landmark TV
movie, The Burning Bed, that the issue of domestic
violence was the story. It was the highest rated
TV movie to air on NBC. One of society's
secrets was out. - The film came out and it had an insanely positive response. I mean, I think more
people watched it than watched Sunday
Night Football or almost as many as watched
the presidential debates. I mean, the numbers were
really extraordinary. And the value of that was that
policy makers saw the film and she went and spoke
before some elected officials and it started to have an impact
on laws around the country. You know, it was a
huge accomplishment but we should not forget
with the passage of time what an extraordinary
risk it was for her. Her career was based on
a certain way of looking, a certain way of being. - I'm sure they said to her, why would you wanna
look like that? Why would you do that? I mean, we've got a
good thing going here! - I do remember after
the film came out, because it was a big success, I got all kinds of offers
to direct other films, and literally it was so and so
wants to do her Burning Bed. - When I think of
Charlize Theron winning the Academy
Award for Monster, I think Farrah was
there doing it before. (disco music) - How do you explain Farrah
and Ryans relationship? Did she love him? She loved him madly, madly. Did she put up with
him all the time? No. - She would say, I
am so mad at Ryan, I'm never speaking to him. Do you know what he said to me? And I'd say, you'll
speak to him again. And she'd go, no, I'm
not, this time I mean it, I'm never talking to him again. And three days later she'd
say, well, I can't talk now 'cause I'm getting ready to
go over to Ryan's. (laughs) So they were just not gonna
be out of each other's life. - I think Ryan is
the love of her life. But I think they liked
high drama. (laughs) They were, but whatever
happened they always found their way
back to each other. - [Interviewer] I mean,
has it been rocky? - Oh, no, but never dull.
- [Interviewer Good, strange? Never dull.
- [Interviewer] Never dull. That's the one thing I
have to say about Ryan. He is so full of um,
life, love of life. He's very strong,
he's very atheletic and um, at the same time
he's very childlike, very sensitive, and
it's a nice combination. - When Farrah came
into the picture, Ryan already had three children. Tatum, Patrick and Griffin. Patrick lived with his mother and Tatum and Griffin
lived with Ryan at the beach house in Malibu. Tatum, of course, was
famous in her own right. Won an Academy Award for
Paper Moon as a little girl. Still close to her father. And in walks Farrah, who
dominates her father's life. - What kind of relationship
do you have with Tatum? - Oh well, we're
friends, you know? I've never have been
like a mother to her because I came into her life,
she was already in her teens. - I'm sure there was
some competative streaks with Tatum and Farrah, I
think that's just natural. - Tatum realizes her father is
fixated on his new girlfriend in a way he's never been
fixated on any women before. - I hear that the
issue of getting married or not has
come up with Ryan. He has said publicly that he
has asked you to marry him. - He has asked me,
I am considering. - [Barbara Walters]
And you've said no! - No, I'm considering. (laughs) It's a very big step.
- Marriage? It's also a big
step to have a baby! - Well, yes, definitely. - We both thought maybe
we wouldn't have children. Being a mother was
something bigger than life. You know, something real. - Now you take on maybe
the greatest role. We don't have a lot of time
but now you've got motherhood. - Oh, motherhood, mm. I'm very happy, Redmond has been a wonderful addition to my life, has made me complete. And he's so sweet
and he's so dear when he puts his arms around
me and when he kisses me. (laughs) It's a
fabulous feeling. I'm in a very good
point in my life where I'm ready
for responsibility and I don't feel it's
any sort of intrusion in my life or my career because I waited a long time
so I was ready for it. (gentle guitar music) - That little boy
was everything to her and, yeah, she would have
done anything for him. She was such a good mommy. - Do you love mommy?
- No. (giggles) - Oh come on, who
do you love, mommy? - [Woman] Another one, aw! - Wow, what a kiss! What a big kiss that was! - We lived in the Palisades
and they'd come down and go trick or treating and
nobody knew who they were and we could do all
the normal things that she wanted to be, a mom
and a friend and barbecue. - That's a sweet boy!
