US actress and mannequin Raquel Welch dies at 82

By Associated Press

NEW YORK: Raquel Welch, whose emergence from the ocean in a skimpy, furry bikini within the movie “One Million Years B.C.” would propel her to worldwide intercourse image standing all through the Sixties and ’70s, has died. She was 82.

Welch died early Wednesday after a short sickness, based on her agent, Stephen LaManna of the expertise company Innovative Artists.

Welch’s breakthrough got here in 1966′s campy prehistoric flick “One Million Years B.C.,” regardless of having a grand complete of three traces. Clad in a brown doeskin bikini, she efficiently evaded pterodactyls however not the discover of the general public.

“I just thought it was a goofy dinosaur epic we’d be able to sweep under the carpet one day,” she informed The Associated Press in 1981. “Wrong. It turned out that I was the Bo Derek of the season, the lady in the loin cloth about whom everyone said, ‘My God, what a bod’ and they expected to disappear overnight.”

She didn’t, taking part in Lust for the comedy group of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore of their movie “Bedazzled” in 1967 and taking part in a undercover agent within the horny spy spoof “Fathom” that very same yr.

Her curves and sweetness captured popular culture consideration, with Playboy crowning her the “most desired woman” of the ’70s, regardless of by no means being utterly bare within the journal. In 2013, she graced the No. 2 spot on Men’s Health’s “Hottest Women of All Time” record. In the movie “The Shawshank Redemption,” a poster of Welch covers an escape tunnel — the final of three that character Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) used after Rita Hayworth and Marilyn Monroe.

Admirers took to Twitter to mourn the star, together with TV host Rosie O’Donnell, actor Chris Meloni and writer-director Paul Feig, who labored with Welch on “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” and referred to as her “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.”

In addition to appearing, Welch was a singer and dancer. She stunned many critics — and received optimistic critiques — when she starred within the 1981 musical “Woman of the Year” on Broadway, changing a vacationing Lauren Bacall. She returned to the Great White Way in 1997 in “Victor/Victoria.”

She knew that some folks didn’t take her significantly due to her glamorous picture. “I’m not Penny Marshall or Barbra Streisand,” she informed the AP in 1993. “They’ll say, ‘Raquel Welch wants to direct? Give me a break.”’

Welch was born Jo-Raquel Tejada in Chicago and raised in La Jolla, California. (The Jo in her identify was from her mom, Josephine). Welch was a divorced mom when she met ex-actor turned press agent, Patrick Curtis.

“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!” she wrote in her autobiography, “Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage.”

Curtis turned her supervisor and second husband and helped form her right into a glamor-girl with tons of of journal covers and a string of films, plus train movies and books like “The Raquel Welch Total Beauty and Fitness Program.”

Though she would seem in exploitative movies, she additionally stunned many within the trade with fantastic performances, together with in Richard Lester’s “The Three Musketeers,” which earned her a Golden Globe, and reverse James Coco in “Wild Party.” She was additionally nominated for a Globe in 1988 for the TV film “Right to Die.” She performed herself and mocked divas in an episode of “Seinfeld,” memorably attacking Elaine and rattling Kramer.

Married and divorced 4 instances, she is survived by two kids, Damon Welch and Tahnee Welch, who additionally turned an actress, together with touchdown a featured position in 1985’s “Cocoon.”

NEW YORK: Raquel Welch, whose emergence from the ocean in a skimpy, furry bikini within the movie “One Million Years B.C.” would propel her to worldwide intercourse image standing all through the Sixties and ’70s, has died. She was 82.

Welch died early Wednesday after a short sickness, based on her agent, Stephen LaManna of the expertise company Innovative Artists.

Welch’s breakthrough got here in 1966′s campy prehistoric flick “One Million Years B.C.,” regardless of having a grand complete of three traces. Clad in a brown doeskin bikini, she efficiently evaded pterodactyls however not the discover of the general public.

“I just thought it was a goofy dinosaur epic we’d be able to sweep under the carpet one day,” she informed The Associated Press in 1981. “Wrong. It turned out that I was the Bo Derek of the season, the lady in the loin cloth about whom everyone said, ‘My God, what a bod’ and they expected to disappear overnight.”

She didn’t, taking part in Lust for the comedy group of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore of their movie “Bedazzled” in 1967 and taking part in a undercover agent within the horny spy spoof “Fathom” that very same yr.

Her curves and sweetness captured popular culture consideration, with Playboy crowning her the “most desired woman” of the ’70s, regardless of by no means being utterly bare within the journal. In 2013, she graced the No. 2 spot on Men’s Health’s “Hottest Women of All Time” record. In the movie “The Shawshank Redemption,” a poster of Welch covers an escape tunnel — the final of three that character Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) used after Rita Hayworth and Marilyn Monroe.

Admirers took to Twitter to mourn the star, together with TV host Rosie O’Donnell, actor Chris Meloni and writer-director Paul Feig, who labored with Welch on “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” and referred to as her “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.”

In addition to appearing, Welch was a singer and dancer. She stunned many critics — and received optimistic critiques — when she starred within the 1981 musical “Woman of the Year” on Broadway, changing a vacationing Lauren Bacall. She returned to the Great White Way in 1997 in “Victor/Victoria.”

She knew that some folks didn’t take her significantly due to her glamorous picture. “I’m not Penny Marshall or Barbra Streisand,” she informed the AP in 1993. “They’ll say, ‘Raquel Welch wants to direct? Give me a break.”’

Welch was born Jo-Raquel Tejada in Chicago and raised in La Jolla, California. (The Jo in her identify was from her mom, Josephine). Welch was a divorced mom when she met ex-actor turned press agent, Patrick Curtis.

“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!” she wrote in her autobiography, “Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage.”

Curtis turned her supervisor and second husband and helped form her right into a glamor-girl with tons of of journal covers and a string of films, plus train movies and books like “The Raquel Welch Total Beauty and Fitness Program.”

Though she would seem in exploitative movies, she additionally stunned many within the trade with fantastic performances, together with in Richard Lester’s “The Three Musketeers,” which earned her a Golden Globe, and reverse James Coco in “Wild Party.” She was additionally nominated for a Globe in 1988 for the TV film “Right to Die.” She performed herself and mocked divas in an episode of “Seinfeld,” memorably attacking Elaine and rattling Kramer.

Married and divorced 4 instances, she is survived by two kids, Damon Welch and Tahnee Welch, who additionally turned an actress, together with touchdown a featured position in 1985’s “Cocoon.”