Farrah Fawcett Movies
American actress Farrah Fawcett was an art student at the University of Texas before she deduced that she could make more money posing for pictures than painting them. A supermodel before that phrase had fallen into common usage, Fawcett moved from Wella Balsam shampoo ads into acting, making her first film Myra Breckenridge in 1970. She worked in TV bits and full supporting parts, obtaining steady employment in 1974 with a small recurring role on the cop series Harry O, but true stardom was still some two years down the road. In 1976, producer Aaron Spelling cast Fawcett, Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith in a pilot for an adventure series titled Charlie's Angels. The pilot graduated to a series, and the rest was TV history; during her Charlie's Angels tenure Fawcett was the most visible of the three actresses, adorning magazine covers and pin-up posters (including one particularly iconic image), which set sales records. There were even Farrah Fawcett dolls before the first season of Charlie's Angels was over.Now in the hands of high-profile agents and advisors, Fawcett (billed Farrah Fawcett-Majors after her marriage to Lee Majors) decided she'd outgrown Angels and left the series, even though she had another year on her contract. While the studio drew up legal papers to block her move, she was replaced by Cheryl Ladd. Fawcett settled her dispute by agreeing to a set number of guest appearances on the program. Some industry cynics suggested that Fawcett would have problems sustaining her popularity. Certainly such lukewarm film projects as Sunburn (1979), Somebody Killed Her Husband (1978) and Saturn 3 (1980) seemed to bear this theory out. But Fawcett took matters into her own hands and decided to make her own opportunities--and like many other performers who strive to be taken seriously, she chose the most extreme, demanding method of proving her acting mettle. Playing a vengeful rape victim in both the play and 1986 film version of Extremities (an apt title) and making a meal of her role as a battered wife who murders her husband out of self-defense in the TV movie The Burning Bed (1984), Fawcett confounded her detractors and demonstrated she was a more-than-capable actress. Other TV movie appearances of varying quality cast her as everything from a child killer to a Nazi hunter to famed LIFE photographer Margaret Bourke-White. Never as big a name as she was in 1976, Fawcett nonetheless affirmed her reputation as an actress of importance. Her fans were even willing to forgive her misbegotten fling at situation comedy in the 1991 series Good Sports, in which she co-starred with her longtime "significant other" Ryan O'Neal. Fawcett died in 2009 at age 62, following a lengthy and well-publicized battle with cancer. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
When Todd Anderson (Storm P) signs a 30-million-dollar contract with the New Jersey Nets after being named the number one NBA draft pick of the year, his mother (Jenifer Lewis) vows to prevent her son from forgetting his roots. Not used to balancing his new life with his old, Todd mistakenly invites family and friends from his old neighborhood to his multi-million-dollar house for a cookout on the same day of an important endorsement interview. Though his extravagant family cookouts were welcome at his old digs, Todd's stuffy new neighbors -- particularly the conservative Republican Judge Halsted Crowley (Danny Glover) -- are less than thrilled with the arrival of Todd's massive family. Complicating the situation further is the eccentric neighborhood security guard (Queen Latifah), who takes on the heady assignment of ensuring that none of the private community's rules are broken, as well as two thugs who, determined to get an autographed pair of sneakers, hold up the cookout at gunpoint. Directed by Lance Rivera, The Cookout also features performances from Ja Rule, Eve, Farrah Fawcett, and Jonathan Silverman. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ja Rule, Tim Meadows, (more)
- 2003
- Add Jackie Collins' Hollywood Wives: The New Generation to QueueAdd Jackie Collins' Hollywood Wives: The New Generation to top of Queue
Adapted from Jackie Collins' best-selling novel of the same name, this glittery made-for-TV movie stars three veteran small-screen divas as the "newest" generation of Tinseltown spouses. Farrah Fawcett heads the cast as film favorite and top recording artist Lissa Roman, who hires handsome private eye Michael Scorsini (Jack Scalia) to trail her much-younger husband, who is not only a philanderer but psychotic. While all this is going on, Lissa seeks out moral support from her two best friends: Taylor Singer (Melissa Gilbert), the wife of a major movie director, who has enough on her hands with the young writer with whom she is collaborating on a screenplay and cohabitating in the bedroom, and vocalist Kyndra Rossiter (Robin Givens), who, alone among her peers, aspires merely to a happy, well-balanced life -- and a closer relationship with her daughter Saffron (Kandyce McLure). Ultimately, melodrama creeps into the picture when Lissa's daughter Nikki (Pascale Hudson) is kidnapped. Jackie Collins' Hollywood Wives: The New Generation debuted October 19, 2003, on CBS. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Farrah Fawcett, Melissa Gilbert, (more)
