R.I.P. Raquel Welch, model and One Million Years B.C. actor

Raquel Welch, the iconic actress and ‘60s sex symbol who broke through with her role in Fantastic Voyage, has died at the age of 82, after a brief illness. TMZ first reported the news, with her manager confirming the report to the BBC.

Welch earned icon status in 1966 with her role in One Million Years B.C. as Loana, when she donned a famous doe-skin bikini. In 1973, she earned a Golden Globe for her performance in The Three Musketeers and was nominated for one for the TV drama Right To Die.

Born Jo Raquel Tejada on September 5, 1940, in Chicago, Illinois, Welch started her career on the theater stage, eventually earning her first on-screen job as a weather broadcaster. She married her high school sweetheart, James Welch, and they remained married for five years until 1964.

When she returned to Los Angeles in 1963, she began auditioning for Hollywood studio roles. Her big breakthrough came in 1966 when she starred in the sci-fi hit Fantastic Voyage. In the same year, she snagged the role in One Million Years B.C.

“Both made a huge difference to my career. Overnight, I found myself in demand,” she told The Sunday Post in 2019. “Before that I was not much more than an extra.”

Despite only having three lines in the film, the iconic images of her in that bikini certified her international sex symbol status. Stills from the film were printed onto posters, which became global best-sellers. In The New York Times’ review of One Million Years B.C., Welch was described as a “marvelous breathing monument to womankind.”

In addition to her subsequent film roles, Welch carved out a healthy career as a pin-up model. She went on to model for Playboy, but never succumbed to pressure to pose or appear in scenes fully nude.

Following One Million Years B.C., she became a Hollywood mainstay, leading films such as Fathom, Bedazzled, 100 Rifles, Myra Breckinridge, Fuzz, and more. Throughout her career, she worked alongside the likes of Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Stewart, Dean Martin, Burt Reynolds, Richard Burton, Jimmy Coco, and Faye Dunaway.

In her later career, she made memorable appearances on shows like Seinfeld and films such as Legally Blonde and How To Be A Latin Lover. While she largely remained out of the spotlight in her final years, she did appear from time to time, and said people always still asked about the bikini, even more than 50 years later. “I’m often asked if I get sick of talking about that bikini but the truth is, I don’t,” she told the Post. “It was a major event in my life so why not talk about it?”