(laughing) That's a sweet boy,
look how happy you are! You're a happy boy! - She had a cute story to say, that when he'd get
in trouble now, you must really go to your room and think about this
because you can't come out until you realize
what you've done. And he came out and he
goes, I've thunked about it and I've thunked about
it (laughs) and I'm okay and, you know, you've
gotta forgive me now. So he was an
adorable little boy. - I think she was
a fabulous mother and I think that, many times, when a child comes into a
relationship, a lot changes and Ryan is volatile guy,
that's just the way he is. - Once we were close
to a fight and Redmond came into the room with a knife and he held it to his
heart and he said, if you don't stop
I'll plunge it in. Into myself. - [Piers Morgan] And he was
only six or seven years old. - Yes, he was. - He must have been exposed
to a pretty chaotic world. - Well, he was exposed
to two people who loved each other very much and was confused by
what was happening now. - One time I was
driving down Mulholland and I see Ryan pulling
out in the Bentley and so I honked my horn
'cause there was Ryan and Redmond and Davey
the dog was in the car. I said, well, where
are you going? And he said, Farrah,
she threw us out, this time it's real, look. And in between, Redmond
was in the front, in between Redmond's
legs was an urn and he said, look, she
even threw my father other. I could just see her saying,
and you can take your dad too! - Farrah had a temper and
she was not gonna back down. And they were both very
strong-willed people. So obviously they
were gonna clash. - It was a fiery relationship. You talk about having
been a boxer yourself, you would defend yourself
as she came at you. Did you ever hit
her inappropriately, now that you look back at it? - Well, I missed
her inappropriately. - [Piers Morgan] Did you
ever try and punch her? - She went into a bathroom
and I punched the door and the door collapsed
and hit her in the eye and I broke my hand
so the two of us were, I was looking at her eye and she was getting
ice for my hand. - The tabloid
perception was that Farrah was in this demeaning,
perhaps abusive relationship with a very domineering man
who was literally a pugilist. He liked to box, he
had a temper on him. And so the thinking was, well, of course Farrah has
got to be a victim. Well, not necessarily! She was always standing
on her own two feet, not letting anyone really
take advantage of her. - I met Farrah as a result
of my ex-husband Paul Le Mat playing her husband
in The Burning Bed and Paul and I invited
Farrah and Ryan to stay with us in
Martha's Vineyard and that was a volatile trip. I remember we went
to play tennis and Farrah was riding with me and Ryan was riding with Paul and they rolled down the window, she was leaning across
me, I'm trying to drive, and they're just
screaming at each other going down the
road in this quiet Martha's Vineyard, at the time, and I even remember
what it was about but it was like Ryan was
in the passenger seat but she was leaning across me to tell him what a son of
a bitch he was, you know? And so it was like that and
then we'd barbecue at night and everything would be great. - What's the secret,
if there is a secret, to keeping that
relationship going? - He makes me laugh
and I make him laugh and we love each other and I
respect him and he respects me, although sometimes I have to
say, that's not respectful! (laughs) I think
it's we're committed. You now, there's a deep
love, a deep support system. When I worked with her on
Small Sacrifices in 1989 she was a brand new mother and this is about a woman
who murders her children. So, I had a little bit
of sort of trepidation about presenting it to her
in the first place. But at the same
time, I was like, convinced that she was the
best person for it. When it came to casting
the role of Lou, the love of her life, I saw
Ryan playing with Redmond and it was like
lightning bolts hit my, (laughs)
you know... I looked at him and I
said, we're overlooking a diamond in our
search for gold here. - Woo! I've had my eyes on you
for a long time, Lou Lewis. - Yeah, little ol' me? - I sure have. - The love scenes are very
convincing in Small Sacrifices. The volatility of the
relationship in the piece was also something
that they could bring because there was
a lot of volatility in their relationship
outside of work. - So, rumors the last
couple of months about you and Ryan
breaking up are not true? - Uh, no, not yet,
they're not true. (laughs) Aren't there always
those rumors? - We were down in San Diego in Deepak Chopras yoga spa and she'd never been
to anything like that. So I took her and I said, you need to get away
and de-stress and just have some time. And in the middle of the night
