‘Fantastic Voyage’ Star Dies at 82

Farewell to an icon. Raquel Welch, identified for her roles in Incredible Voyage and Bedazzled, has died at age 82.

“The legendary bombshell actress of movie, tv and stage, handed away peacefully early this morning after a short sickness,” a consultant for the actress informed Us Weekly in a press release on Wednesday, February 15. “Her profession spanned over 50 years starring in over 30 movies and 50 tv sequence and appearances. The Golden Globe winner, in more moderen years, was concerned in a really profitable line of wigs. Raquel leaves behind her two kids, son Damon Welch and her daughter, Tahnee Welch.”

Born in Chicago in 1940, Raquel moved to Los Angeles in 1963 to pursue her dream of film stardom. The next 12 months, she appeared within the movies A Home Is Not a Dwelling and Roustabout, the latter of which starred Elvis Presley. She additionally racked up credit on TV reveals together with McHale’s Navy, Bewitched and The Hollywood Palace.

Raquel’s breakout function got here in 1966 when she starred in Incredible Voyage, a traditional sci-fi movie directed by Harry Kleiner. That very same 12 months, she appeared in One Million Years B.C., which made her a intercourse image due to the deerskin bikini she wore in a promotional nonetheless for the film.

“I’m requested if I nonetheless have that bikini, however there have been about six of them, and so they’re in all probability in an archive someplace. At some point certainly one of them will flip up in a museum or public sale,” the Hannie Caulder actress informed The Sunday Submit in August 2018. “I’m undecided if I’ll ever put on it once more however you by no means know — maybe in the future the script will drop by way of the door for Two Million Years B.C. If it does, I hope it has extra dialogue than the primary one. I had three strains in that, the remainder was silent.”

Raquel went on to star in dozens of movies over time, together with Myra Breckinridge, The Final of Sheila and The Wild Celebration. In 1975, she earned a Golden Globe Award for her efficiency as Constance Bonacieux in The Three Musketeers, which additionally starred Michael York, Oliver Reed, Frank Finlay and Richard Chamberlain. Rom-com followers can also bear in mind her as Mrs. Windham-Vandermark from 2001’s Legally Blonde.

The Neglect About It star posed for Playboy in 1979, however she refused to look nude, as a substitute carrying a crimson swimsuit. “Raquel Welch, one of many final of the traditional intercourse symbols, got here from the period when you can be thought-about the sexiest girl on this planet with out taking your garments off,” Hugh Hefner later wrote of the Spin Metropolis veteran. “She declined to do full nudity, and I yielded gracefully. The images show her level.”

The 8 Easy Guidelines alum’s final movie and TV credit got here in 2017 when she appeared within the movie The best way to Be a Latin Lover and on the sequence Date My Dad.

Raquel was married 4 occasions: to James Welch from 1959 to 1964, to Patrick Curtis from 1967 to 1972, to André Weinfeld from 1980 to 1990 and to Richard Palmer from 1999 to 2004. The 100 Rifles and her first husband shared son Damon and daughter Tahnee, born in 1959 and 1961, respectively.

Although Raquel was born to a Bolivian father whose final title was Tejada, Curtis — who was her agent earlier than they wed — suggested her to maintain her ex-husband’s final title to keep away from being typecast as a Latina actress. The Girl in Cement star embraced her heritage in her later years, revealing that she’d additionally been suggested to vary her first title to Debbie.

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“Folks didn’t like my title and so they mentioned it was too ethnic, too troublesome to pronounce, too unique,” she informed the Related Press in 2015. “They needed to vary it and I used to be not joyful in any respect. I did actually really feel like Raquel.”