A lover of yoga, Welch later launched herself into the business of wellbeing, publishing her Total Beauty and Fitness program in 1984. During young Raquel’s turbulent family life (her hot-tempered father bullied her mother), she enrolled at the San Diego Junior Theatre as a seven-year-old and – inspired by the British ballet dancer Moira Shearer in the film The Red Shoes (1948) – started lessons in classical ballet, only to be told at the age of 17 by her teacher that she would never be a dancer and would make a better comedienne. Her consolation was that years of dancing lessons had shaped a near-perfect body. Pittilla, Mary Jane (February 2, 2007). "Raquel Welch becomes MAC beauty icon". Archived from the original on April 7, 2016 . Retrieved March 19, 2008. Lacher, Irene (November 23, 1998). "Raquel Welch and Her Doughboy". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on March 2, 2023 . Retrieved March 2, 2023. Both "One Million B.C." (1940), and this film, a remake, "One Million Years B.C." (1966) are films that are half-cherished and half-despised. They are what are classified as camp classics and I agree that both of them are exactly like that. They are both about equal in entertainment quality, but they must not be taken too seriously. Like I've stated in my review of the original "One Million B.C.", dinosaurs and caveman did not live in the same time period. They never knew of each other. But "One Million Years B.C." is a fantasy movie. It takes place in an imaginary world. And it must be treated exactly as it is: a fantasy.

Welch was born Jo Raquel Tejada on September 5, 1940, in Chicago, Illinois. She was the first child of Armando Carlos Tejada Urquizo and Josephine Sarah Hall. [5] [6] Her father, Armando Tejada, was an aeronautical engineer from La Paz, Bolivia, son of Agustin Tejada and Raquel Urquizo. [7] In 2010 during the release of her memoir Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage, [5] Welch was interviewed on the talk show Tavis Smiley, and said, "My father came from a country called Bolivia. He was of Spanish descent." [8] [9] [10] [11] Her cousin, Bolivian politician Lidia Gueiler Tejada, became the first female president of Bolivia and the second female non-royal head of state in the Americas. [12] Welch was named after her paternal grandmother. [13] [14] Her mother, Josephine Hall, was the daughter of architect Emery Stanford Hall and his wife Clara Louise Adams; she was of colonial English ancestry. [15] [16] Welch had a younger brother, James "Jim" Tejada, and a younger sister, Gayle Tejada. [17] Tavis Smiley. Shows. Raquel Welch. April 19, 2010". PBS. April 19, 2010. Archived from the original on February 10, 2012 . Retrieved December 30, 2010. TV Cover Close-Up". The San Bernardino Sun. March 3, 1974. Archived from the original on July 14, 2021 . Retrieved July 14, 2021.Raquel Welch [Interview by Piers Morgan]. (October 20, 2015). In Piers Morgan's Life Stories. London, England: ITV. In later years, Welch continued to act occasionally, but also developed her own line of wigs, hair pieces and hair extensions.

a b Windolf, Jim (February 15, 2023). "Raquel Welch, A Lifetime of Looks". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 17, 2023 . Retrieved February 17, 2023.The Ultimate Legacy – Full Cast & Crew". TV Guide. Archived from the original on February 17, 2023 . Retrieved February 16, 2023. Welch posed for Playboy in 1979, but she never did a fully nude shoot. Hugh Hefner later wrote, "Raquel Welch, one of the last of the classic sex symbols, came from the era when you could be considered the sexiest woman in the world without taking your clothes off. She declined to do complete nudity, and I yielded gracefully. The pictures prove her point." [128] Welch refused to take all her clothes off on screen or pose naked throughout her career spanning five decades, saying this was the way she was brought up. [129] Political views [ edit ] With Nancy Reagan at a state dinner in the White House in 1985. [130] Actress Raquel Welch". PBS. Archived from the original on January 25, 2015 . Retrieved April 10, 2015. a b c Parraga Frutos, Nerea (February 15, 2023). "Cuatro maridos y varios amores: La agitada vida sentimental de Raquel Welch"[Four husbands and several loves: The turbulent sentimental life of Raquel Welch]. La Vanguardia (in Spanish). Archived from the original on February 16, 2023 . Retrieved February 16, 2023.