there was this earthquake. The next morning I got
up and I called Farrah and her phone didn't answer,
she had a do not disturb on it. That was how she regenerated. That was how she regrouped,
was she would sleep. So finally she woke up. I said, did you know
about the earthquake? And she went, "no, but
everybody's calling and my house is split in two." And her house up on Mulholland had literally separated down
the middle of the house. Like her mother used
to always say to her. She used to say, Farrah,
you've led a blessed life that one day, one
day it'll change And Farrah always said to me, my life changed during
the 1994 earthquake. Everything took a
turn for the worse. (upbeat music) - I always admired Farrah
because she was so strong and so determined
and never fearful. She was never
afraid of anything, and she was always a risk taker. - I don't spend a lot of
time questioning, you know, myself or my choices
or my decisions. I just do it. - I would look at her and
think wow, she has everything. She's got the career. She and Ryan. She's got Redmond,
they're happy. And it just seemed like
her life was so blessed, and she really was happy. - You once said
I was born happy. - I was, yes. I know, I like to
be happy, I'm happy! - To that point, she
was on top of the world and that's when
everything changed. (slow solemn music) - At the time around
the earthquake, everybody got unraveled. A lot of things did shift for
her, but the house shifted. The whole house was
cracked in half. - Half of it was on soil, and
half of it was on bedrock, so literally, across the house,
there was a gap that big. It was a really
hard time for her. And It just devastated her. - That was kinda the
beginning of when everything started to go downhill. Things had been building
underneath and problems with her and Ryan but
it wasn't that evident. And suddenly, when that
earthquake happened, it was like it split the house
and it kinda split her life. - In 1997, Farrah
catches Ryan in bed with a young redheaded woman, underneath the Warhol
portrait of Farrah, hanging on the wall
in the bedroom. - The one time that you say
you were unfaithful to her. She came one night in
the middle of the night and found you in
bed with a woman who wasn't a one-night stand. How did you feel, given
the depth of your love for each other, in that
moment how did you feel when she realized what you did? - It's the kind of
scene that is in films. It's not the kind of scene
that happens in life. And I was mortified. Horrified and I chased
Farrah down the stairs and tried to explain it to her as she was getting in her car. And then she drove away
very slowly from my house, this was at about
three in the morning. I watched her drive
away very, very slowly. And that, I just knew that
my life had changed forever. - After she catches Ryan
in bed with the redhead, she does such a Farrah response. She issues a press
release announcing that their relationship
is permanently over and she would like everyone
to respect their privacy as they raise
their son together. - She was furious at him and
she went down to the beach, and she destroyed
some of his things. I mean, she was mad. - Ryan and Farrah split up and
it was really, really tough. It was a very
devastating time for her. She um, she was sad. - I wouldn't make to much
over this if I were you. I certainly know as
much about what you do and have done as you think I do. And you know that. - Yeah, I guess I do. - When I worked with her
on a project, The Apostle, I could see that she
was having a hard time, she was channeling the
pain that she was feeling into her part, and
into that character. - Farrah had her own
barometer, own sense of truth. You try to let it
come from them. Coppola was good that way when
he directed The Godfather. Let it come, you know,
to see what you bring and that's the way
I directed Farrah. Let it come from her. - I don't wanna live
like this anymore. - She could deliver the
goods, and she did, for sure. - People way
underestimated her talent. In hindsight, you go, this
was one talented woman. - I had worked with
her in the film Jewel. And when I was told that she
was going to play this mother, I thought, hmm, I don't know. But then she was not
just a sex symbol and she proved it. There was an underlying
aura of pain. A good actor or actress
has had to live some part of the life of the character
that they're trying to get you to identify with. And there was no question
because it was no secret that she was having
problems with her son. - She was, began having
problems with Redmond. It's really sad when
a kid gets older and gets involved in drugs. She would have done
anything for him, and to help him, and she did. You know, she was very involved, and doing everything she could to help him get through
