She was beautiful, she was brilliant, and she worked for Charlie. And soon, her likeness will work for Corpus Christi, just like the Queen of Tejano.
That’s because the image of one of the original Charlie’s Angels, Farrah Fawcett, will be cast in bronze and turned into a sculpture that will be displayed along the Corpus Christi seawall about 1,500 feet from the iconic bronze statue of Selena.
On Tuesday, the Corpus Christi City Council approved an agreement with a private group called the Friends of Farrah Fawcett (FFF), who have commissioned the 7-foot-tall bronze sculpture of Fawcett to pay tribute to their onetime classmate. Fawcett, who was born in Corpus Christi in 1947, went on to graduate from W.B. Ray High School before landing her breakout role in Charlie’s Angels in 1976.
“The goal of FFF is to honor their former classmate and friend while contributing a meaningful piece of artwork to the City where she grew up and began her acting career,” reads a city council memo on the sculpture.
Though Fawcett spent only one season playing Jill Munroe, the private eye who was one of three brainy, beautiful, bombshell investigators who worked for the mysterious millionaire, Charlie, to solve crimes and stop criminals, the role forever sealed her position in the American zeitgeist.
The bronze sculpture will depict one of Fawcett’s most recognizable moments from Charlie’s Angels — the moment her character, Jill, uses a skateboard to flee from a henchman working for a jewelry smuggling syndicate. The statue will stand larger-than-life at 7 feet tall and 5.5 feet wide “from fingertip to fingertip,” according to documents obtained by MySA. An 11-inch-tall base will bring the total height of the sculpture to 8 feet, and it will weigh between 600 to 700 pounds.
The sculpture is being designed and cast by Cleveland, Ohio-based sculptor, David Deming, who is known for large geometric bronze sculptures, as well as likenesses of famous athletes, politicians, and even superheroes, such as a bronze statue of Superman soaring over Cleveland. But the artist has strong ties to Texas. The San Antonio Museum of Art features one of his geometric pieces, called Colorado Tripod. And he spent more than two decades teaching sculpture and drawing at the University of Texas at Austin — where Fawcett once planned on majoring in microbiology before a Hollywood publicist discovered her and convinced her to become a model in California, according to the Farrah Fawcett Foundation.
The Farrah Fawcett statue is expected to be installed along the Corpus Christi Seawall along Shoreline Boulevard near one of the gazebos that line the seawall called Mirador #6. The spot was chosen for its proximity to the Art Center of Corpus Christi’s parking lot, making it easily accessible and offering high visibility during the day and ample lighting at night. The sculpture will come at no cost to the city. Instead, it will be gifted to Corpus Christi once it’s installed.