A four-time Primetime Emmy Award nominee and six-time Golden Globe Award nominee, Fawcett rose to international fame when she played a starring role in the first season of the television series Charlie's Angels. Fawcett began her career in the s appearing in commercials and guest roles on television. During the s, she appeared in numerous television series, including recurring roles on Harry O β , and The Six Million Dollar Man β with her then-husband, film and television star Lee Majors.
Her iconic red swimsuit poster [ 2 ] sold six million copies in its first year in print. However, she left at the conclusion of the first season in , returning as a guest star in six episodes during the show's third and fourth seasons β She received her first Golden Globe nomination for her work in the show.
In , Fawcett received positive reviews for her performance in the Off-Broadway play Extremities. She was subsequently cast in the film version and received a Golden Globe nomination. She received Emmy Award nominations for her role as a battered wife in The Burning Bed and for her portrayal of real-life murderer Diane Downs in Small Sacrifices Her s work in TV movies earned her four additional Golden Globe nominations.
Although Fawcett weathered some negative press for a rambling appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman in , she garnered strong reviews that year for her role in the film The Apostle with Robert Duvall. In the 21st century, she continued acting on television, holding recurring roles on the sitcom Spin City and the drama The Guardian β For the latter, she received her third Emmy nomination.
Fawcett was diagnosed with anal cancer in and died three years later at age She posthumously earned her fourth Emmy nomination for her work as a producer on Farrah's Story. A Roman Catholic , [ 9 ] Fawcett began her early education at the parish school of the church her family attended, St. Ray High School in Corpus Christi, where she was voted "most beautiful" by her classmates in her freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior years of high school. Between and , she attended the University of Texas , where she studied microbiology before switching her major to art, studying under Charles Umlauf , her "favorite professor" with whom she had a close mentoring relationship; in , works by Fawcett were shown at the Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum in Austin in the exhibit Mentoring a Muse.
