Charlie's Angel dies of cancer

Actress Farrah Fawcett, the Charlie's Angels TV star whose big smile and feathered blond mane made her one of the reigning sex symbols of the 1970s, died yesterday after a long battle with cancer. She was 62.

Ms Fawcett, first vaulted to stardom by an alluring poster of her in a red swimsuit, was diagnosed with anal cancer in late 2006. It spread to her liver in 2007, proving resistant to numerous medical treatments in Germany and California.

"After a long and brave battle with cancer, our beloved Farrah has passed away," Ms Fawcett's long time companion, actor Ryan O'Neal, said in a statement.

"Although this is an extremely difficult time for her family and friends, we take comfort in the beautiful times that we shared with Farrah over the years and the knowledge that her life brought joy to so many people around the world."

Ms Fawcett's death in a Los Angeles hospital came just six weeks after the TV broadcast in May of a video diary she made chronicling her battle with cancer and her final months.

Called Farrah's Story, the documentary was effectively a self-penned obituary by the actress, who was bedridden and had lost her famous hair by the time it was shown.

Mr O'Neal said she had wanted to tell her story on her own terms.

Ms Fawcett's close friend Alana Stewart, ex-wife of rocker Rod Stewart, told Entertainment Tonight after leaving the hospital yesterday; "I just lost my best friend. Her death was very peaceful."

Ms Fawcett, born on February 2, 1947, in Corpus Christi, Texas, was an art student in college before she began modelling, appearing in shampoo ads. She started guest-starring on TV in the late 1960s and appeared on the TV hit The Six Million Dollar Man after marrying the show's star, Lee Majors, in 1974. The couple divorced in the early 1980s.

Ms Fawcett's career took off thanks to a poster of her posing flirtatiously with a brilliant smile in a red one-piece bathing suit. It sold millions of copies and led to her being cast in 1976 in Charlie's Angels, an action show about three beautiful female private detectives. As the tanned and glamorous Jill Munroe - part of a trio that included Jaclyn Smith and Kate Jackson - Ms Fawcett was the hit show's most talked-about star. She left Charlie's Angels after only one season but lawsuit settlements brought her back to guest-star in subsequent years. Ms Fawcett's face appeared on T-shirts, posters and dolls. She came to epitomise the glamorous California lifestyle and inspired a worldwide craze for blown-out, feathered-back hair.

In late 2008, Ms Fawcett shaved her own hair when it began falling out because of her cancer treatments. She had one son, Redmond, with Mr O'Neal. Redmond O'Neal, now 24, was arrested on several occasions in 2008 and 2009 for heroin.