Sex symbol Raquel Welch dead at 82
Former sex symbol Raquel Welch has died. She was 82.
Family members told TMZ that Welch died Wednesday morning after a brief illness. No other specifics surrounding her death were given.
Welch’s rep didn’t immediately return Page Six’s request for comment.
Welch rose to fame for her 1966 roles in “Fantastic Voyage” and “One Million Years B.C.” In the latter film, she appeared in a skimpy deerskin bikini that catapulted her to sex symbol status.
Decades later, the actress revealed she “almost died” filming the movie because she developed tonsillitis wearing the skimpy swimsuit in severe weather conditions.
“I had already so much penicillin when I was wearing the fur bikini that I almost died,” she claimed to 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.
“And I barely got there. They had to shoot me with an antidote. Otherwise, I would have died. It was really rough shoot, man. Really rough. And then I came to London and everybody knew who I was.”
Welch took home the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical for her role in 1974’s “The Three Musketeers” as Constance de Bonacieux.
She was also named one of the “100 Sexiest Stars in Film History” in a 1995 issue of Empire magazine and was ranked No. 3 in Playboy’s “100 Sexiest Stars of the 20th Century.”
Welch also famously appeared on Cher’s variety show in 1975 and performed “I’m a Woman” with the famed singer.
The “Legally Blonde” actress, who was a recluse in her final years, had four husbands over the course of her life: James Welch, with whom she shared two children, from 1959 to 1964, Patrick Curtis from 1967 to 1972, André Weinfeld from 1980 to 1990 and Richard Palmer from 1999 to 2004.
She is survived by her son, Damon, 63, and her daughter, Tahnee, 61.
