Farrah Fawcett - actress, television star and pop-culture phenomenon whose good looks and signature hairstyle influenced a generation of women - died on Thursday in Santa Monica, California.

Fawcett had been battling cancer since late 2006. To an extraordinary degree, that fight was played out in public, generating enormous interest worldwide. Her face, often showing the ravages of her illness, became a tabloid fixture, and updates on her health became staples of television entertainment news.

The US star had fought a long and courageous battle against anal cancer but was rushed from her home to intensive care last night and read her last rites this morning. Her fiance, Ryan O'Neal, and best friend, actress Alana Stewart, were said to be with her during her final hours. Long term partner Ryan, 68, had been planning to wed Farrah as soon as possible.

In an interview earlier this week He said: "I've asked her to marry me, again, and she's agreed. "Farrah is fighting for her life. But we will wed as soon as she can, say yes. Maybe we can just nod her head. "I promise you, we will. Absolutely." Fawcett is survived by her 24-year-old son, Redmond, by Ryan, who is currently in jail on a drug rehab program, is was not present at her bedside, according to reports.

Fawcett was also married to 'The Six Million Dollar Man' actor Lee Majors from 1973 to 1982. Fawcett was initially diagnosed with cancer in 2006. Although doctors believed it had been successfully treated, the illness returned in May 2007 and had recently spread to her liver. Her battle with illness was chronicled in the television documentary 'Farrah's Story' earlier this year which received nearly nine million viewers. In the documentary she said: "I know that everyone will die eventually, but I do not want to die of this disease. I want to stay alive."

In the 1990s she began trying to recapture her sex-symbol status, undergoing plastic surgery and posing nude for Playboy as well as an ill-judged 1997 Playboy movie. But that same year, she produced a memorable performance in The Apostle.

The tabloids made a great deal of her troubled personal life, with claims of domestic abuse by boyfriends, and leapt on an almost incoherent 1997 appearance on the David Letterman show. She once said that all she had to do to get on the cover of People was to "have a new boyfriend. Or even a new dog." - sceneadvisor.com