a very dark period. - I think that
environment out there, with too much free time,
way too much money, and a lot of un-supervision, these kids get into things that you can't imagine
them getting into. Kids are clever, they find
ways to get ahold of stuff, and you know out
there, there's always someone apparently
willing to help. And I can tell you from the
summers that I was out there, there's more people doing stuff
like that than not doing it. And you know, at that
age, it's hard to say no. You want to fit in. (upbeat music) - She was very protective
towards Redmond. But did something go wrong, yes. I was giving a birthday
party and invited Farrah. And she showed up very
aggravated, very upset, and she just came from
East LA, downtown, looking for somebody who was
selling drugs to Redmond. And she was there
to kick his butt. Without even thinking about
herself, could have been killed. 'Cause it's very
dangerous to do this. But in the same time,
it shows the devotion and the care that she
had towards her son. - One of the sadnesses
of Farrah's life, one of the heartbreaks, is what
happened to her son Redmond. You know, When he
was a young teenager they put him in rehab
for drug problems. And it didn't help. And he's fought drug
problems all his life. - Farrah adored Redmond. And tried so hard
to be a good mother. And yet the drugs. - Drugs, heroin, the
strongest drug they make. - What went wrong? - Did we miss a
beat, yeah, I'm sure. We missed a couple. He wasn't happy with who he was. (solemn music) - The fact that she
felt unable to save him, there was nothing that she
said or did or could do, it seemed, to save him. And she felt guilty about that. She felt that she
failed her child. And that's a guilt feeling
that's difficult to live with. She buried herself in her work,
that's the way she survived. - Please forgive me Cathedral, please. Wish me well. Please. (solemn music) - She had something inside
of her that she needed to share with the world. And that's why she was
able from time to time to get a good role
that fed her soul. - She picked roles that
could help her work through that pain by
having a character on screen that's at
some type of extreme. The woman who killed her family, it's difficult as
an actress to dive into a role like that and
take that character on. Because you're obviously going
to feel something yourself. And that was probably good for
her, to have pushed herself. - In the late 90's period,
it did seem like she was more on her own than before. And she was searching for
someone else or something else. (upbeat music) ) - In 1997, Farrah was turning 50 and in Texas monthly
magazine we had to honor our most
famous Texas woman. So we decided to do a cover
called Farrah at Fifty. I interview Farrah,
and this is 20 years after her television show and she still had this
mesmerizing affect on people. One of the people I
talked to was James Orr who directed her in the
movie Man of the House with Chevy Chase. And he made a really
interesting comment that Farrah doesn't
just seduce a man, she draws him in,
little by little, capturing him until,
according to Orr, that man will do
anything she wants. - It was very typical
of her being with certain men because
they pursued her so much. They just kept pursing
her and pursing her and pursing her, that she
would be just like okay, I'll go out, I'll go out
with you or whatever. James never stopped, like
he just didn't stop. - They began to date,
developed a relationship and then disaster struck. In 1998, they began to get
into a fight at dinner. They carried the fight
on back to his house. According to her, he
threw her to the ground, people saw it, the police came. He was charged with
misdemeanor battery. And according to
him, she got angry, knocked out his windows with
a baseball bat of his home. It was a nightmare. - One could well find that
the amount of force used was excessive even though
it was clear she continued the fight until the very
end even after he quit and then went back and smashed
up his house some more. - Obviously, it made
big news at the time but it was a blip on the screen. It was a one-time event. It was unfortunate, she
wasn't happy about having to go through that whole thing. But she got through it,
she put it behind her and she moved on. - When she was having a hard
time, her art was her outlet. - There was a period
of Farrah's life that was very difficult
because Redmond was struggling. And then she and
Ryan had broken up, he is now with a younger woman which I think was
devastating to her. That was how she dealt with
it, it was what came from her. (suspicious slow music) - Let's see. Turn this way. So this is the first sculpture
that we did together, and it's a portrait of
our two hands touching. - I like that.
