‘One Million Years B.C.’ sex symbol dies at 82

Raquel Welch, the Hollywood sexual intercourse image famous for her 1960s roles in “1 Million Many years B.C.” and “Great Voyage,” has died at 82.

Welch died Wednesday morning subsequent a transient sickness, her manager Steve Sauer confirmed to USA These days.

Welch’s career spanned 50 decades, 30 movies and 50 Tv set series and appearances. She gained a Golden World for best actress in a comedy or musical for her role in “The 3 Musketeers” in 1975, and was nominated for a World in the 1987 Tv movie “Suitable to Die.”

The star was born Jo Raquel Tejada on Sept. 5, 1940, in Chicago to a Bolivian father and American mother. As a boy or girl, her family moved to San Diego, wherever she uncovered ballet and competed in magnificence pageants. She studied doing arts at San Diego State Higher education, and labored as each a weather forecaster and model in advance of landing her to start with movie roles in 1964’s “A House Is Not a Dwelling” and the Elvis Presley musical “Roustabout.”

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Early in her vocation, Welch reported Hollywood better-ups pushed her to modify her identify to “Debbie.” But the actress refused, and usually remained proud of her Hispanic heritage.

“Individuals failed to like my identify and they mentioned it was far too ethnic, as well complicated to pronounce, far too unique,” Welch informed The Associated Press in 2015. “They desired to improve it and I was not satisfied at all. I did genuinely really feel like Raquel.”

In the late ’60s, Welch became a sex image many thanks to movies this sort of as “Just one Million Many years B.C.,” “Bedazzled,” “The Major Bundle of Them All” and Frank Sinatra crime comedy “Woman in Cement.” She also starred in the X-rated “Myra Breckinridge” in 1970, but had no regrets about actively playing racier roles starting out.

“I am not a fool,” Welch informed the Los Angeles Instances in a 2010 job interview. “I recognized when I arrived alongside, I wasn’t Meryl Streep who experienced been put into a bikini. I was any person that bought rocketed into the highlight and superstardom right away. I realized this was likely to give me an possibility and I ought to make the finest of it.”

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Welch’s breakout came with a pair of bombshell roles in 1966: “Excellent Voyage,” a sci-fi experience about a submarine crew who get shrunk down and injected into a scientist’s bloodstream, and “A person Million A long time B.C.,” set in a prehistoric earth the place cavemen and dinosaurs co-exist. Regardless of only having 3 lines in the latter, the movie spawned a best-promoting poster of Welch clad in a fur bikini.

Playboy topped her the “most ideal lady” of the 1970s, despite under no circumstances staying totally bare in the magazine. In 2013, she graced the No. 2 spot on Men’s Health’s “Most popular Ladies of All Time” checklist.

Welch’s past role was Rosa in the 2017 Tv set drama “Date My Dad,” co-starring Audrey Smallman and Barry Watson, according to her IMDB website page. She also appeared that similar calendar year in significant-screen comedy “How to Be a Latin Lover,” participating in a widowed billionaire whom Eugenio Derbez attempts to seduce.

“I normally required to be an actress mainly because I preferred to entertain,” Welch told enjoyment site BackstageOL in 2017. “Comedy looks to suit that type of a want in me. I like to entertain individuals.”

Through her vocation, Welch made unforgettable appearances in Tv sequence this kind of as “Mork & Mindy,” “The Muppet Display,” “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” and “Seinfeld.” In addition to her monitor operate, Welch appeared on Broadway 2 times and also experienced a profitable line of wigs.