Entertainment News: Movie Star Siren Raquel Welch Dies at 82

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LOS ANGELES – Raquel Welch never let anyone define who she was, despite being touted as a sex symbol in her early career. She defined sexy in films such as “One Million Years B.C.,” “Fantastic Voyage” and the 1970s Three Musketeers series. The movie star and entrepreneur died at age 82 at her home in Los Angeles.

She was born in Chicago as Jo Raquel Tejada (her father was Bolivian). Her family moved to California and she desired a theatrical and dance career, attending San Diego State College on a theater arts scholarship. After marrying her high school sweetheart James Welch – they separated after having two children together – she began her early career in film as Raquel Welch … her agent advised her against a Latina last name. Her first credited film role was in “A Swingin’ Summer” (1964).

Raquel Welch in Chicago circa 2010
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

In 1966, Welch broke through with roles in “Fantastic Voyage” – portraying one of a medical team that are shrunk down and injected inside a body – and “One Million Years B.C.,” in which she wore an iconic fur bikini, inspiring a pin-up that became famous. The rest of her film career was surprisingly eclectic, including the Peter Cook/Dudley Moore cult class “Bedazzled,” “Lady in Cement” (supporting Frank Sinatra), “Myra Breckinridge,” “Kansas City Bomber” (as a roller derby queen), two films of “The Three Musketeers,” “Mother, Jugs and Speed,” “Legally Blonde’ and ironically as a Latina in “Tortilla Soup” in one of her last film roles. She made her last major appearance as a featured character in TV’s “Date My Dad” in 2017.

She was also a successful business woman, promoting her ageless looks through a fitness and beauty book/video collection in the 1980s, in addition to a wig line, jewelry collection, and her signature skincare/make-up products. Welch wrote her memoir, “Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage” in 2010. She passed away at her home in Los Angeles, and is survived by two children.

Raquel Welch was photographed in 2010 by Joe Arce and was interviewed on the Red Carpet by Patrick McDonald, both for HollywoodChicago.com.

HollywoodChicago.com: Which filmmaker that you worked with inspired you the most and knew how to get the best performance out of you, and why?

Raquel Welch: Richard Lester in The Three Musketeers films. He was wonderful, and so much fun, that everyone would do whatever he wanted.

HollywoodChicago.com: One of your most unforgettable appearances was in Peter Cook and Dudley Moore’s ‘Bedazzled.’ Do you think the concept of being a movie star and celebrity has an aspect of having a pact with the devil?

Welch: [Laughs] It’s a little bit of a Faustian deal, yes it is. Absolutely. I was living in London at the time, because the crew that shot ‘One Million Years, B.C.’ was British-based and it was released as a British film released by 20th Century Fox.

Because I was in London, and Peter Cook and Dudley Moore were the quintessential comedy stars of the moment – nobody is as big today as they were then – they were doing this wonderful comedy with director Stanley Donen, and he thought I would be a good candidate to play ‘Lust,” one of the deadly sins.

Raquel Welch in ‘One Million Years B.C.’
Photo credit: 20th Century Fox

HollywoodChicago.com: You were a young actor in Hollywood during the heights of the civil rights and feminist movements in the 1960s and early ‘70s. In your observation, how did these movements effect the atmosphere of Hollywood, if at all?

Welch: They did, the movements made change. There were a lot of changes. What really happened is that the industry wanted to throw out the previous style of filmmaking, that had taken place up until that time. This meant we were in new territory, and the scripts, the subject matter, everything that came through – from “A Man and a Woman” to “Blow-up” to Francois Truffaut’s “Fahrenheit 451” – everything was different, it was anti-Hollywood. Then I came along and was characterized as a glamour girl because of the poster [the fur bikini shot in One Million Years, B.C.] and that didn’t go down very well, and they didn’t know what to do with me in those days.

HollywoodChicago.com: Finally, in your recent autobiography, ‘Beyond the Cleavage,’ what inner beauty were you hoping to communicate about yourself that the rest of the world doesn’t know.

Welch: I just wanted to pull back the image a bit and make way for the authentic me. I don’t know how soulful that is, you’ll have to ask one of the readers. [laughs] It was just talking for myself, and not within some crazy character that I played on film.

By PATRICK McDONALD Editor and Film Critic/Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com