Farrah Fawcett-Majors — later known simply as Farrah Fawcett — was married to Lee Majors during the period that The Six Million Dollar Man was in production (1973-78) and featured as a guest star in four episodes of the series - one in each of the show's first four seasons - between spring 1974 and fall 1976. Her first and final appearances were as popular character Major Kelly Woods, America's first woman in Space (in the fictitious Bionic Universe; in reality Sally Ride would have this honor nine years later).
Fawcett's first involvement with The Six Million Dollar Man actually predates her debut as Kelly Woods, as in 1973 she participated in a photoshoot promoting a tuxedo-clad Lee Majors as Steve Austin, during the period when ABC attempted to retool Austin into a James Bond-like character.
Farrah's final on-screen appearance on The Six Million Dollar Man aired in late September 1976, at a point when she was on the cusp of superstardom and 1970s iconic staus. Earlier in 1976 a swimsuit poster featuring Farrah became one of the biggest-selling images in history, and in March 1976 she made her first appearance as Jill Monroe in the pilot for a glamorous detective series called Charlie's Angels. The series proper debuted only a week before her final appearance on The Six Million Dollar Man, and while she only stayed with Charlie's Angels for a year, it was enough to establish her as one of the most famous women in America. The role also somewhat stereotyped her as a "dumb blonde", despite her previous work as characters such as Major Kelly Woods. Fawcett's actual final appearance on the series comes at the end of the episode Season 4 episode "The Most Dangerous Enemy" when a magazine featuring photos of her is visible. This odd metafictional moment occurs only two weeks after her final appearance as Kelly and was likely an in-joke relating to the fact her series Charlie's Angels had just debuted. Although made iconic by Charlie's Angels, Fawcett actually quit the series after only one season (though she'd continue to make occasional guest appearances in order to fulfill her contract). Despite no longer being tied to Charlie's Angels, Fawcett did not make an appearance in Season 5 of The Six Million Dollar Man.
Aside from Charlie's Angels, Fawcett also had a small role in the groundbreaking 1976 science fiction film Logan's Run as "Holly". After leaving Charlie's Angels in 1977, Fawcett made a string of unsuccessful films such as the science fiction film Saturn 3, and was also forced by ABC legal action into making a half-dozen guest appearances on Charlie's Angels, before gaining critical approval for her role in the groundbreaking TV movie The Burning Bed in 1984 for which she was nominated for an Emmy. Additional nominations would follow for her work in Small Sacrifices (1990) and The Guardian (2003). Fawcett continued to work throughout the 1990s, and sporadically thereafter.
In 1979 Fawcett seperated from Lee Majors, and began a relationship with Ryan O'Neal, with whom she had a son Redmond and with whom she remained close for the rest of her life. She divorced Lee Majors in 1982, at which point she dropped the "-Majors" from her name. Ironically, beginning in 1981 her now-ex-husband would reference her by name while singing the theme song for his series, The Fall Guy.
Her personal life also made headlines; a bizarre 1993 appearance on Late Night with David Letterman raised questions about her well-being. Fawcett appeared in two Playboy pictorials, one in 1995, and another in 1997 which was accompanied by a controversial pay-per-view television special. In 1998, following an argument with then boyfriend, Hollywood producer, James Orr, Fawcett confronted him at his home brandishing a baseball bat. Orr responded by attacking Fawcett, and was convicted of battery and sentenced to three years' probation. In 2006 it was reported that Fawcett was suffering from anal cancer, to which she finally succumbed on June 25th, 2009 after a long struggle - chronicled in the 2009 TV documentary Farrah's Story that aired shortly before her death.
Fawcett was portrayed by Canadian fashion model-turned-actress Tricia Helfer in the 2004 telefilm Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of 'Charlie's Angels' which followed her rise to fame and its affect on her marriage to Lee Majors (played by Farscape's Ben Browder).