The death of American actress Raquel Welch, a Hollywood star in the sixties
American actress Raquel Welch, a Hollywood star in the sixties, has died at the age of 82, after a short illness.
The late star shone in the sixties and seventies of the twentieth century, and was especially famous for her role in the movie “One Million Years BC”, in which her image was imprinted in a bikini of animal skin in the memory of Hollywood.
Her manager said in a statement, a copy of which was received by Agence France-Presse, that Welch "passed away peacefully early this morning after a short illness," without giving further details.
During her career, Welch appeared in more than 30 films, including "Fantastic Voyage" and "The Three Musketeers".
For this 1973 film, Welch won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. The deceased also has roles in more than 50 TV series.
The beginnings of the fame of this American of Bolivian origin, whose original name is Raquel Tejada, goes back to her coronation as queen in a number of beauty contests and fashion shows, before she stormed the Hollywood world.
This brown-haired brunette soon succeeded Marilyn Monroe as a symbol of seduction, and gained worldwide fame in this capacity, dispelling the belief that the embodiment of femininity is reserved for blondes. But he was saddened by the fact that her fame was based especially on her beauty.
"I really felt like people were completely mocking me, and were only interested in the woman in the bunny bikini," she wrote in her 2010 autobiography.
However, this feeling diminished as she got older. "I am often asked if talking about this bikini bothers me, but it really isn't," she told the Sunday Post in 2018.
"It was a major event in my life, and there is no reason not to talk about it," she added.
"Professional and charming"
After assuming about 20 minor roles, Twentieth Century Fox spotted her and chose her in 1966 as the heroine of “Fantastic Voyage” directed by Richard Fleischer. This science fiction movie was a first stop in her stardom career.
That same year, she portrayed a prehistoric woman in One Million Years BC, a modest film made famous only by its poster featuring Welch in an animal skin bikini shaped like it had been ripped apart by an animal or a hungry caveman.
Then she participated in a number of films during the seventies, but she remained captive to her image as an aesthetic icon.
Actress Reese Witherspoon commented on Twitter on the death of Welch, who co-starred in the movie "Legally Blonde" in 2001, describing the late as "she was elegant, professional and charming. Simply, she was breathtaking."
In the 1980s, Welch, who was fond of yoga, ventured into the fitness field.
After trying for a long time not to highlight her Latin origins, she tended at a later stage in her career to play roles that correspond to her roots, as in “American Family” (2002) and “Tortia Soap” (2001).
She was sixty-eight in 2008 when she divorced her fourth husband, who was 14 years her junior. She is the mother of two sons, Damon and Tahnee Welch, from her first husband, James Welch.
In the final phase of her career, she would appear occasionally on screen, but she focused especially on her brand of wigs.
