When I was casting my short film, Begleiter, in 2004, my script called for a “recognizable celebrity” to play themselves in a cameo. One of the first actors I tried to get was Farrah Fawcett. Her people turned it down. I have no idea if it was even pitched to her. I would find out a year later from her reality show, “Chasing Farrah,” for which my DP, Joel Deutsch, was a camera operator, that even then, after she’d been out of the limelight for years, she was still being bombarded with wacky offers like mine.

The Queen of “jiggle TV” was never taken seriously as an actress in the 70s, so she had to reinvent herself in the 80s. In 1984, she earned Emmy and Golden Globe nominations as a battered wife in the controversial TV movie The Burning Bed, directed by Robert Greenwald. She took on another victim role in 1983, taking over for Susan Sarandon in the acclaimed off-Broadway production of Extremities, written by William Mastrosimone, and receiving another Globe nod for starring in its 1986 big screen adaptation, directed by Robert M. Young.

In Extremities, Marjorie (Fawcett) escapes an attempted rape. There’s not enough evidence for the police to catch the guy. A week later, her attacker (James Russo) shows up at her house to finish the job. During the brutal assault, she manages to turn the tables on the rapist. Marjorie’s roommates (Alfre Woodard and Diana Scarwid) come home to find a strange man caged in their fireplace, badly in need of medical attention, while Marjorie digs a shallow grave in their vegetable garden in which to bury the intruder alive. Can they talk her out of it? More importantly, should they?

What I love about this script is the way it forces us to think, “What would I do?” without trying to force its own answers on us. Instead, it predicts our response at every turn, then throws us a rebuttal. Marjorie wants to get away from the rapist. We want her to get away. She can get away. But Russo foolishly brags that it’s his word against hers, and he will come back to kill her. This is the intellectual turning point of the movie, coming about five minutes after the more physical turning point in her struggle. Marjorie’s extreme reaction isn’t blind vengeance, like in Death Wish, but near-justifiable torture out of absolute necessity. We wouldn’t mind if Russo ended up in the vegetable garden. But then Woodard comes in with a more calm and rational approach and we, along with Farrah, are forced to rethink the situation once again. The antagonist is utterly despicable, wholly believable and yet, through the eyes of Woodard’s character, he becomes slightly sympathetic.

Marjorie fights back in Extremities with the same bravery Farrah displayed as she fought back against the cancer that so sadly took her life last Thursday. Having watched her true-life struggle in her recent documentary, Farrah’s Story, it’s easy to see why this sex symbol was drawn to, and excelled in, these victim-fights-back roles. She was as strong as she was beautiful. She was more talented than she was ever given credit for. Farrah Fawcett will be missed.

Dan Margules is an award-winning filmmaker and one of the founders and former president of San Diego Filmmakers. His short film, Begleiter, features a cameo by Ken Osmond (“Leave it to Beaver”). It is available in a Special Edition from Amazon.com or happy-the-dog.com.