Raquel Welch, Movie Sex Symbol, Dies At 82

Raquel Welch, Movie Sex Symbol, Dies At 82

 

The actress, known for her roles in One Million Years BC and The Fantastic Journey, died Wednesday after a “brief illness”.

Raquel Welch, the actress who rose to fame with her seductive performances in 1966 ‘s One Million Years BC and The Fantastic Journey, has died. She was 82 years old.

“The legendary and sublime actress of film, television and the stage passed away peacefully early this morning after a brief illness, a spokesperson for Raquel Welch confirmed in a statement sent to ABC News. Her career spanning over 50 years has seen her appear in over 30 films and around 50 television roles and appearances. Recently, the Golden Globe-winning actress had a part in a hugely successful line of wigs. ( Vanity Fair reached out to Welch’s rep for comment.)

Born Jo Raquel Tejada on September 5, 1940, in Chicago, Illinois, Welch began her career as a weathercaster on local San Diego station KFMB before appearing on sitcoms such as My Beloved Witch and the musical Roustabout d ‘Elvis Presley in the early 1960s. But it was 1966 and the buckskin bikini she wore in A Million Years B.C. that gave Welch a breakthrough. Roles in Fantasies,

A Girl Named Fathom and Myra Breckenridge followed. In 1975, she won the Golden Globe for best actress in a musical or a film for The Three Musketeers, before making guest appearances in Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Seinfeld, as well as a supporting role in Blonde’s Revenge.

“I didn’t know I was going to hatch on the scene as a sex symbol”

Raquel Welch, who will be named one of Empire magazine’s “100 Sexiest Stars in Movie History” and ranked No. 3 on Playboy’s “100 Sexiest Stars of the 20th Century,” said that she never intended to become an on-screen siren. “Well, I didn’t know I was going to break out on the scene as a sex symbol,” she told GQ in 2012. The first role I played under my contract at the 20th Century Fox was The Fantastic Journeywhere I played a scientist!

I was going to be shrunk to microscopic size and injected into the human bloodstream, traveling inside to examine how the body really works, what’s going on with antibodies, blood cells and so on. […] This image of me [in the furry bikini] was circulating around the world even before Fantastic Voyage hit the screens. »

The actress, who wrote her best-selling memoir Beyond the Cleavage in 2010, has also stood up for her rights in Hollywood. Raquel Welch sued MGM in 1981 after being fired a few weeks before Sardine Street was filmed alongside Nick Nolte.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the studio claimed that Raquel Welch’s desire to do her hair and makeup at home rather than on set was a violation of her $250,000 contract. As a result, she was replaced by Debra Winger, a performer 15 years her junior.

When Welch didn’t get a role in another studio project, she sued for breach of contract, asking for $24 million. “What they did was use me to get financing for the movie and then they dumped me for Debra, which is what they had planned all along,” Welch told THR in 2015.

is really Machiavellian in this story is that Debra and I were represented by the same agency. The jury found in the star’s favor and she was awarded $10 million, including $8 million in punitive damages. The movie itself only made $5 million.

Raquel Welch leaves behind her two children, son Damon and daughter Tahnee Welch .

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