- 2001
Based on fact, the made-for-TV drama Jewel begins in 1945, a time when children afflicted with Down Syndrome were casually and cruelly dismissed as "Mongoloid Idiots." Already a mother with four healthy, normal children, 40-year-old Mississippi woman Jewel Hilburn (Farrah Fawcett) gives birth to daughter Brenda Kay, a Down's baby who will forever be challenged both mentally and physically. Urged by the local authorities to surrender Brenda Kay to an institution, Jewel defies the "experts" and packs herself and her family off to Los Angeles, where she hopes that her daughter will have a better chance at a normal life. But in her zeal to shower affection and attention on her "different little girl", Jewel sorely strains her relationships with her husband Leston (Patrick Bergin) and her other four kids. Cicely Tyson makes what the CBS publicity flacks labeled a "special appearance" in the role of a loving caregiver named Cathedral. Based on the novel by Bret Lott, Jewel originally aired February 7, 2001. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Director Robert Altman reteams with Cookie's Fortune scribe Anne Rapp for this tale of a Dallas gynecologist and the parade of anxious patients, haggard family members, and potential love interests who come his way. Richard Gere plays the titular role of Dr. Sullivan Travis, a calm, successful, and much sought-after ob-gyn who witnesses his normally stable life come apart over the course of one rainy autumn. As the film opens, Dr. T and his wife Kate (Farrah Fawcett) are preparing for the wedding of their Dallas Cowboys cheerleader daughter Dee Dee (Kate Hudson). Their other daughter -- the Kennedy-assassination conspiracy theorist Connie (Tara Reid) -- has her doubts about the impending nuptials, but Dr. T chalks them up to routine sibling jealousy. Meanwhile, escaping a messy divorce, boozy sister-in-law Peggy (Laura Dern) moves into the Travis household with her three toddler daughters in tow. For release, Dr. T finds solace target shooting and golfing (occasionally at the same time) with his buddies, and at his country club, he meets a beguiling golf pro, Bree (Helen Hunt). When the childlike Kate loses her grip on reality during a flatware shopping spree, Bree offers to give the kindly doctor some lessons in his swing -- both on and off the fairways. Dr. T had its North American Premiere at the 2000 Toronto International Film Fest. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi
- Starring:
- Richard Gere, Helen Hunt, (more)
- 2000
Written by the author of Sarah, Plain and Tall, Baby was produced for the TNT cable service. Set in New England, this is the story of the Malones, a family nearly torn apart by the death of an infant son. While trying to cope with this tragedy, Lily and John Malone are surprised by the arrival of an abandoned baby girl, left on their doorstep. Though at first reluctant to welcome the child into their home, the Malones soon become inextricably attached to her -- no one more so than 12-year-old Larkin Malone who, in a pathetic effort to use the baby as a replacement for her lost little brother, hides the letter written by the child's now-repentant birth mother. Despite such lighthearted scenes as a drunken tap dance rendition of "Singin' In the Rain", Baby is rather heavy going for the most part, especially in the scenes with the family's dying grandmother. Co-produced by actress Glenn Close, Baby was first telecast on October 8, 2000. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Farrah Fawcett, Keith Carradine, (more)
The will-o'-the-wisp black sheep of a North Carolina farming family, Frannie Vaughan (Farrah Fawcett) reacts to the news that her mother has only six months to live in her usual quirky fashion -- she dashes off to parts unknown, intending to return home in exactly six months so that she may be at her mother's bedside "when the time comes." Imagine her embarrassment when, upon coming back to the farm, Frannie learns that her mother's demise occurred three days before schedule,in fact, she is even late for the funeral. When she finds out her embittered sister, Natalie (Ashley Crow), intends to sell the farm, Frannie tries to make up for past misdeeds by earning enough money (200,000 dollars to be exact) to keep the property in the family. That is why the heroine ends up packing underwear in the local silk mill owned by a handsome and unattached chap named Ruben (Brad Johnson). An odd mixture of comedy, pathos, and heavy drama (including the loss of a limb in some faulty factory machinery), the made-for-TV Silk Hope originally aired October 17, 1999, on CBS. