Farrah Fawcett's Red Swimsuit: The Poster That Made Her A Star

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WASHINGTON - FEBRUARY 02: Farrah Fawcett memorabilia included in a donation ceremony at the Smithsonian National Museum Of American History on February 2, 2011 in Washington, DC. Fawcett died of cancer June 25, 2009. (Photo by Paul Morigi/WireImage)

Charlie's Angels might have made a star of Farrah Fawcett, but the red swimsuit made her an icon. In 1976, the model and actress was approached by a publishing company to shoot a swimsuit poster. It was a solid idea to promote a show like Charlie's Angels, in which a trio of glamorous, leggy, private detectives fought crime and solved capers. Establishing the Angels -- Fawcett, Kate Jackson, and Jaclyn Smith -- as sex symbols was bound to give the show a boost. Fawcett's time on the hit series was short, as she stayed for only the first season (1976 –1977); her character Jill Munroe was replaced by sister Kris Munroe (played by Cheryl Ladd). But Farrah Fawcett's red swimsuit poster, plastered on seemingly every teenage boy's bedroom wall in the late '70s, lived on, preserving her bombshell status whether her career was thriving or not.