- Yeah. The collaboration with
Farrah came about, because I was exploring all
these kinds of influences from my upbringing
and just her being the primary female icon of my
childhood and my generation. (bouncy music) I was fascinated by this
idea that Farrah made art and I actually found
that out as a kid through this
Scholastics Dynamite. It was like a magazine
that you could get in the school in
the fifth grade. But I just forgot about
that until I started coming to New York and exploring. - So, how the project
with Farrah came to be, it was a curator a friend of
mine was able to contact her. I didn't give her any
information other than just I want to collaborate with you
and let's see what would happen, we'll rent a studio. - You have total faith that
I know how to do this stuff. - Of course. I checked out your resume before
I started working with you. I wanted to make sure you
had the right credentials. - (laughing) That's right. - We just started by throwing
clay around in the studio and making these bases that
actually had impressions of her body and she would
lay on the clay and pose. We'd take photographs
for reference. And then she brought up this
idea that I just don't want to be the subject, I
would be interested in, you know, doing a
sculpture of you. - I never had a male model, there was one every
once in a while. So that when I was doing
all my stuff at home, either it would be in a mirror
or it would be a magazine of a girl, something like that. I've never been able to do men,
but I think this is my year. - We talked a little bit
about these relationships of artists, the artist and muse, and relationships between
male and female artists that collaborated
historically a little bit and she is so hands-on. There is this formal
difference between the sculpture I made of
her which is very smooth and there's no hands
impressions in it, and hers is all about that. It's all about her hands, her
fingerprints, her tool marks. - Oh wow! - Yeah, yeah. Now that's amazing. I didn't even notice
it looked like that. - [Keith] She gave
me a photograph, that was like this
outtake from one of her Playboy shoots
where she made art. It was just a picture
of her from the back. That's what informed this
idea of the sculpture being somewhat modest
and demure very similar to this Danald
sculpture by Rodin. - Farrah actually saw her body
as another aspect of her art. - It's the female form,
over and over and over and just a strong female she
was always presenting that, just like everything she did. - It's real art,
that she had to make, which I think is
something that's a quality that any art that I
care about is something that needs to be made for
the artist's own reason, whatever that is. Here we are at Talix. We were able to just shut off
a lot of what was going on in both our lives, and just had this intense singular
experience of working together. - I'm just kidding!
(laughing) - I could get a Farrah tattoo. I really enjoyed this experience of working with Farrah
and giving up control. It was only supposed
to last for a month and it ended up being two years. - Cheers.
- Cheers. - [Camera Woman] Woo! - Keith Edmier and
Farrah Fawcett 2000 was shown at the Los
Angeles County Museum of Art in 2002 in November. - Alright, okay. - And then the following summer, it was shown in Pittsburgh
at the Andy Warhol Museum. (slow guitar music) - The ability to go and
do a serious exhibit and get the accolades
and the praise she got, it's a huge amount
of redemption. - It was definitely a
journey for the both of us, after the project was finished, she said this is the thing
that she's most proud of, over any of the acting
projects or anything. So, it was, a big
moment for her. And just, you know, brought
to tears to my eyes. - That really meant a lot to her because when she went
through this period, things were no longer
as easy for her. It seemed like everything
was much more difficult. - The times when she
wanted to be by herself, when she was sculpting. Nothing stopped her. It's Farrah, you know,
nothing could take her down. - And I remember I saw
something on the internet and so I called and
I asked for her, and she took a long time
to come to the phone. And I was starting to feel
uneasy, and I said "Farrah, I just heard something on
the internet, is it true?" And there was this long
pause, and she said "yes", and she started to cry. This is a picture of me
and Farrah on the set of Substitute Wife and
we went down to Austin and she had got me a
part on it as she usually would try to do. And so, to torture me, she
had me put in a bonnet. (laughing) She took great joy in that. (peaceful upbeat music) And this is a picture of Tina
Sinatra's birthday dinner at Sherry Lansing's house. We had a whole group of girls. It's me and Tina and
Sherry and Farrah. And this is one of me
and Farrah and Tina, it's at one of the
birthday parties. Tina always says, it's
