When Raquel Welch donned a deerskin bikini for a caveman screen epic in 1966, she was one of the hottest sex symbols of her time, a role she never felt she could escape.
The movie was mediocre, but the poster of “One Million Years BC” went around the world, took them and made both of them an inseparable part of the history of cinema.
“With the release of a famous movie poster, in an instant, everything in my life changed and everything about the original me disappeared,” Welch said in his 2010 autobiography “Beyond Cleavage.”
“Everything else will be overshadowed by this larger-than-life sex symbol.”
With her auburn mane and praised for her famous figure, Welch took over from the late Marilyn Monroe as the universal sex goddess of the 1960s and 1970s.
The New York Times described her in 1967 as “a stunning breathing monument to women” while Playboy magazine said she was “the most desirable woman of the 1970s.”
– Running part-
Welch, who died Wednesday after a brief illness, was born Jo Raquel Tejada on September 5, 1940 in Chicago to a Bolivian aeronautical engineer and her American husband.
Growing up in California, she took ballet lessons and won the first of several teenage beauty titles at the age of 14.
She married her high school sweetheart, James Welch, before the age of 20, having two children before divorcing in 1964.
Also read: 1970s sex symbol Raquel Welch dies at 82
Welch then moved to Dallas, taking jobs as a model and barmaid. Seeking stardom, she returned to Los Angeles in 1963, where she met her agent and future husband Patrick Curtis.
His not-so-famous acting career began with several parts in small films, including the 1964 musical feature “Roustabout” starring Elvis Presley.
But his break came when he was selected by the 20th Century Fox studio to star in the 1966 science fiction film, “Fantastic Voyage”.
– Typecast –
That same year, she had the lead role in “One Million Years BC,” a fantasy film that was memorable except for the bikini-clad cave women.
In 1967 Welch married Curtis in Paris in her famous white crochet dress, living in a luxurious Beverly Hills villa with a black marble swimming pool and a Rolls-Royce.
However, at that time she was typecast, and struggled to prove herself as an actress.
“Americans always have sex symbols. It’s a time-honored tradition and I’m happy to be one,” she said.
“But it’s hard to have a long and productive career if you’re stereotyped like that.”
Welch made a series of films in the late 1960s and 1970s but remained limited by her status as a beauty.
Titles include “Bandolero!” west. (1968), the detective film “Lady in Cement” (1968) and the comedy “Animal” (1977).
In 1969 she was in Hollywood’s first interracial sex scene with Jim Brown in “100 Rifles”. Then she became the most controversial role – the transsexual heroine in “Myra Breckinridge” (1970).
The swashbuckling “The Three Musketeers” (1973), in which she played the queen, won the Golden Globe for best actress.
While filming “Cannery Row” in 1982, Welch was fired for insisting on doing her hair and makeup at home. He sued the MGM studio for breach of contract, eventually winning a $15 million settlement.
– Later roles –
A lover of yoga, Welch later launched a wellness business, publishing the “Total Beauty and Fitness” program in 1984.
Having long hidden his Latino origin, as an elegant 60s, he took the role of Hispanic in the series “American Family” on PBS in 2002 and “Tortilla Soup” in 2001.
In 2008 at the age of 68, she divorced her fourth husband, Richard Palmer, who was 14 years her junior.
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