The 62-year-old actress and pin-up girl died last Thursday after a three-year battle with cancer.

The news was quickly overshadowed by the death of King of Pop Michael Jackson later that day.

Fawcett's drug-offender son Redmond, her child with long-time companion Ryan O'Neal, was granted compassionate leave from a prison cell to attend the ceremony.

Both Ryan and Redmond O'Neal, 24, served as pallbearers for the service, held at Los Angeles Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angeles.

Fawcett emerged as a pop-culture icon in the 1970s and 1980s after her role in Charlie's Angels and her appearance in a famous poster wearing a red swimsuit.

During the 1970s, Fawcett was married to Six Million Dollar Man TV show star Lee Majors, from whom she separated in 1979. In 1982, she began her long romance with actor O'Neal.

After splitting from O'Neal in the 1990s, Fawcett faded from public view, although she appeared in Robert Altman's 2000 comedy Dr T and the Women, in a cast that included Richard Gere, Helen Hunt, Laura Dern and Kate Hudson.

In recent years, Fawcett's health was the subject of intense scrutiny by a voracious tabloid media.

News of her cancer fight broke in October 2006, sparking an outpouring of support from fans and well-wishers.

In 2007, she declared that months of gruelling chemotherapy had seen her beat the cancer despite "excruciating pain and uncertainty".

"It never occurred to me to stop fighting - not ever," she said. However, in April this year, it emerged that the cancer had returned and the actress was gravely ill.