FARRAH FAWCETT DIES AT 62

FROM PEOPLE

Very sad news.

She was an icon. FARRAH will be missed greatly.

FARRAH FAWCETT, who skyrocketed to fame as one of a trio of impossibly glamorous private eyes on TV’s CHARLIE’S ANGELS, has died after a long battle with cancer.

She was 62.

FARRAH passed away at 9:28 a.m. PST this morning at ST. JOHN’S HEALTH CENTRE in SANTA MONICA. She was with long time partner RYAN O’NEAL, friend ALANA STEWART, friend and hairdresser MELA MURPHY and her doctor LAWRENCE PIRO. She had recently returned to ST. JOHN’S for treatment of complications from anal cancer, which was first diagnosed three years ago.

“She’s gone. She now belongs to the ages,” RYAN told PEOPLE, also confirming that she received the last rites of the Catholic Church.

“She’s now with her mother and sister and her God. I loved her with all my heart. I will miss her so very, very much. She was in and out of consciousness. I talked to her all through the night. I told her how very much I loved her. She’s in a better place now.”

Added RYAN: “She was with her team when she passed. Her eyes were open, but she didn’t say anything. But you could see in her eyes that she recognized us.”

Though RYAN recently said that he and FARRAH had planned to wed, they did not tie the knot.

“There just wasn’t time and FARRAH wasn’t in any condition to do it.”

Friends and family plan to honor FARRAH with a funeral service at a Catholic cathedral in LOS ANGELES in the next few days.

Like so much about FARRAH’S life – including her tempestuous relationship with RYAN – her heroic struggle to beat the disease was closely followed by her legion of fans.

“I’ve watched her this past year fight with such courage and so valiantly, but with such humour,” her CHARLIE’S ANGELS costar KATE JACKSON told PEOPLE in November 2007.

RYAN, in particular, remained a steadfast supporter of FARRAH, who, despite her frailty, spent the last months of her life filming a TV documentary chronicling her illness, including several trips to Germany to undergo experimental treatment.

FARRAH is survived by her son with RYAN – REDMOND – who is currently serving a jail term in CALIFORNIA after repeated drug offenses.

REDMOND was not there at FARRAH’S side when she died, but spoke to his mother on the phone and told her “how much he loved her and asked her to please forgive him that he was so very, very sorry,” RYAN commented to PEOPLE.

Blonde, green eyed and petite – and with a trademark mane as flowing and famous as the MGM lion’s – the Corpus Christi, Texas native was born FEBRUARY 2, 1947, the younger daughter of an oil field contractor and his homemaker wife.

A magnet for male students at the UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS at AUSTIN, FARRAH eventually set off for HOLLYWOOD. Quickly noticed by casting agents, she began landing small parts in forgettable movies, such as 1970′s MYRA BRECKINRIDGE, based on a gender bending novel by GORE VIDAL.

Her role: an ingenuous blonde.

In 1973, FARRAH married actor LEE MAJORS, forever known as Colonel Steve Austin on TV’s The Six Million Dollar Man. Three years later, she appeared in the cult sci fi film LOGAN’s RUN and began her stint with costars KATE JACKSON and JACLYN SMITH on CHARLIE’S ANGELS. Well coiffed and with striking looks, the three women created an instant sensation, with a weekly following of 23 million fans.

FARRAH moved on after just one season. By then, she was already a phenomenon, having donned a one piece red bathing suit and a perfect smile for her legendary poster, which sold a still record 12 million copies.

“I became famous almost before I had a craft,” FARRAH told THE NEW YORK TIMES in 1986, four years after her divorce from LEE MAJORS.

(By then, she was already involved with RYAN O’NEAL.)

“I didn’t study drama at school. I was an art major. Suddenly, when I was doing CHARLIE’S ANGELS, I was getting all this fan mail and I didn’t really know why. I don’t think anybody else did, either.”

Though she left TV for what was assumed to be greener pastures – feature films – FARRAH’S initial three big screen vehicles were not big successes.

It took some serious dramatic TV roles, including that of a battered wife in 1984′s THE BURNING BED (which earned her an EMMY nomination), as well as starring in small screen biopics about pioneering photojournalist MARGARET BOURKE WHITE and ill fated Woolworth heir BARBARA HUTTON for FARRAH to bounce back.

“What would you do if someone said to you, ‘You’re so popular right now that you can be on the cover of every magazine. But if you do that, you might get overexposed and a backlash will develop’ ?” FARRAH told THE TIMES after she had emerged from one of the valleys of her career.

Still, she said of fighting for survival in HOLLYWOOD, “That’s life. Everything has positive and negative consequences.”