Actress Farrah Fawcett, who has been battling cancer for almost three years, has been admitted to a Los Angeles hospital, according to news reports.

The 62-year-old former star of "Charlie's Angels," was hospitalized on Thursday, according to People magazine. Celebrity gossip website Radaronline, which broke the news, quoted sources as saying the actress was unconscious.

The hospital was not identified. A Fawcett spokesman did not return a call seeking comment yesterday.

Ms Fawcett was diagnosed with anal cancer in September 2006. Four months later, she declared herself cancer-free, only to have the disease return in May 2007. Ms Fawcett travelled to Germany for alternative treatment and documented her experiences, footage of which she shared with entertainment television shows in early 2008.

The Texas native rose to fame through an iconic pin-up poster for which she posed flirtatiously in a red bathing suit. In 1976, TV producer Aaron Spelling cast Fawcett for "Charlie's Angels," in which she played Jill Munroe, the tanned, glamorous undercover detective with tousled blonde hair.

Starring alongside brunette actresses Jaclyn Smith and Kate Jackson, Ms Fawcett was the hit show's top attraction, but she quit at the end of its first season. After being sued for breach of contract, she made a few guest appearances in subsequent years.

The actress sought to downplay her sex symbol status through meatier roles in the 1980s. She earned critical acclaim for her performance as a domestic violence survivor in 1984's "The Burning Bed," for which she received the first of three Emmy nominations.