Raquel Welch, an actress who rose to prominence in the late 1960s and became an icon of her generation, died at the age of 82, her manager confirmed to CBS News on Wednesday.
“After a brief illness, Raquel Welch, the legendary bombshell actress of film, television, and stage, passed away peacefully early this morning,” Welch’s manager, Steven Sauer, said in a statement.
Welch rose to prominence in the 1966 adventure film “Fantastic Voyage,” and her career took off in her next film, “One Million Years, B.C.” While she only had a few lines in the film, she appeared on the poster in a fur bikini, which instantly turned her into an international sex symbol.
Welch addressed the film and the racy artwork in a 2012 interview with CBS Los Angeles, saying she felt “demeaned” on set but knew the “silly costume” led to her “big break.”
“The Lord was watching over me or something,” she explained of her meteoric rise to fame. “I mean, there was no reason for me to be on top of a volcano in that outfit filming a dinosaur movie and then be a star when I returned. It’s completely insane.”
Welch discussed being looked down upon in the industry but figuring out how to make it work for her in the interview.
“I was on the ‘One Million Years B.C.’ [set]and I was bored, so I went to the director, Don Chaffey, and I told him that I had been studying the script and that I had been thinking.’ ‘Don’t,’ he said, looking at me. I was truly humiliated.”
“When I came back and saw that stupid costume had given me my big break, I thought, ‘Well, OK, then,'” Welch continued. “It wasn’t my intention, but if it works, great.”
Welch would continue to act into the early 2000s, appearing on TV, in movies, and on stage, and winning a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Musical or Comedy for her role in the 1974 film “The Three Musketeers.” In addition, she had a successful one-woman show in Las Vegas.
In 1994, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Even before her first film roles, Welch was on TV: According to CBS Los Angeles, her very first on-screen job was as a weathercaster at a CBS station in San Diego.
“It was entertaining, and they paid me $7.50 per show. I was overjoyed because I was going to be on television “She mentioned in Los Angeles in 2012.
Welch married four times and had two children with her first husband, Damon, and Tahnee. In May 1959, she married James Welch, but the couple divorced in 1964. Even after they divorced, she continued to use the surname, Welch. Both of Welch’s children are still alive and have had acting careers of their own.
She married producer Patrick Curtis in 1967. In 1972, they divorced. In 1980, she married producer André Weinfeld, and they divorced in 1990. Finally, in 1999, she married Richard Palmer, but the couple divorced in 2003.
“What can I say, I’ve been married four times and have yet to get it right. I’m studying, “In Los Angeles, she cracked a joke.