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Craig (Craig Shoemaker) is a comic who is fond of saying "my act is my life," and in this film we watch him as he jumps back and forth between performing stand-up at a comedy club, discussing his multiple personalities (and even more numerous anxieties) with his analyst (George Wendt), and indulging in his rich fantasy life, in which he gets to date Farrah Fawcett. Both onstage and off, Craig assumes a dizzying variety of personas, from a dead-on impersonation of Barney Fife from The Andy Griffith Show and a mental patient whose medication has run out to The Lovemaster, a super-cool genius of seduction. However, real-life occasionally intrudes, in which Craig has to deal with his wife Karen (Harley Jane Kozak) and his good friend Deb (Courtney Thorne-Smith). The Lovemaster's concert sequences were filmed at The Improv, a comedy venue in Tempe, Arizona; most of the rest of the picture was shot in Los Angeles, California. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Craig Shoemaker, Farrah Fawcett, (more)
Devout Pentecostal preacher Eulis "Sonny" Dewey (Robert Duvall) of New Boston, Texas, has a lovely wife (Farrah Fawcett) and two children. But not only has Jessie been cheating on him with a younger minister, Horace (Todd Allen), she has pulled a few strings to gain control of his church. Sonny goes into a violent rage, attacking Horace with a bat during a softball game. With Horace in a coma, Sonny leaves town on a bus, headed east for a new life. He changes his name to E.F., baptizing himself as "The Apostle" to God. Arriving in the black community of Bayou Boutte, Louisiana, he meets Brother Blackwell (John Beasley) who helps him start anew. E.F. works as a garage mechanic and preaches on the streets and a local radio station owned by Elmo (Rich Dial). He leads the community in remodeling a rundown church and gains supporters as he seeks his own salvation. In sorrow from the deaths of both his mother (June Carter Cash) and Horace, he encounters more problems when a racist (Billy Bob Thornton) attempts to drive a bulldozer into his church. Eventually, Jessie finds out where he's living and informs the police. Duvall wrote, directed, and financed this exploration of the evangelical world, shown at the Toronto Film Festival and the New York Film Festival. Filmed in Texas (Denton County, Collin County, and Dallas) and Lafayette, Louisiana. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Robert Duvall, Farrah Fawcett, (more)
Farrah Fawcett delivers a dramatic tour de force in the title role of the made-for-TV Dalva. As a teenager, Dalva had fallen in love with Native American Duane Stonehorse (Jesse Borrego). Unbeknownst to her, Duane was her half brother -- a fact that came to light when she delivered Duane's baby. The child was forcibly taken from Dalva by the adoption authorities, whereupon Duane committed suicide. Thirty years later, Dalva returns to her home state of Nebraska, hoping to find her long-lost son. Impeding her progress is her growing relationship with dissolute historian Michael (Peter Coyote), whose latest book is based on Great Plains history as set down by Dalva's great grandfather, and another romance, this one with fiercely independent Native American Sam (Powers Boothe). Adapted from a novel by Jim Harrison, Dalva first aired March 3, 1996, on ABC. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Farrah Fawcett, Powers Boothe, (more)
- 1995
Friendship and racism in 1880s America is explored in this made-for-television drama. Sidney Poitier stars as Gypsy Smith, a bounty hunter who, much to the chagrin of the local white population, leads a group of black settlers to Oklahoma to form their own free community. The film shows how racial tensions erupt between the black and white homesteaders. The Native American experience of racism is intertwined into the plot as well, with the story of a young Cheyenne boy who has lost his roots. Sidney Poitier and Regina Taylor were nominated for Image awards for their performances. Based on the novel by Clancy Carlile, the film originally aired in two parts. ~ Bernadette McCallion, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sidney Poitier, Michael Moriarty, (more)
- 1995
The Larry Sanders Show is celebrating its eighth anniversary, and guests k.d. lang, Pat O'Brien, Rosie O'Donnell, Mandy Patinkin, and Noah Wyle are booked for the big show. It seems that Murphy's Law is in full effect for the anniversary show, however, and in addition to O'Donnell's limo failing to arrive, it's revealed that lang and Hank (Jeffrey Tambor) have a background as feuding neighbors, while Patinkin and Wyle can't stop arguing over who has a better TV series. As if those factors weren't enough to make the anniversary show a stressful occasion, it seems as if Larry (Garry Shandling) has forgotten to take his usual bathroom break before the show. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
