The actress Farrah Fawcett has died in California after a two and a half year battle with cancer. She was 62.

Earlier this morning, Barbara Walters told "Good Morning America" that Fawcett received last rites and her friends and family were saying their goodbyes.

The death was expected, with many months of build-up and rumors about her deteriorating health. In May, NBC aired a documentary chronicling her cancer battle. Tonight ABC will air a 20/20 special edition titled "Farrah's Love," which includes an interview with Fawcett's long-time companion Ryan O'Neal.

As a child of the Eighties, I clearly remember Fawcett's role as the sexy blonde bombshell Jill Munroe in the syndicated detective series, "Charlie's Angels." While she only remained on the series for a year with guest appearances throughout the next few seasons, it is clear that even in death she will be remembered for this role. And who, of course, can ever forget her image as the pin-up girl in a red bathing suit on poster's that hung in teenage boys' rooms across America.

And way before Jennifer Anniston's "Rachel" haircut of the 1990s, Fawcett inspired millions of woman to style their hair.

Years after her role on "Angels," Fawcett made a surprising comeback, playing a battered woman on the NBC made-for-TV movie, "The Burning Bed." She continued to play vulnerable woman, capitalizing on her success in this niche.

She had been the headlines recently for her battle with cancer and in the last few years was tabloid fodder. Who can forget her on-again-off-again relationship with O'Neal, her son Redmond's troubles with drugs, and her incoherent appearance on "The Late Show with David Letterman" in 1997?

But when I think of Fawcett, the blonde curls and sexy red bathing suit poster will still come to mind.

Below is a Farrah Fawcett interview that I found on You Tube.

Actress Jane Randolph, who died May 4 at 93, will be remembered for two of the scariest single scenes in any suspense film -- and they are the same film, "Cat People" (1942). She's stalked by a female/feline rival in the first scene as she walked by night to a bus stop, and she's terrorized in a lonely and shadowy pool in the second.

This great Italian-dubbed clip has it all, and the language barrier is negligible:

Willowy and with a striking angular beauty, Randolph was never a front-ranked star and eventually left Hollywood when she married a wealthy land developer. The Post will have its obit soon.

As I noted yesterday in a brief blog item, Lindy Hop dance pioneer Frankie "Musclehead" Manning died. The full story is here. But there's only so much one can say about him with words. It's far better to experience him onscreen. Here he is, in overalls, from the exciting jitterbug sequence from the 1941 Hollywood film, "Hellzapoppin' ":

I found out about Manning's death with the help of Chris Bamberger, a local authority on dance and in particular the work of Fred Astaire. She's the wife of local radio treasure Rob Bamberger, whose WAMU-FM program "Hot Jazz Saturday Night" provides a compelling balance of great music and insightful commentary.

Manning owed his 1980s career resurgence to a "swing reawakening," as I like to call it. There's been lots written about why such a revival occured. Personally, I think it's just damn good music.

But according to a profile of Manning in the magazine GQ, a revival of swing music began in the 1980s as a revolt among California punk music fans who felt their discordant, anti-establishment music style had been embraced by too many in the mainstream and thus diluted of its power. To counterattack, the punk rockers incorporated elements of 1940s clothing style, GQ reported: Women traded in their shaved heads for Betty Grable hairdos and men donned gabardine suits. Madison Avenue picked up on the uptick in swing popularity, notably in advertisements for Gap clothes, and swing bands were again cool.

The New York Times obit of Manning included his observation that the Lindy Hop's appeal was that it resembled "a series of three-minute romances." I felt this line would have worked better if, for example, Manning was talking tango. The Lindy Hop, which is about as limb-snappingly fast as a dance gets, seems hardly like a romance. More like a...um...well, this is a family blog.

Jack Cardiff, the British-born Academy-Award winning cinematographer who became one of the most accomplished cinematographers of his generation, died at 94. He worked with directors including Alfred Hitchcock and John Huston and actors such as Marilyn Monroe, who called him "the best in the world."

Famed Hollywood director, Martin Scorsese once described Cardiff, as being able to "paint with the camera." To continue the metaphor, Scorsese described the extended ballet sequence captured by Mr. Cardiff in the 1948 film "The Red Shoes" "as "a moving painting."

Actor Ricardo Montalban, who died at 88 today in Los Angeles, will be remembered for a number of roles -- though fans may disagree about which defined him.

For some, it will be that of Khan in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, which allowed him to utter the line "It is very cold ... in space."

As a Chrysler pitchman, he became synonymous with the phrase "Corinthian leather."

And as Mr. Roarke on Fantasy Island, he was given the task of making people's dreams come true and the line "He who works in a candy store has no desire for sweets."

A real triple threat, Montalban could dance and sing as well as act. In the late 1950s he appeared on Broadway in Jamaica alongside Lena Horne.