beautiful delilah, sweet as apple pie, always gets a second look from fellas passin’ by

This post comes from a request sent in by a lovely reader who adores seventies style icons. When she dubbed Farrah Fawcett her version of the idol-status I hold for Pattie Boyd (my love for that woman is so well documented here), I knew that this chick's love for the icon known for her flaxen, flipped-out locks was no light matter.

Though her life was short (as I'm sure you know, she tragically lost her long publicized battle with cancer in 2009 at the age of 62), Farrah Fawcett made those years count. Best known for her role as Jill Munroe in the Aaron Spelling crime-fighting series Charlie's Angels, Farrah has a vastly overlooked (and under-appreciated) catalogue of dramatic film and stage work.

She first flexed her dramatic chops in the mid-1970s when she took on the role of a would-be rape victim in the Off-Broadway play Extremities (a role she would play again in the film version of the story in 1986). The following year, Farrah garnered an Emmy nomination for her role as a battered wife in the film The Burning Bed. In the following decade, Farrah played a string of legendary women, including anti-Nazi activist Beate Klarsfeld, troubled heiress Barbara Hutton, photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White, and convicted murderer Diane Downs. 

But Farrah was always a class act. Even after leaving the Angels after only one season, she never spoke ill of the show that launched her to superstardom. Instead, she teased with her trademark wit that "when the show was number three, I thought it was our acting. When we got to be number one, I decided it could only be because none of us wears a bra."

Farrah was, in a sense, the Jennifer Aniston before Jennifer Aniston. No, no I don't mean that Farrah and Ryan O'Neal were the Brad and Jen of their day (though neither Ryan nor Brad are at all hard on the eyes...) Farrah's signature flipped and feathered hairstyle was such a national phenomenon that it makes the popularity of Jen's 'Rachel do' look like a quick flash-in-the-pan trend. 

Farrah Fawcett is, in short: an icon, a legend, and the fantasy of many a teenage boy over the last couple of decades (and her 'do was the fantasy of all of those guys' girlfriends). Farrah entered my life when I was a preteen - we became first acquainted when I saw that infamous poster of her in the red swimsuit hanging on the wall of my older brother's bedroom. Unlike all of the posters in his room (most of which made me a bit uncomfortable), I loved the photo of Farrah. Her smile was warm and genuine, and there was something so wonderful about that spark in her eyes that asked, 'Who, me??'

Though cliched, I think that image is what will always come to mind when I think of Farrah. It perfectly captures a moment in time of a woman so fantastically stunning but also so unaware of her own beauty. 

Title: from "Beautiful Delilah" (Chuck Berry)

you get a gun and name it after a girlfriend

Jean-Luc Godard once said, "all you need for a movie is a gun and a girl." While I am not promoting or advocating violence by any means, I think that in life sometimes all you need is a girl with a gun. I don't know ... I'm very random sometimes. 

Sylvie Vartan tries her hand at weaponry (and of course looks stunning - can you believe how incredible her hair looks here?)

Another popular yé-yé girl, France Gall, poses alongside her mentor - and perhaps partner-in-crime - Serge Gainsbourg

Armed, wigged, and dangerous - Anita Pallenberg tries a new look on in Performance

Who could forget Natalie Portman as the precocious badass Mathilda in Léon?

Marilyn Monroe takes Cupid to a whole other level, ditching a bow and arrow for some heavier artillery for gettin' those hearts to fall in love

Makes sense that Anna Karina, wife and muse to Godard, was so often seen toting a gun in his movies, such as in Pierrot Le Fou and Made in USA

Ann-Margret dares any of her critics to 'make her day' - she's got a gun in hand and bullets strapped around her waist

Brigitte Bardot channels Bonnie Parker (or, perhaps, more accurately, channels Faye Dunaway-channeling-Bonnie Parker) in the promo video for her duet with Serge Gainsbourg, "Bonnie and Clyde" 

Farrah Fawcett perhaps takes her role as gun-toting glamazon in Charlie's Angels a bit too far in these photo shoots. With aim as spectacular as her looks, it's no surprise that no man was left standing

The unparalleled Faye Dunaway wowed critics and fashionistas alike with her performance as Bonnie Parker, the gun-slingin', beret-wearing beauty who captured the eye - and heart - of Clyde Barrow

The late great Jane Russell made a name for herself as a bombshell gun moll in such films as The Outlaw

I don't know what looks more dangerous - Louise Brooks' deadly stare or the two guns that she's holding

Anita Pallenberg and Michele Breton explore the gun belonging to on-the-run gangster Chas, played by James Fox, in their sixties masterpiece Performance

Marilyn Monroe looks somehow so innocent with her gun - and of course, ever the bombshell, she wears lipstick. The gal knew that even more important than the right to bear arms was the right to look fabulous while doing so

Karen Elson gives Little Red Riding Hood quite a daring twist - let's see the big bad wolf try to get Elson's Red, who looks fierce with her gun and five-inch heels

France Gall is perhaps the only gal in the world who can pose alongside a rifle and large stuffed animals and have it look completely normal and actually charming

The November 1936 cover of Vogue Magazine shows that even guns can be in fashion from time to time

Title: from "I Remember Every Kiss" (Jens Lekman)