Farrah Fawcett's Red Swimsuit Headed to Smithsonian

Admit it, you had this poster on your bedroom wall

If you were a teenage boy in the 1970s, you remember Farrah's red swimsuit.

Now the suit, relatively modest by today's standards, that the "Charlie's Angels" sex symbol wore in an iconic poster is ticketed for immortality in the Smithsonian Institute.

The star, who died of cancer at age 62 in 2009, posed for the best-selling poster with her head tipped back and her blonde tresses spilling over her shoulders. Longtime lover Ryan O'Neal will donate the suit to the museum of Americana next week. It will be part of a pop culture exhibit.

Farrah Fawcett was 29 when she posed for the poster, and was known mainly for appearing in commercials for Noxzema and Wella Balsam shampoo. The poster sold a reported 12 million copies, and a year later, she was cast as Jill Munroe in the popular TV show.

Photographer Bruce McBroom, who shot the famous photo, told Entertainment Weekly in 2009 how the picture came about.

"I was running out of ideas and I was getting desperate," McBroom recalled. "I said, “You know how you look best. Is there anything else that you’ve got that we haven’t shot?

"So she said, “Lemme go look around.” She comes to the door and she’s standing in the doorway in that red suit. And she said, “What do you think of this?” It was like it was spray painted on her; I don’t think it was a swimsuit. I said, “You know what? That’s it!”

Selected Reading: The Associated Press, Newsday, Entertainment Weekly.

Contact Us