Raquel Welch

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Raquel Welch on the film poster for One Million Years B.C.
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Raquel Welch on the film poster for One Million Years B.C.

Raquel Welch (born September 5, 1940) is an American actress.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Welch was born Jo Raquel Tejada in Chicago, Illinois, the oldest of three children born to Armando Carlos Tejada and Josephine Sarah Hall. Her father was a Bolivian immigrant who was an aerospace engineer, and her mother was an Irish-American.[1]

In 1942, Armando Tejada was transferred to San Diego, California. The family moved to the suburb of La Jolla, where Raquel grew up. She took dancing lessons as a child, and was winning beauty pageants by the time she was a teenager. Among her titles were "Miss Photogenic," "Miss La Jolla," "Miss Contour," and "Miss San Diego." In 1957, she was named "Miss Fairest of the Fair" at the San Diego County Fair. After high school she entered San Diego State College on a theater arts scholarship. The following year she married a high school sweetheart, James Welch.

[edit] Career

In 1959, Raquel Welch played the title role in the famous Ramona Pageant, a yearly outdoor play at Hemet, California, which is based on the novel Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson.

She became a weather forecaster at a local San Diego television station. Because of her heavy schedule, she decided to leave college. Her marriage broke up and she moved with her two children to Dallas, Texas, where she modeled for Neiman-Marcus and worked as a cocktail hostess, intending to move on to New York City from there.

Instead, she moved back to California. She found a place in Los Angeles and started making the rounds of the movie studios. She was cast in bit parts in two films and television shows, Bewitched, McHale's Navy, The Hollywood Palace, and The Virginian. She actually auditioned for the part of "Mary Ann" on Gilligan's Island but lost out to Dawn Wells. Welch's first featured role was in A Swingin' Summer, which led to a contract with 20th Century Fox. She was then cast in the Sci-fi hit Fantastic Voyage, which finally made her a star.

Raquel Welch on a poster for the film Myra Breckinridge
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Raquel Welch on a poster for the film Myra Breckinridge

On loan out to Hammer Studios in Britain, she starred in the remake of One Million Years B.C.. After her appearance as Lust incarnate in Bedazzled, she returned to the United States and appeared in a Western with James Stewart and Dean Martin titled Bandolero!, which was followed by Lady in Cement with Frank Sinatra. Her first real starring role was in Myra Breckinridge with Mae West. She took the role as the film's transsexual heroine in an attempt to be taken seriously as an actress, but the movie turned out to be a dismal failure.

Despite box office disappointments, Welch became one of the leading sex symbols of the 1960s and 1970s. Her most memorable publicity still, where she was clad in a furry animal-skin bikini for One Million Years B.C., became a bestselling poster. Playboy called her the "Most Desired Woman" of the 1970s.

On the cover of Playboy, December 1979
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On the cover of Playboy, December 1979

Welch was due to star in the 1982 adaptation of Cannery Row, but was fired by the producers in favour of Debra Winger. She successfully sued, collecting a multi-million dollar award, but this effectively ended her film acting career until the mid-90's. Her television appearances include the series The Hollywood Palace, the made for TV movies The Legend of Walks Far Woman and Right to Die, in which she turned in a stirring performance as a woman with Lou Gehrig's disease, and in the PBS series American Family, about a Mexican American family in East Los Angeles. She has also appeared in the night time soap opera CPW and made infomercials and exercise videos. While she never appeared on the show, her name was frequently used as an all-purpose answer on the game show Match Game. In 1987, she flirted with a pop singing career, releasing the dance single This Girl's Back In Town.

She has also performed in a nightclub act in Las Vegas and has starred on Broadway in Woman of the Year and in Victor/Victoria, where she replaced Julie Andrews.

In a 1997 episode of the comedy series Seinfeld entitled "The Summer of George" Welch played a highly temperamental version of herself, assaulting series stars Kramer and Elaine because they found humour in Welch's inability to swing her arms when she danced onstage.

As a businesswoman Welch has experienced great success with her signature line of wigs. She also began a jewelry and skincare line although neither of those ventures compared to the success of her wig collection.

[edit] Personal life

  • She is the mother of Damon Welch and actress Tahnee Welch.

[edit] Achievements and awards

In 1974, Raquel Welch won a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Musical or Comedy for The Three Musketeers. She was also nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance in the TV drama Right to Die (1987).

She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood.

[edit] Filmography

Upcoming:

  • Staar (2006)

[edit] Television work

  • The Hollywood Palace (regular performer in 1964)
  • Raquel! (1970)
  • The Legend of Walks Far Woman (1982)
  • Right to Die (1987)
  • Scandal in a Small Town (1988)
  • Trouble in Paradise (1989)
  • Tainted Blood (1993)
  • Torch Song (1993)
  • Hollyrock-a-Bye Baby (1994) (voice)
  • Central Park West (cast member in 1996)
  • American Family (2002-2004)
  • Seinfeld " The Summer Of George" 1997

[edit] Pop culture

Answer: "Divine Right."
Question: "Describe half of Raquel Welch."
Interviewer: Would you like to have a sixteen-ton weight dropped on top of you, Eric?
Boy: I want to have... I want to have Raquel Welch dropped on top of me.
  • In the film Kansas City Bomber, she wore a number 11 on her jersey. The running gag at the time was that it meant "1 for each one".[citation needed]
  • She has often been called "Rocky", a nickname more typical of male athletes, such as boxers. It carries the double meaning of being short for "Raquel" as well as saying that she's a "knockout".
  • A starting hand of 8-3 in Texas hold 'em is named after her.
  • In the 1994 film The Shawshank Redemption, the main character keeps Welch's iconic pin-up from One Million Years B.C. on the wall of his prison cell.

[edit] External links

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