Feig, who played a teacher on the first season of ABC’s Sabrina the Teenage Witch, recalled working with Welch when she appeared in a 1996 episode. “This is so sad,” Feig posted. “I had the great pleasure of working with Ms. Welch when I was a regular on Sabrina the Teenage Witch and she was awesome. Kind, funny and a true superstar whom I was pretty much in love with for most of my childhood. We’ve lost a true icon.” Welch married her high school sweetheart, James Welch, in Las Vegas on May 8, 1959. They had two children, Damon (born November 6, 1959) and Tahnee (born December 26, 1961). The couple separated in 1962 and divorced in 1964; she retained Welch's surname until her death in 2023. [23] [108] In 1958 interview 18-year-old Raquel had heart set on professional acting career". The San Diego Union-Tribune. June 24, 1958 . Retrieved May 21, 2023. She favors her father, Armand C. Tejada, and aircraft engineer and native of Bolivia. His parents went to Bolivia from Spain. Her mother, the former Josephine Hall, is blond, English and American with ancestors traced to colonial times.Guttridge, Peter (April 13, 1995). "Any chance of a chat, Raquel?". The Independent. Archived from the original on July 28, 2018 . Retrieved July 28, 2018.

a b "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman season 2 episodes". TV Guide. Archived from the original on February 17, 2023 . Retrieved February 17, 2023. Raquel Welch, who has died aged 82, was a reluctant film sex symbol of the 1960s and 1970s, and half a century after being launched as “the world’s next sex missile” was still voted the big screen’s second sexiest woman ever, after Jennifer Aniston. In 1975, Welch won a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Musical or Comedy for The Three Musketeers. She was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her performance in the television drama Right to Die (1987). [99] In 1996, Welch received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard. [100] In 2001, she was awarded the Imagen Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award for her positive promotion of Americans of Latin heritage throughout her career. [101] [102] In 2012, the Film Society of Lincoln Center presented a special retrospective of the films of Welch at the Walter Reade Theater. [103] Beauty and business career [ edit ] Illustrated Weekly of Pakistan. Pakistan Herald Publications. 1968. Archived from the original on February 22, 2023 . Retrieved February 18, 2023.Portman, Jamie (July 19, 1997). "Stage Stinker – Raquel deserves a medal for valor in musical". Calgary Herald. Archived from the original on February 16, 2023 . Retrieved February 16, 2023– via Newspapers.com. Happy Birthday today to Raquel Welch: Her 1970 primetime TV special will melt your mind!". Archived from the original on April 11, 2019 . Retrieved April 10, 2019. In 1966, Welch starred with Marcello Mastroianni in the Italian film Shoot Loud, Louder... I Don't Understand for Joseph E. Levine. [39] The same year, she appeared in the film Sex Quartet as Elena in the segment "Fata Elena". She was the only American in the cast of the anthology film The Oldest Profession (1967); her segment was directed by Michael Pfleghar. In Italy, she also appeared in a heist film for MGM, The Biggest Bundle of Them All (1968). It co-starred Edward G. Robinson, who said of Welch, "I must say she has quite a body. She has been the product of a good publicity campaign. I hope she lives up to it because a body will only take you so far." [40] 1967–1979: International stardom [ edit ] By the mid-Sixties, Hammer Films were synonymous with adult-oriented horror films, usually based around Frankenstein and Dracula and starring Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee or both. Yet its founder Michael Carreras believed that there was greater commercial possibility than in making pictures that the BBFC had hissed were, in the case of the horror film X The Unknown, fixated on “shots of 'pulsating obscenity', hideous scars, hideous sightless faces, etc, etc.”