Raquel Welch

Movie Actress

Raquel Welch was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States on September 5th, 1940 and is the Movie Actress. At the age of 83, Raquel Welch biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, movies, and networth are available.

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Other Names / Nick Names
Jo Raquel Tejada, Rocky
Date of Birth
September 5, 1940
Nationality
United States
Place of Birth
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Age
83 years old
Zodiac Sign
Virgo
Networth
$40 Million
Profession
Film Actor, Model, Singer, Television Actor, Writer
Raquel Welch Height, Weight, Eye Color and Hair Color

At 83 years old, Raquel Welch has this physical status:

Height
168cm
Weight
58kg
Hair Color
Dark Brown
Eye Color
Dark Brown
Build
Voluptuous
Measurements
Not Available
Raquel Welch Religion, Education, and Hobbies
Religion
Not Available
Hobbies
Not Available
Education
La Jolla High School
Raquel Welch Spouse(s), Children, Affair, Parents, and Family
Spouse(s)
James Welch, ​ ​(m. 1959; div. 1964)​, Patrick Curtis, ​ ​(m. 1967; div. 1972)​, André Weinfeld, ​ ​(m. 1980; div. 1990)​, Richard Palmer, ​ ​(m. 1999; div. 2004)​
Children
2, including Tahnee Welch
Dating / Affair
James Welch (1959-1964), Patrick Curtis (1964-1972), Sean Connery, Joe Namath, Adam West, Warren Beatty, Steve McQueen, Elvis Presley, Richard Burton, Alice Cooper, Robert Evans, André Weinfeld (1980-1990), Richard Palmer (1999-2008), Gary Stretch, Nigel Lythgoe
Parents
Armando Carlos Tejada Urquizo, Josephine Sarah Hall
Siblings
James “Jim” Stanford (Younger Brother), Gayle Carole (Younger Sister)
Other Family
Agustin Tejada (Paternal Grandfather), Raquel Urquizo (Paternal Grandmother), Lidia Gueiler Tejada (Cousin) (Politician, First Female President of Bolivia) (d. 2011), Emery Stanford Hall (Maternal Grandfather) (Architect), Clara Louise Adams (Maternal Grandmother)
Raquel Welch Career

Welch initially intended to move to New York City from Dallas, but moved back to Los Angeles in 1963 and started applying for roles with the movie studios. During this period of time, she met one-time child actor and Hollywood agent Patrick Curtis who became her personal and business manager. They developed a plan to turn Welch into a sex symbol. To avoid typecasting as a Latina, he convinced her to use her husband's last name.

She was cast in small roles in two films, A House Is Not a Home (1964) and the musical Roustabout (1964), an Elvis Presley film. She also landed small roles on the television series Bewitched, McHale's Navy and The Virginian and appeared on the weekly variety series The Hollywood Palace as a billboard girl and presenter. She was one of many actresses who auditioned for the role of Mary Ann Summers on the television series Gilligan's Island.

Welch's first featured role was in the beach film A Swingin' Summer (1965). That same year, she won the Deb Star while her photo in a Life magazine layout called "The End of the Great Girl Drought!" created buzz around town. She was noticed by the wife of producer Saul David, who recommended her to 20th Century Fox, where with the help of Curtis she landed a contract. She agreed to seven-year nonexclusive contract, five pictures over the next five years and two floaters. Studio executives talked about changing her name to "Debbie". They thought "Raquel" would be hard to pronounce. She refused their request. She wanted her real name, so she stuck with "Raquel Welch".

She was cast in a leading role in the sci-fi film Fantastic Voyage (1966), in which she portrayed a member of a medical team that is miniaturized and injected into the body of an injured diplomat with the mission to save his life. The film was a hit and made her a star.

Fox Studio loaned Welch to Hammer Studios in Britain where she starred in One Million Years B.C. (1966), a remake of the Hal Roach film One Million B.C. (1940). Her only costume was a two-piece deer skin bikini. She was described as "wearing mankind's first bikini" and the fur bikini was described as a "definitive look of the 1960s". The New York Times hailed her in its review of the film (which was released in the U.K. in 1966 and in the U.S. in 1967), "a marvelous breathing monument to womankind". One author said, "although she had only three lines in the film, her luscious figure in a fur bikini made her a star and the dream girl of millions of young moviegoers". A publicity still of her in the bikini became a best-selling poster and turned her into an instant pin-up girl. The film raised Welch's stature as a leading sex symbol of the era. In 2011, Time listed Welch's B.C. bikini in the "Top Ten Bikinis in Pop Culture".

