Raquel Welch dies at 82

Raquel Welch, an iconic actress whose likeness graced bedroom posters around the world in part due to her bikini-clad role in One million years BC, but enjoyed a career that spanned more than just acting, he passed away. He was 82 years old.

Jo Raquel Tejada was born in Chicago in 1940. The family moved to San Diego, where she took ballet and acting lessons and, as a teenager, won beauty pageants. Welch also did professional modeling.

She made her screen debut as one of the prostitutes in the movie Russell Rouse. A house is not a home in 1964, and made an uncredited appearance in the Elvis Presley film the same year Engage.

One of his earliest and best-known roles was in the 1966 sci-fi adventure. amazing trip, in which he played one of a team of scientists miniaturized and injected into another scientist’s body to remove a blood clot. In the same year she saw One million years BC turn her into a sex symbol.

However, he had several other hits: Welch appeared in the controversial Gore Vidal adaptation. Myra Breckinridge, Kansas City bomber and two films for Richard Lester: The Three Musketeersfor which he won a Golden Globe, and The Four Musketeers: Milady’s Revenge. She was one of the first women to play the lead, not the romantic interest, in a 1971 Western revenge tale. Hannie Cauldron. He also appeared in the neo noir mystery. the last of shielawhich Rian Johnson has cited as part of the inspiration for glass onion.

Welch’s film resume also included the likes of frog, Revenge of a blonde, Blue Beard, Below AND dazzled.

On television, she has been seen in shows such as rotating city, Seinfeld, american family, CPW extension and TV movies right to diewhich earned him a Golden Globe nomination.

Outside of her screen work, Welch has also appeared on stage and been a successful businesswoman, launching Raquel’s Total Beauty and Fitness program in the mid-1980s and more recently developing a line of wigs and hair extensions, as well as skin care products.