© Reuters
Raquel Welch, the film actress whose sultry good looks made her a leading sex symbol of the 1960s and 1970s, has died at the age of 82, French news agency AFP reported Wednesday, citing her manager. .
Welch came to the attention of moviegoers with her role in the sci-fi film Fantastic Voyage (1966), followed by her iconic appearance later that year in the prehistoric drama One Million Years B.C.
Although Welch only had a few lines of dialogue in the film, the episode with her memorable appearance in a leather bikini turned her into a bestseller and global sex symbol.
The website TMZ first reported the news, citing family members who said Welch died Wednesday after a brief illness.
Her manager specified that she left after a “short illness”, but did not provide further details.
Born Jo-Raquel Tejada in Chicago in 1940 to a Bolivian father and an American mother, Welch told the New York Times in 2002 that she was proud to acknowledge her Latino roots and that for the role that made her famous, they bleached her hair on purpose.
“I’m happy to admit it and it’s long overdue and very welcome,” she said. “There’s been an empty place here in my heart and also in my work for a long, long time.”
Welch, a Golden Globe Award winner, has appeared in more than 30 films, including The Three Musketeers, as well as some 50 television series in a career spanning five decades.
Welch said her first ambition was to be a ballerina, only to realize at 17 that “I don’t really have the body for ballet”.
His personal life was stormy, and after his divorce from James Welch in 1964, whose surname he took, three more marriages followed – with producer Patrick Curtis, director Andre Weinfeld and pizzeria owner Richie Palmer.
