Raquel Welch, ‘One Million Years B.C.’ Actress and Hollywood Sex Symbol, Dead at 82

Raquel Welch, who paved the way as both an actress and international sex symbol has died.

via: People
Welch “passed away peacefully early this morning after a brief illness,” her manager Steve Sauer confirmed to PEOPLE on Wednesday.

Sauer added, “Her career spanned over 50 years starring in over 30 films and 50 television series and appearances. The Golden Globe winner, in more recent years, was involved in a very successful line of wigs. Raquel leaves behind her two children, son Damon Welch and her daughter Tahnee Welch.

TMZ was first to report the news.

Welch made her film debut in the mid 1960s, with breakout roles in 1966’s Fantastic Voyage and One Million Years B.C. that same year.

She would go on to star in dozens of films, including 1973’s The Three Musketeers, which earned her a Golden Globe for best actress in a motion picture comedy or musical.

Other titles under her belt include 100 Rifles, The Prince and the Pauper, Chairman of the Board, Legally Blonde and more. Her final film role was in 2017’s How to Be a Latin Lover. She also memorably performed “I’m a Woman” with Cher back in 1975 on The Cher Show.

Welch became a pin-up after flaunting her curves in 1966’s camp classic One Million Years B.C. But behind the glamour, the star (born Jo Raquel Tejada) was a hardworking single mom whose career as a sex bomb helped her raise two kids after splitting from her first husband in 1964.

The actress, whose book Beyond the Cleavage became a bestseller, previously told PEOPLE as she celebrated her 70th birthday in 2010, “I never thought life was going to give me something for nothing.”

Born in Chicago to a Bolivian-born engineer and his American wife, “By age 7 I knew I wanted to be an actress,” Welch said at the time.

She continued, “My parents enrolled me in a theater program. You could get away from some of the painfulness of real life. I always had flights of fancy.”

Crediting her resilience to her mom, Josephine, she added at the time, “I’ve had a great life — and it’s not over yet!”

RIP.

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