all blond hair and teeth. We just completely
covered Tina's face. She had such a joyful smile. You know Farrah was
always so down to earth that I never thought she would
have a problem with aging. - God knows that people
make me aware of, are you going to
have a face lift? How do you feel about aging? Of course everyone would love
to look beautiful and young, and feel good their whole lives, but I think you have to
embrace the next chapter. - I think getting older
wasn't easy for Farrah, I don't think it's
easy for any woman, especially in this business. To see that you're suddenly
not offered the parts and you're put in a
different category. - She wasn't in a whole
lot of things anymore, or doing as much work, she
predominantly did TV roles. I'll never forget one
year when I was out there, she said "go down to this
place in Beverly Hills, and there's some, I've
put some shoes on hold." "Go pick them up for me",
I said sure. Drive down there
and walk inside. I'm here to pick up
shoes for Farrah Fawcett. And this young girl looks
at me and goes who's that? That's when you kind of
realize the world has changed. - And I think it was
a difficult period for Farrah because she and
Ryan were no longer together. They were kind of
anchored as a family. So suddenly she is
completely out on her own and kind of adrift. - She just had a lot of
things going on at one time. Her personal life
wasn't doing so well, and what was going
on in her career, and then her sister's ill and like it was all
at the same time. - My mom had lung cancer. So, I mean it obviously had
a huge impact on her. It was a long, ugly,
drawn out process. You know, it had been
devastating for her. You know, it's her big sister. - Diane and her were
several years apart, but they were very close. I know that she
looked up to Diane. But she lost her, and that
was really, really tough. - For nearly two
decades, Farrah Fawcett and Ryan O'Neal carried on
a turbulent relationship, but never married. They broke up too many
times to count, but in 2001, they reunited after Ryan
was diagnosed with leukemia. Today, he is in remission. - She came right to my
side, which I loved her for, and we gradually started a um,
to rebuild our relationship. We don't have to say anything. - That's right. - When Ryan was
diagnosed with leukemia, that was a big turning point because they kind of got
back together then. She was back in his life
and very much there for him. They didn't move back
in together though. She didn't want
to live together. She wanted to keep
her own independence. But she was a real caretaker. She'd take care of Ryan. She'd take care of Redmond. She'd take care of her parents. - She came home to
visit them a lot. They didn't like to
come out to LA so much. They were more of let's
be at home Texas people and my uncle was not real
impressed by Hollywood, and he just preferred
to stay home in Texas. - Okay, bye bye, bye bye. Hurry daddy close it now. Quickly, quickly,
bye, bye! (laughs) - She has real deep
southern roots, she was an unbelievable
daughter but she was an unbelievable
caretaker for her family. And in a moment notice,
if they needed her, she would get on a plane and go. (phone ringing) - [Man] This is your dad. It's about 11:15 and the
kidney doctor gave her some pain medicine
and she's asleep. I think maybe you should come
on home, see your mother. I love you, I'll
talk to you later. (somber music) - When Pauline was
sick, she got on a plane and stayed with her
the entire time, and she wasn't going to
leave no matter what. - She was sleeping in
the hospital every night with her mother for
maybe several months. - I remember going
to the hospital when her mother
was very, very ill and she was having an incredibly
difficult time with it. When her mother passed away,
it was very hard for her. - She was just so
consumed with taking care, making sure her mom
and dad were okay and the rest of the family. I think she just
overlooked herself. - Shortly thereafter was when
she was diagnosed with cancer. I just think that that
grief didn't help. - She told me the whole story of the symptoms she'd been having
and how they discovered it. - I was bleeding, remember? I was anemic, my mother
had just passed away. Something was wrong. - And I just
couldn't believe it. I mean, I was truly in shock. And she said I start
treatment next week. (intense music) This was going to be the
biggest fight of her life. (light music) - I cannot begin to
imagine what it's like when the doctor says to you, you have cancer. I cannot. - Farrah was always someone
who was bigger than life. She was so beautiful
and full of life, and she was the last person
you'd ever expect to get cancer. - I can remember sitting
in the room with her and she said, you
know, I never thought this would happen to me,
never in a million years. - [Man] Cameras are rolling. (woman laughing) (background chattering) - [Man] Smile, honey. - Her first meeting