In 1966, Welch starred with Marcello Mastroianni in the Italian film Shoot Loud, Louder... I Don't Understand for Joe E. Levine. The same year, she appeared in the film Sex Quartet (1966) as Elena in the segment "Fata Elena". She was the only American in the cast of the anthology film The Oldest Profession (1967); her segment was directed by Michael Pfleghar. In Italy, she also appeared in a heist movie for MGM, The Biggest Bundle of Them All (1968). It co-starred Edward G. Robinson who said of Welch, "I must say she has quite a body. She has been the product of a good publicity campaign. I hope she lives up to it because a body will only take you so far."

Her first starring vehicle, the British Modesty Blaise-style spy movie Fathom (1967), was filmed in Spain for 20th Century Fox. Second unit director Peter Medak said Welch "was at that time quite inexperienced, exactly like one of those American drum majorettes. But she tried very hard and went to see the rushes each day, gradually improving. 'Who's this dumb broad?' people used to say. But I said: 'You wait. I'll bet she makes it.' I liked her very much because she was such a genuine person. And she had a beautiful body which always helps." Welch said her role was "a blown up Barbie doll". Reviewing her performance, the Los Angeles Times film critic said that "each new Raquel Welch picture brings further proof that when Maria Montez died they didn't break the mold. Like Maria, Raquel can't act from here to there, but both ladies seem to have been born to be photographed ... this sappiest of spy pictures."

At this stage, Welch owed Fox four films, at one a year. She and Curtis also established their own production company, Curtwel. Fox wanted Welch to play Jennifer in their adaptation of Valley of the Dolls but she refused, wanting to play the role of Neely O'Hara. The studio was not interested, casting Patty Duke; Sharon Tate played Jennifer North.

In England, she appeared as Lust incarnate in the Peter Cook–Dudley Moore comedy, Bedazzled (1967), a Swinging '60s retelling of the Faust legend. It was popular, as was the Western, Bandolero! (1968), which was shot in Del Rio, Texas, at the Alamo Village. It co-starred her against James Stewart and Dean Martin. "I think she's going to stack up all right," Stewart said of Welch. "No one is going to shout, 'Wow it's Anne Bancroft all over again'," said Welch of her performance, "but at least I'm not Miss Sexpot running around half naked all the time."

In 1968, Welch appeared with Frank Sinatra in the detective film Lady in Cement, a sequel to the film Tony Rome (1967). She played the socialite Kit Forrest, the romantic interest of Tony Rome. Welch said later wittily that she catches the film from time to time and now realizes Kit Forrest was an alcoholic: "I'm watching this movie and I'm thinking, 'What the hell has she got on?' At one point, I had this epiphany: 'Oh, she's an alcoholic!' I didn't know that. How could I miss that?" She reportedly was so smitten with Sinatra she forgot to act: "I think I was just so enamoured with Frank Sinatra, you know. He's hypnotic."

Welch starred as a freedom fighter leader in 100 Rifles, a 1969 western directed by Tom Gries and filmed in Almería, Spain. It also starred Jim Brown, Burt Reynolds and Fernando Lamas. The movie provoked publicity and controversy at the time because it included a love scene between Welch and Brown that breached the Hollywood taboo against the onscreen portrayal of interracial intimacy. The film is remembered for the spectacular "Shower Scene" in which Welch distracts the soldiers on the train by taking a shower at a water tower along the tracks. The director, Gries, tried hard to convince Welch to do the scene naked, but she refused. It was one of the many instances Welch resisted going nude on-screen and pushed back for years against producers who wanted her to act or pose nude. In 1969, Welch also starred in the thriller Flareup and had a supporting role in the dark comedy The Magic Christian.

Welch's most controversial role came in Myra Breckinridge (1970). She took the role as the film's transsexual heroine in an attempt to be taken seriously as an actress. The production was characterized by animosity between Welch and Mae West, who walked out of the film for three days. The film was based on Gore Vidal's controversial bestseller about a man who becomes a woman through surgery. The film's producer Robert Fryer stated: "If a man were going to become a woman, he would want to become the most beautiful woman in the world. He would become Raquel Welch".

