Raquel Welch, the 1960s actress and earthy, dark-haired sex symbol who came to personify lust itself after wearing a deerskin bikini for the film “One Million Years B.C.,” died Feb. 15 at her home in Los Angeles. She was 82.
Her son, Damon Welch, confirmed her death but did not cite a specific cause.
Welch was first known for appearing in the 1966 science fiction film “Fantastic Voyage,” as a scientist who is shrunk to the size of a microbe. Later that year she starred as a cave-dwelling woman named Loana in “One Million Years B.C.,” a British adventure fantasy with John Richardson. She hardly spoke in the film - in one scene she was terrorized by a giant primordial bird - but was launched to international fame after the release of a publicity photo that showed her wearing a tattered animal skin, gazing into the distance with her hair falling past her shoulders.
The photo made her an instant pinup star and propelled her on a screen career that spanned more than five decades and 70 film and television credits.
“Nothing could look more alive and lasting than Miss Welch,” wrote Howard Thompson in the New York Times, reviewing “One Million Years B.C.” The actress, he said, was “a marvelous breathing monument to womankind.”
Over the next few years, Welch continued to take screen roles that emphasized her beauty, while also refusing repeated requests to appear naked in films.
Credit: Araya Diaz
Credit: Araya Diaz
Credit: Hulton Archive
Credit: Hulton Archive
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