US actress and model Raquel Welch dies at age 82

Thursday, February 16, 2023

US actress and model Raquel Welch died yesterday in Los Angeles, California, Stephen LaManna, her manager, announced. She was 82 years old and had suffered a brief illness.

Welch was one of the most successful actresses of her time, with 30 film and 50 television roles throughout her career.

Jo-Raquel Tejada was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1940. She was raised in California, sweeping teen beauty pageants, then working as a local weather forecaster.

Divorced with two children, she lived in Texas, modelling for Neiman Marcus and working as a cocktail waitress.

In 1964, Welch returned to California, making cameos in the drama A House Is Not A Home and the musical Roustabout, earning her big break.

After her 1966 performance as a bikini-clad cavewoman in One Million Years B.C., Welch became an international sex symbol. In the 1970s, her portrayal of Constance de Bonacieux in the classic film The Three Musketeers won a Golden Globe award.

Welch long said she was uncomfortable with her body's sexualization. In her autobiography, Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage, she wrote: "The irony of it all is that, even though people thought of me as a sex symbol, in reality I was a single mother of two small children!"

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Sources

Sam Cabral. "Raquel Welch: US actress and model dies at 82" — BBC, February 15, 2023
Steve Gorman. "Actress Raquel Welch, screen siren of 1960s-70s, dead at age 82" — Reuters, February 15, 2023
"Remembering Raquel Welch: The ‘sex symbol’ of yesteryears who was much more than just that" — The Indian Express, February 16, 2023

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