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. She accepted the Best Supporting Actress Oscar on behalf of fellow actress Goldie Hawn when Hawn could not be there to accept it.

On April 26, 1970, CBS released her television special Raquel!. On the day of the premiere, the show received a 51% share on the National ARB Ratings and an overnight New York Nielsen rating of 58% share. Also that year Welch acted in The Beloved, in which she starred and produced and filmed in Cyprus.

In 1971, Welch acted in Hannie Caulder, a Tigon and Curtwell western shot in Spain.

In 1972, Welch acted in Kansas City Bomber and had a cameo in Bluebeard. In Kansas City Bomber Welch played a hardened roller-derby star and single mother who tries to balance her desire for a happy personal life and her dreams of stardom. Life dubbed Welch the "hottest thing on wheels" for her role. The production of the film shut down for six weeks after Welch broke her wrist doing some of her own stunts. In the interim, she flew to Budapest and filmed a cameo in Bluebeard opposite Richard Burton. Although Kansas City Bomber was not considered a critical success, it vividly depicted gender relations in the early 1970s. In a 2012 interview, Welch reflected on the roller derby world depicted in the film: "You have all those women out there, but the men in the front office are really running it. Which I thought was a really nice metaphor for the way a lot of women felt about their lives at that time."

In 1973, Welch acted in The Last of Sheila and The Three Musketeers.

In 1974, Welch acted in The Four Musketeers.

In 1975, Welch acted in The Wild Party.That year in an interview, Welch said she thought she had been "good" in Kansas City Bomber, Myra Breckenridge and The Last of Sheila "but being good in a bad movie doesn't do anything for your career."

In 1976, Welch acted in Mother, Jugs & Speed.

In 1977, Welch acted in Animal, filmed in France with Jean-Paul Belmondo. That year, she also starred in the British swashbuckling adventure The Prince and the Pauper.

In 1978, Welch appeared in an episode of The Muppet Show.

In 1979, for the series Mork & Mindy, Welch was featured as an alien bounty hunter pursuing Robin Williams in "Mork vs. the Necrotons".

In 1981 she starred on Broadway in Woman of the Year, receiving praise for following Lauren Bacall in the title role.

In 1982, Welch acted in the Western television film The Legend of Walks Far Woman. Around this time, along with Elizabeth Taylor and Sophia Loren, Welch was among the candidates considered for the role of Alexis Carrington on the ABC prime time drama Dynasty which began in 1981, before the producers settled on Joan Collins.

She was due to star in a 1982 adaptation of John Steinbeck's Cannery Row, but was abruptly fired by the producers a few weeks into production. The studio claimed she was not living up to her contract, by refusing early-morning rehearsals, and was replaced with Debra Winger. Welch sued MGM for breach of contract. Studio executives claimed in testimony the reason Welch was following through with the trial was because she was an actress over 40 and generally actresses in that age range cannot get roles anymore. Welch's evidence at trial proved there was a conspiracy to falsely blame her for the film's budget problems and delays. The jury sided with Welch and she won a $10.8 million verdict against MGM in 1986.

Despite the win, Welch wished the whole episode never had happened. "I just wanted to clear my reputation and get back to my work, my work in movies", she said. But she was blackballed by the industry and the incident affected her film career on the big screen from that moment on.

In 1987 she played in the television drama Right to Die, in which she turned in a stirring performance as a woman stricken with Lou Gehrig's disease. That year, she flirted with a pop singing career, releasing the dance single "This Girl's Back In Town", which peaked at No. 29 on Billboard's dance club chart.

She also starred in the television films Scandal in a Small Town (1988), Trouble in Paradise (1989), and Torch Song (1993).

In 1994, she had a cameo appearance in Naked Gun 33+1⁄3: The Final Insult

She appeared in the night-time soap opera Central Park West (1995).

As a guest, she played Sabrina's flamboyant Aunt Vesta on the American comedy series Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (1996).

In 1997, Welch starred on Broadway in Victor/Victoria, following Julie Andrews and Liza Minnelli in the title role. That year, she also acted in an episode of the comedy series Seinfeld, entitled "The Summer of George", Welch played a highly temperamental version of herself, assaulting series characters Kramer and Elaine, the former because he fired her from an acting job and the latter because Welch mistakenly thought Elaine was mocking her.

