But news that Farrah Fawcett is now in treatment for intestinal and anal cancer is the latest sad chapter in a life that seems to have been on a downward slope ever since she left Charlie's Angels back in 1977.

During her Angels heyday Fawcett was as big a star as Jennifer Aniston is today. Like Aniston, she pioneered a haircut trend that became the emblematic style of a decade.

If Monroe was the symbolic blonde of the '50's, Fawcett was undoubtedly her successor for the '70's, attracting publicity and adoration that Paris Hilton could only dream about.

But Fawcett's meteoric rise as the Texan beauty turned pin-up plays almost second fiddle now to her dramatic descent.

Struggles with violent relationships, botched plastic surgery and rumours of drug addiction have plagued her for decades.

Yet her appearance for an Aaron Spelling tribute at the Emmys with fellow original Angels Jaclyn Smith and Kate Jackson two months ago, where for once she appeared healthy and happy, seemed to finally indicate all was well in Fawcett's life. Which is why friends fear her current battle with cancer may be the final blow, a travesty made all the more poignant given that her older sister and only sibling Diane passed away from lung cancer in 1998.

Farrah Leni Fawcett . . . the illustrious name given her on 2 February 1947 by mother Pauline and father James . . . was always a pretty child seemingly destined for fame.

Growing up a Catholic in Corpus Christi, Texas, as a youth she was blessed with a natural athletic ability and won several sporting prizes. She was voted 'most beautiful' by her graduating class of 1965 and having turned the heads of several modelling scouts as a teen, the move to Hollywood after a short spell studying biology at the University of Austin surprised no one.

Within a year, she had started dating fellow actor Lee Majors, with whom she would later guest-star on his hit show The Six Million Dollar Man. They married in 1973 and Fawcett continued to get small parts in series such as I Dream of Jeannie and The Partridge Family.

At 29, Fawcett was relatively old by Hollywood standards when she came to the attention of the man who would propel her into the limelight. Aaron Spelling was quickly establishing himself as the wizard of successful TV programmes when he cast Fawcett in Charlie's Angels. It was 1976 when bombshell detective Jill Monroe was launched on the unsuspecting public in a series that appalled feminists for its close-ups of three beautiful women wielding firepower and running in tight shorts and high heels.

Though she appeared on the show full-time for only one year, and despite a large body of TV work that followed, it is the role for which she is best remembered.

Ironically, Charlie's Angels' success seemed to become Fawcett's undoing. Despite a far less intense celebrity culture than now, interest in her private life was extreme.

She and Majors, by then her husband, were the Brad Pitt and Aniston of their day, every move and row documented.

When Fawcett began an affair with Lee Majors's friend, Hollywood bad boy Ryan O'Neal in 1980, the press had a field day. Though she and Majors had recently separated, many suspected . . . like with Pitt and Angelina Jolie . . .

that the pair were already involved.

At this stage Fawcett had left Charlie's Angels . . . following a year of on-set fighting which had plagued the show and a lawsuit that forced her to appear three more times in the following two seasons . . . but interest in her off-screen doings was at an all-time high.

Ryan O'Neal was perceived as one of tinsel town's biggest womanisers since his rise to fame with 1970's Love Story, in which he played a Harvard graduate taking care of his wife, who was ironically dying of cancer.

Before he met Fawcett, he had had affairs with some of the decade's biggest female stars including Diana Ross, Barbra Streisand, Ursula Andress and Joan Collins.

Nevertheless, his association with Fawcett would be his stormiest and most enduring.

For 17 years, their tempestuous relationship rattled on through tales of his daughter Tatum O'Neal's hatred for Fawcett and their own son Redmond's drug addiction.

Like Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, they seemed to have a love/hate affair, their names frequenting tabloid gossip columns through their spats, as their careers faded from their former glory.

Though her acting career may have not reached the heights once expected of it, Fawcett remained a firm favourite with her loyal fans. So much so that in 1995, two years shy of her 50th birthday, she posed for Playboy.

Like the iconic swimsuit poster 20 years before, it sold a staggering four million copies to become the best-selling issue of the '90s.

Once she hit 50, she posed in another best-selling issue of Playboy. But the decade was not kind to Fawcett.

After years of accusations of drug abuse and infidelity from both sides, she and O'Neal split for good in 1997 amid rumours of his affair with actress Leslie Stefanson.

The break-up seemed to mark the beginning of a chain of negative events for Fawcett.

A short relationship with producer/writer James Orr, best known for his work on Three Men and a Baby and Father of the Bride, proved disastrous when he was arrested and charged with assault and battery after she allegedly refused his marriage proposal.

In 1997, rumours surfaced that she had thrashed his house, while actress Kristen Amber Citron accused Fawcett of stealing $72,000 worth of clothing and nude pictures. Orr was sentenced to three years probation and given 100 hours of community service as well as a fine and an order to avoid future contact with Fawcett.

It was also the year she gave an interview on The Late Show with David Letterman, in which she appeared incoherent and vacant.

Rumours of drug abuse raged though Fawcett later refuted the accusations, claiming she'd been playing a joke on Letterman.

However, her performance has become legendary, recently making a poll of the top 10 celebrity meltdowns in the US.

Around the time she also had a brief affair with Steve Bing, the father of Liz Hurley's son Damien.

Then, in 2003 after several years apart, she and O'Neal reconciled when he leaned on her while fighting his own battle with leukemia.

The pair gave a united front the same year as their only child Redmond . . . the source of many of their rows . . . admitted in court to being a heroin addict at the age of 19. There were even rumours the pair would marry on Fawcett's short-lived reality TV series Chasing Fawcett.

But another bust-up occurred a year ago with Fawcett accusing O'Neal of being responsible for their son's cocaine and heroin addiction. She said he had smoked marijuana with Redmond at 13 and had constantly offered him an easy escape to life's problems.

However, once again they have come together in times of trouble . . . following Fawcett's recent cancer diagnosis O'Neal stepped in to whisk her away to the shelter of his home and vow to care for her through her rehabilitation.

He recently told reporters "we've had our ups and downs, but I was the first person she called when she was diagnosed. I love her, I've loved her for 25 years, and she knows that. . .

I intend to care for her and give her all the support she needs."

Though friends might speculate that they were each other's undoing, Fawcett and O'Neal seem to remain powerless over the magnetic attraction that has tied them together since they first met.