American actress and model, Raquel Welch dead at 82

US actress Raquel Welch, who became an international sex symbol in the 1960s, has died at the age of 82.

The Hollywood star passed away peacefully on Wednesday morning after a brief illness, her manager said.

Widely remembered for playing a bikini-clad cavewoman in the 1966 film One Million Years BC, Welch also won a Golden Globe Award for her performance in 1974’s The Three Musketeers.

She is often credited as a prototype for action heroines in Hollywood.

Born Jo Raquel Tejada in 1940, Welch grew up in California, where she won teen beauty pageants and later became a local weather forecaster.

During a brief stint in Dallas, Texas, the divorced mother of two modelled for the Neiman Marcus clothing store and worked as a cocktail waitress.

Her big break came in 1964 soon after she moved back to California, when she scored cameos in A House Is Not A Home, and Roustabout, a musical starring Elvis Presley.

But she shot to prominence two years later, with her back-to-back roles in the sci-fi film Fantastic Voyage and the fantasy film One Million Years BC.

Welch only had a few lines in the latter, but promotional stills of her wearing a skimpy two-piece deer-skin bikini turned her into a leading pin-up girl of the era.

Despite her public image, she long expressed discomfort with the representation of her body, once saying she “was not brought up to be a sex symbol, nor is it in my nature to be one”.

“The fact that I became one is probably the loveliest, most glamorous and fortunate misunderstanding,” she added.

Welch went on to address her image in her memoir, Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage, in which she opened up about her childhood, her early career woes as a single mother in Hollywood, and why she would never lie about her age.

She leaves behind a son, Damon Welch, and daughter Tahnee Welch.

Also Read: Kanye West’s Journey From Icon To Infamy To Be Explored In Bbc Documentary & Podcast

Read Latest Entertainment News Here

Do you enjoy reading from Townflex? Do You Want Notifications From Us On Our Latest Post? If so, click on the Red bell icon below to subscribe to our feed, which will appear in your smartphone’s notification after we publish a new article. You may also follow us on Twitter at @Townflexgh, Facebook at Townflex, Telegram at @Townflex, Townflex on Pinterest, Townflex on TikTok, and Townflex on YouTube.

Source: BBC.com