American film star, Raquel Welch, died at the age of 82..“She passed away peacefully early (Wednesday) morning after a brief illness," her manager Steve Sauer confirmed to PEOPLE Magazine.."Her career spanned over 50 years starring in over 30 films and 50 television series and appearances,” said Sauer..“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.”.Born Jo Raquel Tejada in Chicago to a Bolivian-born engineer and his American wife, Welch said, “By age 7 I knew I wanted to be an actress. My parents enrolled me in a theater program. You could get away from some of the painfulness of real life. I always had a flight of fancy.”.Her movie career took flight in 1966, rising to fame for her back-to-back roles in Fantastic Voyage and One Million Years BC..She had only a few lines in BC, but it was her wardrobe, a simple and skimpy deerskin bikini, that catapulted her to sex symbol status, according to TMZ..Years later, she recounted she almost died filming the movie because she developed tonsillitis wearing the skimpy bikini in severe weather conditions..“I had already so much penicillin when I was wearing the fur bikini that I almost died,” she told Fox News. “I had to rush, turn my car around and head right back to the doctor’s office, just run upstairs, jump in the elevator and all that.”.Following that movie, she became one of the most sought-after female stars throughout the '60s and '70s, starring in a series of movies, including Bedazzled, Hannie Caulder, Legally Blonde, and others, winning a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Musical or Comedy for her 1974 role in The Three Musketeers..She recalled her time shooting the movie, which also starred Faye Dunaway, in an interview with the New York Post..“My first day on set, Faye Dunaway comes over to me all dolled up, and she was so cute. She said, ‘Darling, I just want you to know, I’m a big fan of yours. But don’t you know, they’re all just waiting for us to tear each other’s eyes out. So, let’s have fun with them,'” she told the Post in 2012..“Everyone on set was going, ‘Uh-oh, here they come,’ standing there watching. And Faye gets out her fan and starts fanning herself, saying, ‘Darling, I adore your work.’ And I say, ‘Everything you do is genius!’ Everyone was so disappointed.”.She also appeared on The Cher Show in 1975 and performed “I’m a Woman” with Cher. .Her most infamous role was in Myra Breckinridge in 1970, a film based on Gore Vidal's 1968 novel of the same name..The story follows Myron Breckinridge as he flies to Copenhagen for a sex-change operation, becoming the beautiful transgender woman, Myra. Claiming to be her own widow, she manipulates her uncle into giving her a position at his acting school, where she attempts to usurp Hollywood's social order by introducing femdom into the curriculum..It might be a hit in today’s environment, but in 1970 the picture was controversial for its sexual explicitness (including acts such as female-on-male rape), but it, unlike the novel, received little to no critical praise and has been cited as one of the worst films ever made..She married her high school sweetheart, James Welch, in 1959, with whom she had her two children..Welch would marry three more times: Patrick Curtis (1967-1972), André Weinfeld (1980-1990), and Richard Palmer (1999-2004).Despite her sex symbol status, she viewed herself differently..“I was happy that I had got a break so I could have my career, but at the same time, it was like: ’This isn’t me. But this is what I have to do because this is my ticket to ride,’” she wrote of her One Million Years B.C. role in her memoir Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage..“I’m not in a position to just say: ‘Oh, no, wait a minute. You’ve got it all wrong. I’d like to do Shakespeare.’”.Welch’s last movie role was in 2017’s How to Be a Latin Lover. Her final TV credit was also that year, Date My Dad.
