‘Charlie’s Angels’ Through the Years, From Farrah Fawcett to Kristen Stewart

Credit: Moviestore/Shutterstock; Merie Weismiller Wallace

‘Charlie’s Angels’ Through the Years, From Farrah Fawcett to Kristen Stewart

Good morning, angels! The first iteration of Charlie's Angels premiered in September 1976, but the crime-fighting secret agents have never really gone out of style. The original show followed Jill Munroe (Farrah Fawcett), Sabrina Duncan (Kate Jackson) and Kelly Garrett (Jaclyn Smith), who worked as private investigators for the mysterious Charles Townsend, a.k.a. Charlie. Their boss (voiced by John Forsythe) was famously never fully seen onscreen, appearing only from the back or partially obscured. During the show's original run from 1976 to 1981, the Angels' lineup changed several times. Fawcett left after just one season, returning as a guest star for seasons 3 and 4, while Jackson left the show for good after the third season. Cheryl Ladd, Shelley Hack and Tanya Roberts eventually joined the cast as additional Angels Kris Munroe, Tiffany Welles and Julie Rogers, respectively. The series also featured a ton of guest stars who were either famous in their own right or would become so later, including Tom Selleck, Craig T. Nelson, Kim Basinger, Kim Cattrall, Sonny Bono, Jamie Lee Curtis and Sammy Davis, Jr. Two decades after the show's cancelation, the Angels hit the big screen in 2000's Charlie's Angels, starring Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu and Cameron Diaz as the titular trio. In 2003, they returned for the sequel, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, and the actresses have remained close friends ever since. [jwplayer ja5dV7Zw-zhNYySv2] When Barrymore launched her talk show in September 2020, she invited her fellow Angels to join her for the premiere episode. "The thing that I love about our friendship is that we have been there in all the big and important moments, we've also been there in the small moments and the casual moments," the Never Been Kissed star said at the time. "The reason we are such good friends is because it's real and we go through real stuff with each other. It's not a Hollywood fairy tale." The well-dressed secret agents returned to theaters again in November 2019, this time with Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott and Ella Balinska in the starring roles. Director Elizabeth Banks described the movie as a "continuation" of the original TV series and preceding two movies rather than a reboot. "It was important to me to make a movie about women working together and supporting each other, and not make a movie about their romantic entanglements or their mother they don't call enough," the Hunger Games star told Entertainment Weekly in April 2019. "When I'm at work, I don't talk about those things. I get on with my job. It felt important to do that for the Angels, to treat them with the respect their skill set demands." Keep scrolling for a look back at all the women who've answered Charlie's phone calls over the years: [podcast_block]

Credit: Moviestore/Shutterstock

1976: Farrah Fawcett, Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith

Fawcett, Jackson and Smith starred in the first season of the original ABC action drama, playing Jill Munroe, Sabrina Duncan and Kelly Garrett, respectively. Fawcett, who earned a Golden Globe nomination for her performance on the show, left after the first season but later returned for six more episodes.

Credit: Moviestore/Shutterstock (2);l Spelling-Goldberg/Kobal/Shutterstock

1977 to 1981: Cheryl Ladd, Shelley Hack and Tanya Roberts

Fawcett was replaced by Ladd, who signed on the dotted line to play Jill’s sister, Kris Munroe. Jackson was let go from the series after season 3 amid reports of on-set discord, and she was replaced by Hack, who beat out Michelle Pfeiffer and Kathie Lee Gifford to play Tiffany Welles. Amid flagging ratings, Hack was released from her contract in 1980, and she was replaced by Roberts, who played Julie Rogers in the fifth and final season.

Credit: Darren Michaels/Columbia/Kobal/Shutterstock

2000 to 2003: Lucy Liu, Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore

Barrymore persuaded Sony to bring the franchise to the big screen, and she starred in 2000’s Charlie’s Angels as Dylan Sanders opposite Liu as Alex Munday and Diaz as Natalie Cook. The film made $264 million globally and helped Destiny’s Child’s “Independent Women” top the Billboard Hot 100 for 11 weeks.

Credit: Moviestore/Shutterstock

2003: Demi Moore

The film’s 2003 sequel, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle — which earned $259 million — boasted the return of Smith as original angel Kelly Garrett and featured Moore as ex-Angel-turned-villain Madison Lee. Barrymore later suggested in an interview with the Calgary Sun that Moore’s then-romance with Ashton Kutcher “overshadowed” the movie.

Credit: Alex Berliner/BEI/Shutterstock

2003: Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen

Back when they were still pursuing acting careers, the Olsen twins made a cameo in Full Throttle as the future Angels of Dylan’s imagination.

Credit: Matt Baron/BEI/Shutterstock

2011: Annie Ilonzeh, Minka Kelly and Rachael Taylor

ABC brought the Angels back to the small screen in 2011, with Olonzeh playing Kate Prince, Kelly portraying Eve French, Taylor playing Abby Simpson, and Barrymore executive-producing. “It won’t be campy or retro,” executive producer Al Gough said of the Charlie’s Angels reboot in a 2010 Entertainment Weekly interview. “The characters are real and emotionally grounded, but they still like to have fun, wear great clothes, solve crime and kick some serious ass.” ABC canceled the series after the fourth episode.

Credit: Merie Weismiller Wallace

2019: Kristen Stewart, Ella Balinska and Naomi Scott

The 2019 big-screen continuation introduced a new generation of Angels: Stewart as Sabina Wilson, Balinska as Jane Kano and Scott as Elena Houghlin, with Barrymore returning as executive producer. “One of the ingredients of this movie was supporting and believing women,” writer-director Banks told reporters in June 2019, explaining that her Angels wouldn't be as sexualized as their predecessors. “We play with that trope and then we dismiss it pretty early on in the movie. The women in this film use their brains and their wits.”