Farrah Fawcett: 'Burning Bed' Beauty Leaves Legacy

Farrah Fawcett, highly esteemed actress known for her Emmy-nominated performance in The Burning Bed, died of cancer at 9:28am on Thursday, June 25, in Los Angeles. Fawcett played an abused wife who finds no support in her predicament and after being raped by her husband one night, sets him on fire while he was asleep in bed.

Based on a true story turned into a well-known TV movie, The Burning Bed revitalized Fawcett's career after it declined upon her leaving the television series Charlie's Angels, one of her major defining roles. Her Burning Bed performance was followed by a part in another successful TV movie, Extremities, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination.

Fawcett had already become a household name by the time she filmed The Burning Bed, but it is considered to be one of the strongest roles of her career, which did not stop progressing after the movie was released and established Fawcett as a "serious actress".

Fawcett was diagnosed with cancer in 2006, which eventually led to the production of a documentary titled Farrah's Story, about her battle with the disease.

Other major Farrah Fawcett roles in TV and film include:

• The Six Million Dollar Man
• Myra Breckinridge
• The Cannonball Run
• Murder in Texas
• Logan's Run
• Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story
• Man of the House
• The Apostle
  
• The Guardian