Raquel Welch, a Golden Globe winner and well-known actress passed away on February 15, 2023. She was 82 years old.
Welch “died painlessly early this morning after a brief illness,” according to her manager Steve Sauer.
“Throughout her 50-year career, she appeared in more than 30 films and 50 television shows,” Sauer said. “The Golden Globe winner has been linked to a hugely popular wig line in recent years. Raquel has two children: Damon Welch, her son, and Tahnee Welch, her daughter.”
Welch made her film debut in the middle of the 1960s, with breakthrough performances in Fantastic Voyage and One Million Years B.C.
In 1973, she won a Golden Globe for best actress in a motion picture comedy or musical for her performance in The Three Musketeers. She went on to star in a slew of other films.
Legally Blonde, The Prince and the Pauper, Chairman of the Board, and 100 Rifles are among her other film credits. Her most recent appearance was in the 2017 film How to Be a Latin Lover. She and Cher also famously performed “I’m a Woman” on The Cher Show in 1975.
After displaying her curves in the 1966 kitsch classic One Million Years B.C, Welch became a pin-up model. However, beneath the glitz, the celebrity (real name Jo Raquel Tejada) was a devout single mother who used her sex bomb success to support herself and her two children after divorcing her first husband in 1964.
“I never imagined life would give me something for nothing,” the actress, whose book Beyond the Cleavage became a best-seller, previously told on her 70th birthday in 2010.
Welch stated that she knew she wanted to be an actor since she was seven. She was born in Chicago, the daughter of a Bolivian engineer and his American wife.
“My parents enrolled me in a theater program. You may be able to escape some of the agonies of everyday life. I’ve always had dreams.”
“I’ve had a terrific life — and it’s not over yet!” she exclaimed at the time, praising her mother, Josephine, for her tenacity.
Raquel Welch’s final public appearance, six months before her death at the age of 82, was photographed receiving a manicure in July 2022.
Welch was photographed entering the Hollywood Hills nails and waxing parlor J&J Beauty Salon, where she was seen flicking through magazines and, at times, crying as a technician wearing pink spectacles and a blue face mask buffed her fingernails before painting them a light hue.
It was an unusual sighting of Welch, who has kept a low profile in recent years after a successful acting career.
The 1960s sex symbol is wearing enormous gold hoop earrings, a white long-sleeved shirt, black slacks, black open-toed sandals, and a straw fedora hat, which she removed for the manicure.
An unidentified friend accompanied Welch on the visit, and they held hands outside the salon.
Her final film credits were in 2017. She later created a popular wig company.
“She was and continues to be an inspiration. We are pleased to carry on her memory, passion, and timeless beauty through her Raquel Welch Wigs legacy.”
