Nikki Sermak February 17th, 2023 - 8:03 AM
Raquel Welch, a successful actress who got her fame in the 1960s from One Million Years B.C. and Fantastic Voyage, has died, according to her manager, Steve Sauer. She was 82. Welch passed away on Wednesday morning in Los Angeles after a “brief illness,” according to Sauer.
The actress had over 70 film and television credits, including Hollywood Palace and a small role in Roustabout alongside Elvis Presley.
Her career took off when Fantastic Voyage was released, a sci-fi film about scientists getting shrunken down and injected into a critically ill man’s body. Her next big hit was the prehistoric drama One Million Years, B.C., which cast her as a fur bikini-wearing cavewoman named Loana. This look skyrocketed her into a sex symbol, and her poster for One Million Years, B.C. was even featured in Shawshank Redemption.
“Part of being a sex symbol is very flattering, and it does help you get success in the business – but only to a point,” Welch said in an interview with Cinema.com around the release of her 2001 film “Tortilla Soup,” adding that “it does cloud people’s imagination.” “They just can’t see you being able to do anything else.”
Welch’s TV and film career went through multiple decades and was notable for her then-controversial interracial love scene with Jim Brown, the former football star.
In 1973, Welch starred as Constance de Bonacieux in The Three Musketeers, winning a Golden Globe for best actress.
When the 90s rolled around, she appeared in multiple sitcoms such as Seinfeld, Spin City, Evening Shade, and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.
Welch still appeared in films after the turn of the century, with her role as Mrs. Windham Vandermark in 2001’s Legally Blonde alongside Reese Witherspoon’s Elle Woods.
Her final appearance was in 2017 as Rosa, the mother-in-law of a single dad, in UPtv’s Date My Dad.
Welch leaves behind her two children, Damon and Tahnee Welch, and her time as an entrepreneur for her jewelry, skincare, and wig lines.
