Jo Raquel Tejada (born September 5, 1940 in Chicago, United States) better known as Raquel Welch is an American actress, author and sex symbol. In the mid 1960s, Welch came to attention as a "new-star" on the 20th Century Fox.
Raquel posed iconically in an animal skin bikini for the British release One Million Years B.C. (1966) for which she may be best known. She later starred in Bedazzled (1967), Bandolero! (1968), 100 Rifles (1969) and Myra Breckinridge (1970).
Today, Welch is a noticeable face of television commercials for Foster Grant sunglasses and reading glasses.
In 1959, Raquel changed her surname to that of her first husband, James Welch. This year she played the title role in The Ramona Pageant, a yearly outdoor play at Hemet, California which is based on the novel Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson and Bob Biloe.
She was cast in small parts in two films and in the television shows Bewitched, McHale's Navy, and The Virginian, as well as on the weekly variety series The Hollywood Palace as a billboard girl and presenter of acts. She was one of many women who auditioned for the role of Mary Ann Summers on Gilligan's Island.
In 1965, Welch's first featured role came in the beach film A Swingin' Summer, which led to a contract with 20th Century Fox. She was subsequently cast in a leading role in the sci-fi film Fantastic Voyage (1966), which was a hit and made her a star. She was the last star to be created under the studio system.
On loan out to Hammer Studios in Britain, Welch starred in the remake of One Million Years B.C. striking an iconic pose in a prehistoric animal-skin bikini. She was described as "wearing mankind's first bikini" and the fur bikini was described as a "definitive look of the 1960s".
Her luscious figure in a fur bikini made her a star and the dream girl of millions of young moviegoers. Her publicity still for the film became a bestselling poster, and helped her be seen as one of the leading sex symbols of the 1960s and 1970s.
Her looks and fame led Playboy to dub her the "Most Desired Woman" of the 1970s. Welch presented at the Academy Award ceremony several times during the 1970s due to her popularity. Welch's most controversial role came in the notorious Myra Breckinridge.
She took the part as the film's transsexual heroine in an attempt to be taken seriously as an actress, but the movie turned out to be a failure. Raquel Welch's 100 Rifles was one of the first films to feature an interracial sex scene between Jim Brown and her in 1969.
In 1974, 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).
In 2001, she had a supporting role in the hit film Legally Blonde opposite Reese Witherspoon. She also appeared in Welcome to the Captain, which premiered on CBS television on February 4, 2008.
The Raquel Welch Total Beauty and Fitness Program was published in 1984. As a businesswoman, Welch succeeded 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 HAIRuWEAR.
In January 2007, Welch was selected as the newest face of MAC Cosmetics Beauty Icon series. Her line features several limited edition makeup shades in glossy black and tiger print packaging.
