In addition to her acting success, Welch was viewed as a sex icon; Playboy magazine dubbed her the “most desired woman” of the 1970s.
Raquel Welch, an actor from Hollywood, passed away at the age of 82.
The U.S. celebrity “passed away peacefully this morning after a short illness,” according to her management company.
Her career stretched more than 50 years and encompassed 30 films, dozens of television series, and numerous appearances.
Welch earned the Golden Globe for best actress in 1975 for her performance in The Three Musketeers.
Her triumph came in 1966 with the science fiction adventure Fantastic Voyage and the prehistoric drama One Million Years BC.
Despite having only a few lines of speech, her appearance in the latter film was one of her most recognizable, with her only costume being a bikini made of deer skin.
A poster featuring a press photograph of her in the two-piece was a best-seller.
In 2011, Time magazine ranked it sixth among the “top ten swimsuits in popular culture.”
Playboy magazine named Welch the “most desired woman” of the 1970s.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, she also appeared in the films Bedazzled, Bandolero!, 100 Rifles, Myra Breckinridge, and Hannie Caulder.
From 1964 to 2017, she made numerous television appearances, and in the early 1980s. She starred opposite Lauren Bacall in Woman of the Year on Broadway.
Reese Witherspoon stated that she was “devastated to learn of Raquel Welch’s death” and that she “enjoyed working with her on Legally Blonde.” She was beyond belief elegant, competent, and glamorous. Simply beautiful.”
Little House on the Prairie actress Melissa Gilbert stated on Instagram, “There are individuals one aspires to be like, and then there are those you realize you’ll never be like because they are so uniquely and unmistakably themselves. This lady (Welch) was among those individuals. RIP.”
Robert Wagner described Welch as an “extremely talented woman with a beautiful spirit.”
Her management firm, Media Four, released the following statement: “Raquel Welch, the legendary bombshell of film, television, and the stage, died peacefully this morning after a short illness.
She appeared in over 30 pictures and 50 TV shows over 50 years.
In recent years, the Golden Globe winner was engaged in a very successful line of wigs.
“Raquel leaves behind her two children, son Damon Welch and her daughter, Tahnee Welch.”
Welch was born in Chicago in September 1940 and moved to San Diego at two.
Her Bolivian father, Armando Tejada, was an aerospace engineer.
Bolivian politician Lidia Gueiler Tejada, her relative, became the nation’s first female president.
