The Absolutely Stunning Raquel Welch Turns 80 and Still Looks Great!

Unbelievable as it sounds, Raquel Welch reached her 8th decade on September 5! It’s a date worth celebrating for this much-admired star of stage and screen. Born Jo Raquel Tejada in Chicago 1940, she originally wanted to dance. Raquel’s legendary physique actually proved to be an obstacle! Speaking to the Sunday Post in 2018 she revealed she “worked hard until I was 17 – by which time I had grown quite a bit of course and my instructor broke it to me that I really didn’t have the figure for ballet.”

Racquel Welch in 1970 posing in star-spangled bathing suit for the film “Myra Breckinridge”. Getty Images

After triumphs on the beauty contest circuit, she moved to the small screen. Raquel wasn’t playing roles, but forecasting storms as a KFMB weather presenter. She married James Welch, who she’d known since high school, and they had 2 children – Tahnee (now an actress herself) and Damon.

Raquel Welch on the set of “One Million Years B.C”. (Photo by Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)

It was only a matter of time before the bright lights of Hollywood beckoned. Raquel’s marriage ended and she decided to go to LA with her kids in 1963. The following year she made her movie debut in ‘A House Is Not A Home’ with Shelley Winters. Elvis flick ‘Roustabout’ soon followed. By this time she’d met Patrick Curtis, her manager and second husband.

Also on the set of “One Million Years B.C”. (Photo by Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)

Curtis advised her to keep the name Welch, to sidestep typecasting as Latina characters. She switched from Jo to Raquel at an early age. “I think if you have an Anglo-Saxon background and you are of Latino descent, the Latin side wins out” she said to Associated Press in 2015. “It’s something about your temperament and your essence”. Her father Armando was from Bolivia. Mother Josephine, who was white, gave Raquel her original first name.

Raquel Welch (Photo by Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)

Raquel’s first big job came with 1966’s sci-fi classic ‘Fantastic Voyage’. Swimming round a human body in a curve-hugging jumpsuit must have seemed an offbeat way to make a splash. The same year saw her taking one of her defining roles – cave queen Loana in ‘One Million Years B.C.’. Ray Harryhausen supplied the animated dinosaurs, but for many Raquel was the true star of this prehistoric adventure. It was also released before ‘Fantastic Voyage’, further boosting her profile.

Hollywood screen goddess, Raquel Welch. (Photo by Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)

The image of her in a fur bikini captured the public’s imagination. Interviewed by Dick Cavett in 1972, Raquel was more than aware of why certain audience members loved the film. “I was surprised you didn’t introduce me as ‘Raquel Welch and here they come’” she quipped to the host. She certainly coped with her fair share of attention on male-dominated talk shows.

Raquel Welch on the Dick Cavett Show, 1972. (Photo by Walt Disney Television via Getty Images)

Even decades on, she’s regularly asked to autograph those scantily-clad publicity pics. For Raquel, remembering your beginnings is key. “I remember James Stewart telling me a long time ago never to avoid your fans or the things that your fans like about you” she told the Post. “It was good advice.”

Raquel in 2015. (Photo by Steve Granitz/WireImage)

Eye-catching movies such as spy flick ‘Fathom’ and Peter Cook/Dudley Moore comedy ‘Bedazzled’ cemented her rep for sizzling screen performances. Talking of construction materials, she acted in ‘Lady In Cement’ opposite Frank Sinatra in 1968.

Raquel in 2016 (Photo by Steve Granitz/WireImage)

Other notable work includes ‘Myra Breckinridge’ (1970), based on author Gore Vidal’s social satire. Raquel then made drama ‘The Beloved’, aka ‘Sin’ or ‘The Restless’. A rare behind the scenes photo from the production by Terry O’ Neill is being exhibited in London, as reported by The Express. The Seventies saw her play the title role in Western ‘Hannie Caulder’ (1971). She then went on to appear as Constance Bonacieux in Richard Lester’s ‘Three Musketeers’ series.

Raquel in 2017 (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Barneys New York)

Her last movie credit to date is 2017’s ‘How To Be A Latin Lover’. On TV she starred in 2013’s ‘House of Versace’. Raquel also trod the boards and belted out tunes in shows such as ‘Woman of the Year’, a musical co-written by Kander and Ebb.

Raquel Welch in the title role of Burt Kennedy’s western ‘Hannie Caulder’, 1971. (Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Raquel made headlines over her supposedly difficult reputation. “I needed to be a little tough to break through,” she told The Scotsman in 2010. “But at one point I found myself being just a little too much. I told a few people off, and that wasn’t at all what I should have done.” She did a take off in Nineties sitcom ‘Seinfeld’, portraying herself as an aggressive diva who physically assaults the cast.

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