with the doctor, she handed me her
little camera and said, here, will you film this? 'Cause I wanna be able
to remember everything. And I said, ooh, how? And she said, oh,
it's really easy, you just turn it on
and you point it. So I started filming it and then we started
filming everything. - [Ryan] And then
from that moment on, the camera never was turned off. She understood
what Farrah wanted and the camera was
always, always on. - September 22, 2006, such a shockingly sad day. Three words I never ever thought
possible that I would hear, malignant tumor anal. - The documentary about her
cancer was Farrah's idea. She wanted to do it because
she wanted the cancer to be useful, if you will,
strange word with cancer, to use the opportunity to
take it out of a closet. - The reason that Farrah
was immediately upfront about her condition
is because she knew she couldn't hide
it if she wanted to. And most importantly,
she felt that people were speculating about
sexual practices. - I feel like Alice
in Wonderland. Really. Everything is surreal. - When Farrah said,
I have anal cancer, I'm going to beat it, I'm going to tell the public, she made everybody else
who has it feel unashamed and feel like they
could express it. And I think she saved
lives by doing that. - She started
chemo and radiation and she went through six weeks and it was really,
really torturous. And then Christmas came. - Merry Christmas. - [Man] Merry Christmas. - And she came over
and we baked our pies that we always baked
on Christmas Eve from her mother's recipes and she was feeling
much, much better. And then in January she
was declared cancer free. And we were like, so excited. (woman squealing) So we had a snowball fight
and she kept trying to nail me with these snowballs, and
she is just a damn good shot. I can't believe
you really hit me. Life was getting back to normal, and then in May the
cancer had come back and it had metastasized
to her liver. - Farrah's cancer was
burdened from the beginning. It was just a bad actor. It was one that did
not respond well to treatment and kept recurring. And so there was very little
good news along the way. - There had been nothing
but failure in LA, nothing but discouragement,
and she said, let's go. - That's when she decided
to come to Germany. (plane engine) (light piano music) When we went to Germany,
there were treatments that she could have that
they were working on and researching here but
that weren't approved for the public to use. - [Ryan] Are we here in time? - Going to Germany,
it wasn't a cure, but it gave her more time. - When we were filming,
there were moments where I'd wanna
turn the camera off because I felt it
was too invasive. Like there was one night where she literally threw
up all night long. (sobbing noise) So I shut the camera off and
she's literally throwing up and she said, why
aren't you filming? And I said, because
you're really sick and I don't wanna intrude. And she said, no, she said,
film it, this is what cancer is. - Never in my life would I think I would be able to give
myself a shot, never. - She allowed you to see her and the disease in
the ugliest of ways. You experienced the horror
of it, it was hard to watch. When you watched her
struggling with cancer, you watched a real fighter. There wasn't a treatment
that she wouldn't take, no matter how painful
it was gonna be. She would try it because she was determined
to never give up. - [Farrah] I wanted to
stop at Starbucks so badly. Yes, I'll go and get
ya, what would you like? (woman laughing)
You wake up. (light music) - The kind of journey that
Farrah took medically, physically, was not an
easy journey to be on. It was very tough and wasn't
for the faint of heart. And Ryan did not run away. - [woman] Okay, boys. - [Woman] Here is the
rest of the group? - [Man] There's a lot of us. - Ryan really came back into
her life so strongly then. He was right there
with her at the end and she wanted him there,
she didn't want anybody else. She wanted him. - I've asked her to marry
me again and she's agreed. - Really? - Swear to God. - We were planning
their wedding. Just really makes me sad
to talk about, you know. Because it didn't happen because she took a
turn for the worse but she did want to marry him. - They're certainly periods
of time in their relationship was up and periods
when it was down. Sometimes that
varied day by day. But they were joined at the hip. The power of that was
evident in everything was evident in the love. It was evident in the anger. It was just the power
of it was undeniable. - Farrah came here
with Ryan to the office and she was very sick and
it was very much clear that she was fighting the
life and death struggle and her efforts were going
into trying to stay alive. - [Woman] Hi Redmond. - [Mela] That's when you see
that love for Redmond because she said
I don't know how I could ever say