A young boy attempts to sabotage his single mother's relationship with her new fiancé in this family-oriented comedy. Ben Archer (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) has become protective of his attractive mother Sandra (Farrah Fawcett) since they were abandoned by his father, and he resents the intrusion of anyone else into their lives. Despite his disapproval, however, Sandra has built up a relationship with district attorney Jack Sturges (an extremely low-key Chevy Chase), who eventually pops the question. Ben decides that marriage is out of the question, and he sets out to drive the lawyer away through a variety of schemes. These plans culminate in an effort to trick Struges into participating in the "Indian Guides," a scouting program involving all sorts of strenuous father-son activities. As one might expect, things do not quite go as Ben planned, as Jack proves himself a more suitable father figure than either expected. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi
- Starring:
- Chevy Chase, Farrah Fawcett, (more)
A Native American struggles to find himself and maintain his cultural identity growing up with a White family in the Old West in this drama, originally produced as a TV miniseries. Gypsy Smith (Sidney Poitier), an African-American bounty hunter, helps lead a platoon of U.S. Cavalry soldiers on a raid of a Cheyenne Indian camp. Among the Cheyenne, one of the few survivors is a boy named White Wolf. Smith takes pity on the child and takes him home to live with a family of white settlers he works with, John and Nora Maxwell (Michael Moriarty and Farrah Fawcett). As he grows to adulthood, White Wolf is renamed Corby (Billy Wirth), and he falls in love with John and Nora's daughter, Rachel (Joanna Going). However, the Maxwells object to Rachel and Corby's romance, and they send her away to study in St. Louis. Corby feels that he doesn't belong in the White man's world and returns to live with the Cheyanne; meanwhile, Smith has become the Marshall of Freedom, a Black settlement in the Oklahoma territory. Shelby Hornbeck (Hart Bochner), a wealthy Oklahoma landowner, has married Rachel -- and is the leader of the local branch of the Ku Klux Klan. When Hornbeck and his thugs decide to level Freedom, Gypsy Smith and Corby reunite to lead the charge to stop them. A Good Day to Die originally aired under the title Children of the Dust. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- 1994
- PG13
A dying wife and mother makes plans for her family in this made-for-television drama. Lea Thompson stars as Amy Hightower, a frontier wife and mother of four who is ill and expected to die. In an unusual move to make sure her family is cared for, she finds a prostitute named Pearl (Farrah Fawcett) and teaches her how to be a wife and mother. The movie shows how Pearl slowly transforms, Amy's health fluctuates, and how husband Martin (Peter Weller) deals with the unusual circumstances. Filmed in Texas, this film is at times humorous and emotional, and not typical movie-of-the week fare. ~ Bernadette McCallion, Rovi
- Starring:
- Farrah Fawcett, Lea Thompson, (more)
- 1992
Farrah Fawcett stars as a struggling defense lawyer in the made-for-TV Criminal Behavior. Defending a nurse on theft charge, Farrah ends up ferreting out clues in a ticklish LA murder case. The path to the truth is labyrinthine, and no one can be trusted. A. Martinez, Andy Robinson and Cliff DeYoung costar. Based on a Ross MacDonald novel, Criminal Behavior debuted May 11, 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Farrah Fawcett, A. Martinez, (more)
In this lively comedy, an African American yuppie rethinks life on the corporate fast-track after he falls in love with an ultra hip club promoter. Knowing that she finds him a total square, he seeks the advice of a swinging young mail boy. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tommy Davidson, Joseph C. Phillips, (more)
- 1989
- PG13
This film is a somewhat contrived pairing of two divorcees who are giving it a second go. They're up against considerable odds, however, because the children of each are not too pleased with their new "parent." Jeff Bridges stars as the husband and Alice Krige plays his second wife. ~ Rovi
- Starring:
- Jeff Bridges, Alice Krige, (more)
- 1989
