Jaclyn Smith used the Emmys stage to bring Farrah Fawcett back into the room.
Smith, 80, stood alongside Kate Jackson, 77, and Cheryl Ladd, 75, during a surprise reunion at the 2026 ceremony marking fifty years since “Charlie’s Angels” first aired on ABC. The trio appeared together to honor the show’s golden anniversary and to remember the fourth member of their legacy.
“I would like to acknowledge someone not standing with us tonight, and that’s my friend Farrah Fawcett,” Smith said during the tribute. She added that Fawcett is “here with us in everyone’s collective memory.”
Jackson called the late actress “the shiniest angel of all.” Fawcett died of cancer in 2009 at the age of 62.
Ladd, who replaced Fawcett after the original star departed following the first season, closed the remembrance with a nod to one of the most enduring images of 1970s pop culture. She noted that Fawcett’s “iconic poster” featuring her in a red swimsuit “lives in the minds and the garages of many a man.”
The reunion arrives amid renewed attention to the franchise’s complicated behind-the-scenes history, much of it detailed in Smith’s recent memoir “I Once Knew a Guy Named Charlie.” The book pulls back the curtain on the Aaron Spelling-produced series, which was co-created by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts and ran for five seasons between September 1976 and June 1981.
Smith described Jackson as a “complex person” whose anger “could get the best of her.” She recounted one incident in which Jackson, who was “savvy and skilled, and at times downright silly,” once “flew into a fury over some slight” on the series’ set.
“She climbed behind the wheel of her motor home, with me by her side, and just drove it in circles around the lot, over and over,” Smith wrote. “It was funny at first, but the teamsters were not happy with us.”
According to Smith, Jackson harbored “a lot of resentment” toward the show itself. Jackson reportedly helped develop the title and the concept that the Angels never met their unseen boss Charlie but received instructions via speakerphone. Smith wrote that Jackson believed “she was owed both an acknowledgment and a piece of the profit as a creator,” though “producers disagreed.”
Financial grievances have continued to surface in recent months. Earlier this year, Jackson voiced her frustration that the actresses received no money from the show’s extensive merchandising.
“Yeah, funny thing,” she said exclusively at the 2026 Paley Center Honors. “All that merchandising, somebody got rich off of it; it wasn’t the three of us! They’ll have to figure that one out; some attorney can figure that out.”
“Of course it annoys me,” Jackson exclaimed when asked directly whether the finances irritated her.
Smith’s memoir also alleged early tension between Jackson and Ladd. “It was difficult feeling caught between Kate and Cheryl,” she wrote. “Kate never fully accepted Cheryl. Maybe it was because she missed Farrah, and in Kate’s mind no one could take her place.”
The original “Charlie’s Angels” premiered in September 1976 and quickly became a ratings phenomenon, though it also drew criticism for frequently dressing its leads in revealing outfits and helping popularize the term “jiggle TV.” The premise followed three police academy-trained private detectives working for the mysterious Charlie, whose voice was heard but face never shown. Fawcett’s departure after the first season made her the most famous one-year television star of the era, while Ladd’s arrival established a template for the show’s rotating cast that continued through its five-season run.
Smith, Jackson and Fawcett were the original Angels, with Ladd joining in the second season after Fawcett’s exit.
The Emmys reunion marks one of the rare times all three surviving lead actresses have appeared together publicly to celebrate the series.