American Actress Raquel Welch Dead at 82
20:05 GMT 15.02.2023 (Updated: 20:41 GMT 15.02.2023)
© AP Photo / Laurence Harris
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Sex symbol and actress Jo Raquel Welch, who was best known for her role in One Million Years BC, has died at the age of 82.
Welch's family told US media that the star had died on Wednesday morning following a brief illness.
Born in Chicago in 1940 to English and Bolivian parents, Welch pursued public performance from an early age, including ballet dancing, beauty pageantry, and theater. After winning a number of smaller roles on television, Welch's big Hollywood break came in 1966 in Fantastic Voyage, in which she played Cora Peterson, a medical professional who was shrunk down small enough to fit inside a tiny submarine that would travel through the blood vessels of a sick patient's body to perform micro-surgery.
She also starred in One Million Years BC later that year, a film in which she had only three lines of dialogue, but nonetheless propelled the film to success thanks to the film posters on which she posed in a deerskin bikini. Welch became an instant sex symbol.
Rest in Peace, Raquel Welch. pic.twitter.com/wOTwfjmcTR
— Jo 🌻 (@JoJoFromJerz) February 15, 2023
Welch later said that she nearly died during production of the film after contracting tonsillitis, which she attributed to wearing the revealing outfit in harsh weather conditions.
“I had already so much penicillin when I was wearing the fur bikini that I almost died," she said. "I had to rush, turn my car around and head right back to the doctor’s office, just run upstairs, jump in the elevator and all that. And I barely got there. They had to shoot me with an antidote. Otherwise, I would have died. It was really rough shoot, man. Really rough."
She later starred in films such as Fathom (1967); Lady in Cement (1967); The Three Musketeers (1973) and The Four Musketeers (1974), the latter of which won her a Golden Globe for Best Actress; Mother, Jugs and Speed (1976); and a Broadway adaptation of Woman of the Year (1981).
She was named one of the “100 Sexiest Stars in Film History” in a 1995 issue of Empire magazine and was also ranked third in Playboy’s “100 Sexiest Stars of the 20th Century.”
Welch was married four times throughout her life: to James Welch (1959-1964), Patrick Curtis (19'67-1972), Andre Weinfeld (1980-1990), and Richard Palmer (1999-2004). She is survived by two children: daughter Tahnee and son Damon Welch.