Based on the factual book by Ann Rule, Small Sacrifices was original telecast in two parts. Farrah Fawcett continues to successfully obliterate the Charlie's Angels onus in the role of real-life US postal worker Diane Downs. Part One of the film was set in Willamete Valley, Oregon, in 1983. Mrs. Downs drives her three children to the local hospital's emergency entrance: one child is already dead, and the other two have been seriously wounded. Diane claims that the killer was a man who'd tried to steal her car. But in Part Two, prosecutor John Shea rips apart Diane's story in court. What comes to surface is a tawdry tale of a neurotic, narcissistic woman who is pushed over the edge when spurned by her lover (played by Ms. Fawcett's offscreen companion Ryan O'Neal). As difficult as Small Sacrifices was to watch during its initial telecast in November 1989, it has since been rendered doubly disturbing by the more recent tragic events surrounding South Carolina housewife Susan Smith. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1989
This made-for-cable biopic originally went out under the simpler title Margaret Bourke-White. Farrah Fawcett stars as the famed photojournalist, whose work for Life magazine from 1936 onward gained her worldwide celebrity. The best scenes, showing the dauntless Bourke-White (Fawcett) at work in the most grueling and perilous of situations, are all too fleeting. The filmmakers evidently believed that the audience would be more intrigued by Bourke-White's stormy relationship with her husband, novelist Erskine Caldwell (played with a fluctuating Southern accent by Frederic Forrest). The film's chief assets are the well-focused performance of Farrah Fawcett, and the lensed-on-location sequences in Louisiana and Moscow. Margaret Bourke-White premiered over the TNT cable channel on April 24, 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1987
- Add Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story to QueueAdd Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story to top of Queue
Originally shown in two parts, this massive TV movie adaptation of C. David Heymann's biography stars Farrah Fawcett as Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton. With two failed marriages to her credit, 29-year-old Barbara marries film idol Cary Grant (James Read), the first man who loves her for herself and not her millions. This alliance goes the way of all of Barbara's romances; there will be four more marriages, the last when Ms. Hutton is 50-years-old. Shutting herself away in her Tangiers mansion, Barbara begins her long descent into the world of booze and drugs. Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story merely skims the surface of its subject's stormy life, but Farrah Fawcett's performance commands the audience's attention throughout the film's daunting 240 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Farrah Fawcett, James Read, (more)
- 1986
Even allowing for her in-and-out Austrian accent, Farrah Fawcett delivers one of her best ever TV-movie performances in Nazi Hunter: The Beate Klarsfeld Story. This fact-based film begins in 1960, when Beate's last name is still Kunzel. A sheltered young miss, Beate has no concept of what went on in the wartime concentration camps--until she meets and falls in love with Holocaust survivor Serge Karsfeld (Tom Conti). Given a crash course in sociopolitical awareness by her husband, Beate herself becomes a tireless hunter of fugitive Nazis. At great personal risk to herself, she travels from Europe to South America to bring to justice Klaus Barbie (Claude Vernier), the "Butcher of Lyon." Filmed in Paris and Nice, Nazi Hunter: The Beate Klarsfeld Story was first telecast in November of 1986, at which time the real Beate Karsfeld was endeavoring to expose UN secretary general Kurt Waldheim as a war criminal. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1986
The old reliable movie title Between Two Women was activated once more for this made-for-TV film. Farrah Fawcett and Colleen Dewhurst star as, respectively, a domineering ex-opera star and a shy schoolteacher. The ads for the film suggested that Michael Nouri played the apex of a romantic triangle between the older Dewhurst and the younger Fawcett. In truth, he plays Dewhurst's son, incurring his mother's wrath when he marries Fawcett. Dewhurst's unwarranted interference destroy her son's marriage--but it is Fawcett who compassionately rushes to her mother-in-law's bedside when the older woman suffers a debilitating stroke. First telecast March 10, 1986, Between Two Women was based on Gillian Martin's novel Living Arrows. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Farrah Fawcett, Colleen Dewhurst, (more)
Attacked by a masked assailant, Marjorie (Farrah Fawcett) lives in mortal fear that the unidentified man will strike again -- especially since he knows her address. Sure enough, Joe the attacker (James Russo) breaks into Marjorie's home and subjects her to a night of terror and sexual humiliation. But Marjorie manages to turns the tables on her attacker, knocking him unconscious and rendering him helpless. The remainder of the story charts Marjorie's battle with herself: should she turn Joe over to the authorities, who may very well set him free, or should she mete out her own punishment? ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Farrah Fawcett, James Russo, (more)