In 2001, she had supporting roles in the comedy films Legally Blonde opposite Reese Witherspoon and Tortilla Soup. In 2002, she starred in the PBS series American Family, a story about a Mexican American family in East Los Angeles. Her next film was Forget About It (2006). She also appeared in Welcome to The Captain, which premiered on CBS television on February 4, 2008. In 2015 she played a role in The Ultimate Legacy.

Most recently Welch appeared in a sitcom titled Date My Dad (2017) where she reunited with Robert Wagner on screen, four decades after starring together in The Biggest Bundle of Them All. She acted in How to Be a Latin Lover (2017).

For many years, Welch performed in a successful one-woman nightclub musical act in Las Vegas.

Beauty and business career

The Raquel Welch Total Beauty and Fitness Program book and videos were first released in 1984. The book, written by Welch with photographs by André Weinfeld, includes a hatha yoga fitness program, her views on healthy living and nutrition, as well as beauty and personal style. The Multi-Platinum collection of Fitness and Yoga videos were produced and directed by André Weinfeld. 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. The tiger print motif of the collection celebrates Welch's feline and sensuous image: "strong and wild, yet sultry and exotic".

Source

Ren Rene Welch's most popular possessions, which include her super daring movie costumes and a $20,000 14K gold wedding ring, are up for auction one year after she died at the age of 82

www.dailymail.co.uk, February 19, 2024
Raquel earned a whole lot of awards, attended celebrity-studded functions, and embarked on a series of steamy romances, some of whom had earned their way into film and television. Now, her followers will have the opportunity to purchase some of the actress' most coveted items that are up for auction. The auction, which is being hosted at Julien's Auctions in Los Angeles, California, is expected to 'celebrate the regal beauty and style of the Golden Globe Award-winning trailblazer,' who died last year.'

The fall of Glenconner's empire: He was the Scottish aristocrat and close friend of Princess Margaret who left the majority of his riches to his faithful servant. His entire legacy has been put up for auction now, in a tragic twist

www.dailymail.co.uk, December 31, 2023
He landed on the golden sands of St Lucia in 1987, the self-styled 'King of the Caribbean'. Lord Glenconner made his entrance while riding his beloved pet elephant, Bupa, in a pristine white linen suit and trademark straw hat. The 60-year-old wanted something bigger and better after building a hedonistic haven for royalty and rock stars on his private island of Mustique. The eccentric Scottish aristocrat, a confidante of Princess Margaret, wished to live out the remainder of his days in St Lucian splendor.

JANET STREET-PORTER: Sorry ladies, but why do modern women need BIG HAIR to prove they're feminine?Miss France and - quelle horreur!- her pixie cut shows beauty is more than just a blow-dried mane

www.dailymail.co.uk, December 18, 2023
JANET STREET PORTER: The most popular hairstyle in 2023 (as worn by our future King, center) is a massive mane of blow-dried waves falling right past your shoulders. It takes hours to achieve, jumbo rollers, backcombing, and even includes hidden extensions if you're a bit short of volume. A twice-weekly trip to the hairdressers (if only!) It's important to keep this high-maintenance look up to date. Where did the BIG DO come from? Consider a lion's mane crossed with a mermaid. Venus of Botticelli was seen wearing three wigs at once. Raquel Welch of the Apes is a forensic scientist who works on the planet of the Apes. A drag queen. It may be the hottest look at the moment, but big hair is terribly retro, to me. It weighs a lot, needs a lot of care, and will never get wet. From the Royals to the majority of the female contestants on Love Island, to our current 'levelling up Minister Esther McVey, and TV presenters like Cat Deeley and Tess Daly - all BIG HAIR members - the look reveals that you mean business. Your hair is making a big statement on your behalf. And here's even reached the House of Lords, where Bra Queen Baroness Michelle Mone (right) is sporting the 'do as she tries to get out of the hole she finds herself in regarding a highly profitable deal supplying PPE. Despite including rounds about skills and aiding others, several beauty contests have a preconceived image of what constitutes the desirable attributes required to win. Eve Gilles (left), 20, from Nord-Pas-Calais, was crowned king of Miss France this week, and 7.5 million viewers watched live on national television this week.