The One Time We Saw Charlie's Face In Charlie's Angels

"Charlie's Angels" has made an indelible mark on pop culture. Fans may look back most fondly on the beautiful actors comprising the Angels, but they didn't work by themselves. There's still the titular Charlie, who was relegated to giving the Angels their assignments on a speaker box much of the time. Viewers may not remember that Charlie did show his face at one point in the show's run, but even then, he never lost his air of mystery. 

Occasionally, audiences would get glimpses of Charlie, but it was usually the back of his head. The front of his face was only seen one time in the series finale — "Let Our Angel Live." The episode sees Kelly (Jaclyn Smith), the only Angel to stay through the whole series, hospitalized while everyone else reminisces about prior missions featuring clips from other episodes. Kelly lives in the end, mentioning how she could hear Charlie's voice in the hospital. As the camera pans out, viewers see a reflection of a man wearing scrubs and a medical mask. This is the one and only Charlie Townsend. 

Charlie's face remaining mostly hidden stays true to the spirit of the show, but it still feels like a valid reward for fans who stuck with the original series for all five seasons.

Throughout "Charlie's Angels," Charlie was voiced by John Forsythe, who was already an accomplished actor by the time the show came around with roles on "Bachelor Father" and "To Rome with Love." A late-night phone call led to Forsythe playing Charlie, and the rest is TV history. However, the man seen on the "Charlie's Angels" finale isn't Forsythe, who never physically appeared on the series. Interestingly enough, he never even visited the set.

The Television Academy Foundation interviewed Forsythe in 2000 to reflect on his expansive career. For a portion on "Charlie's Angels," he explained how they had to get a body double whenever they showed the back of the character's head. But he was open to appearing on the show himself ... for a price. "If they wanted me to be on camera, if they wanted me in the flesh, they were gonna have to pay a lot of money," he said. His asking price must've been extravagantly high for the team behind "Charlie's Angels," seeing how he didn't ever show up.

Still, one might imagine Forsythe would at least want to visit the set at some point just to see what was happening. Later in the interview, Forsythe said he never went, claiming it was in service of the character. "I thought the mystique would help it," he explained. 

Forsythe's voice is so intrinsically linked to the character that he reprised the part for 2000's "Charlie's Angels" as well as the sequel, "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle." Charlie may have an iconic voice, but his face may forever remain an enigma.