goodbye to Redmond. - I asked her if
she was in pain. I asked her, I told
her I loved her. I think she knows when
she hears my voice that it's gonna be alright. - [Ryan] I don't know what his
life will be like without her because he adored her. He better brace himself. We all better brace ourselves. - What was really important
to Farrah at the end was making a difference in
life, and her biggest legacy is the Farrah
Fawcett Foundation. - She wanted to save other
people from suffering like she did and that's
the goal of the foundation. Which is enabling scientists
to have the necessary funding to find a
cure for this disease. - Here was someone who
was dying, who was also making an effort for their
life to have more meaning than it already had. - She was going to
go to Washington. She was gonna lobby, I
mean she learned so much. She said why isn't cancer
research moving along quicker. - We don't encourage this
sort of mad scientist. This all has to be FDA approved
and it has to be tested and you can't go outside that
little box to even try it. It has to be da da da. So people get stifled. It does take that crazy kind of, well what if we just inject
this Farrah and we put this into your liver and we you
know and all of a sudden there's not seven to
ten months anymore. Just my neck muscle. - Every time we had
to make a decision about changing treatment, we
of course had as our principle goal the best treatment
to treat the disease but if there were two options of equally effective treatment, we would choose
the one that was more sparing on the hair. - I could tell that her hair
was starting to fall out. She was starting to lose
hair, I mean this hair is like falling
out and falling out and I'm sticking
it in my pockets. And I'm hiding it. And she still had this
beautiful thick head of hair. No matter how much
was coming out. Was so much. - [Farrah] I just wanna. - I was just gonna say
or we could just comb it and it would just fall out. - Here's the woman with
the most beautiful famous head of hair in the world and
now she's battling cancer. Her hair started coming out. - I remember the day, will
never forget very spontaneous. Said should we shave it off? And what did we do? We shaved off her hair. - So you weren't gonna be
happy until you got my hair? Were you? You just weren't gonna be happy. - I told you we just
had to get that hair. - We were filming
and Dr. Piro's office and it's the first time
he'd seen her and she took her cap off and you
know she was bald. - Back here was like
just a dark dark spot. And then be a light spot
and then a dark spot. And so I don't know. - It looks good! It's a good shape to it. - Yeah. - I like that, I'm glad
you left the bangs. That's good. - She helped so
many woman with that because so many woman have
come up to me and said I lost my hair when I
was going through chemo and I felt so unattractive
and I was just devastated. And then when I saw Farrah
Fawcett, that she could just show herself, without
her beautiful famous hair. And they'd say and I felt okay. I felt like it was okay. - Fawcett battled
courageously until the end. There is some comfort
in knowing she's finally been laid to rest. (somber piano music) - I can't express how your
messages and your notes what they mean to me. It is in times like this
that you really know who your friends are. And how much they mean to you. I want you to know that I
will be forever grateful. I love you, Farrah. - I want to thank you
my dearest friend for helping me take this
ambiguous journey. I have found myself on. It has given me strength, hope and even helped
me fight the fear. Fear of everything seems just
around the corner, every day. And it's my biggest test
because I was never bothered by fear. - The hope is that
she's remembered as and not necessarily
the girl on the poster but you know what
she accomplished. She was independent and
had the nerve and the will and the confidence
to get things done in a male dominated world. You hope that that's
the way it's remembered. - She was full of life and
lived every day to the fullest. She was just a firecracker. - Legends die and things fade but if you look
at the full body of work or full body of one's life,
there was a legitimate acting talent that
was within her. - She really was the embodiment
of beauty is as beauty does. You can't just be beautiful
you've gotta be more than that. And she was. - Farrah wasn't just beautiful. She wasn't just sexy. She was free. And when you look through
her past, that has been sort of this defining
characteristic of this woman. This sort of friskiness
that she embodied. She had the ability to grab
hold of peoples imaginations. - She thought in a deeper
way than maybe people gave her credit for. She was this eight by ten
glossy, bigger than life and sexy and beautiful. But there was a deep side of her and that's what
she left us with. (light music)
