Raquel Welch

Early life

Welch was born Jo Raquel Tejada in Chicago, Illinois, and moved to San Diego, California, at age two with her family. She was the first child of Josephine Sarah Hall and Armando Carlos Tejada Urquizo. Her mother was of English descent with ancestors tracing back to the Mayflower. Her father was an aeronautical engineer from La Paz, Bolivia, of Spanish descent. Her cousin, Bolivian politician Lidia Gueiler Tejada, became the first female president of Bolivia and the second female non-royal head of state in the Americas. Welch had a younger brother and a younger sister.

Welch was raised in the Presbyterian denomination and attended Pacific Beach Presbyterian Church every Sunday with her family. As a young girl, Welch had the desire to be a performer and entertainer. She began studying ballet at age seven, but after ten years of study, she left the art at seventeen when her instructor told her she did not have the right body type for professional ballet companies. At age 14, she won beauty titles as Miss Photogenic and Miss Contour. While attending La Jolla High School she won the title of Miss La Jolla and the title of Miss San Diego – the Fairest of the Fair – at the San Diego County Fair. This long line of beauty contests eventually led to the state title of Maid of California. Her parents divorced when she finished school.

Welch graduated with honors from high school in 1958. Seeking an acting career, she entered San Diego State College on a theater arts scholarship, and the following year she married her high school sweetheart, James Welch, with whom she had two children. She assumed his last name and kept it throughout her life. She won several parts in local theater productions.

In 1960, Welch got a job as a weather presenter at KFMB, a local San Diego television station. Because her family life and television duties were so demanding, she decided to give up her drama classes. She separated from James Welch, and moved with her two children to Dallas, Texas, where she made a "precarious living" as a model for Neiman Marcus and as a cocktail waitress.

Career

1964–1966: Early works and breakthrough

Welch originally intended to move to New York City from Dallas, but moved back to Los Angeles in 1963 and started applying for roles with film studios. During this period 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 ex-husband's surname. She was cast in small roles in two films, A House Is Not a Home (1964) and the Elvis Presley musical Roustabout (1964). She also had 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). She won the Deb Star that year, while her photo in a Life magazine layout called "The End of the Great Girl Drought!" created a buzz around town. She was strongly considered for the role of Domino in Thunderball and was also noticed by the wife of producer Saul David, who recommended her to 20th Century Fox, which signed her to a seven-year non-exclusive contract covering five pictures over the next five years and two floaters. Studio executives considered changing her name to "Debbie", thought easier to pronounce than "Raquel"; she refused, wanting her real name "Raquel Welch". After screen testing for Saul David's Our Man Flint, she was cast in a leading role in David's 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 scientist with the mission to save his life. The film was a hit and made her a star.

Fox loaned Welch to Hammer Studios in Britain where she starred in the science fiction film 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 deerskin 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, released in the UK in 1966 and in the U.S. in 1967, as 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 bestselling 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 magazine listed Welch's B.C. bikini in the "Top Ten Bikinis in Pop Culture".

1967–1979: International stardom

Her first starring vehicle, the British Modesty Blaise-style spy film 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 Sixties 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. She co-starred with 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 later said wittily that she caught the film from time to time and realized only later that 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 that she forgot to act: "I think I was just so enamored with Frank Sinatra, you know. He's hypnotic."

1980–2017: Subsequent projects and later years

In 1982, Welch starred in the Western The Legend of Walks Far Woman for NBC. Billed as her "first TV movie dramatic debut", Welch played a 19th-century Native American woman in Montana. In the summer of 1982, Welch was among the candidates considered for the role of Alexis Carrington on the ABC primetime drama Dynasty, along with Elizabeth Taylor and Sophia Loren, before the producers settled on Joan Collins.

In 1987, Welch starred in the television drama Right to Die, an "unglamorous" role in which she portrayed a college professor and mother of two stricken with Lou Gehrig's disease, and asks to die with dignity.

Welch starred in the made-for-television films Scandal in a Small Town (1988), Trouble in Paradise (1989), and Torch Song (1993). In 1995, she was a guest star in Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. In the Season 2 episode "Top Copy", Welch played a television reporter and assassin who threatens to expose Clark's identity as Superman.

In 1996, Welch joined the cast of the night-time soap opera Central Park West, after CBS had already slated it for cancellation, as creator Darren Star made a final attempt to save the show by boosting its ratings late in its first season. She was a guest star on the American comedy series Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (1997), playing Sabrina's flamboyant Aunt Vesta from the realm called the Pleasuredome.

Welch acted in the Season 8 finale of the comedy series Seinfeld, titled "The Summer of George" (1997), playing an exaggerated and highly temperamental version of herself. In the episode, ranked by Zap2it as one of the top 10 episodes of Seinfeld, series character Kramer is forced to fire Welch from the lead role in a fictional Tony Award-winning musical called "Scarsdale Surprise", while the character Elaine gets into a "catfight" with her after a chance encounter on the street. Entertainment Weekly wrote, "By delivering a pitch-perfect performance as a fire-breathing prima donna, Welch also poked fun at her reputation (fairly earned or not) for being difficult to work with."

In 2002, Welch co-starred in the PBS series American Family, a story about a Mexican American family in East Los Angeles, with Edward James Olmos. Her role as Aunt Dora, the "drama queen of the family", marked the first time in her 40-year career that Welch had acknowledged her heritage as a Latina.

Achievements and awards

In 1975, Welch won a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Musical or Comedy for The Three Musketeers. She was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her performance in the television drama Right to Die (1987). In 1996, Welch received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard. In 2001, she was awarded the Imagen Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award for her positive promotion of Americans of Latin heritage throughout her career. In 2012, the Film Society of Lincoln Center presented a special retrospective of the films of Welch at the Walter Reade Theater.

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 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".

Her personal beauty regime included abstinence from alcohol and tobacco; daily yoga; and moisturising with Bag Balm.

Personal life

Marriages and relationships

Welch married her high school sweetheart, James Welch, in Las Vegas on May 8, 1959. They had two children, a son and a daughter, Tahnee. The couple separated in 1962 and divorced in 1964; she retained the surname Welch for the rest of her life.

She married publicist Patrick Curtis in Paris on February 14, 1967, and they divorced on January 6, 1972. Curtis later said to the tabloid newspapers that Welch had had an abortion during their marriage. Spanish media reported that during the shooting of 100 Rifles in Spain in 1968, Welch, while married to Curtis, had a relationship with Spanish actor Sancho Gracia, who had a small role in the film, and that Welch's husband, upon finding out about the affair, chased Gracia at gunpoint through the hotel where they were staying in Aguadulce.

Subsequent boyfriends included football player Joe Namath, producer Robert Evans and comedian Freddie Prinze.

On July 5, 1980, she married producer André Weinfeld in Cabo San Lucas. In early February 1983, while vacationing in Mustique, Welch suffered a miscarriage three months into her pregnancy. Her marriage to Weinfeld ended in August 1990.

In 1996, after keeping a low romantic profile for several years, she dated former British boxing champion Gary Stretch, who was younger than Welch's children.

Richie Palmer, co-owner of Mulberry Street Pizzeria, who had one son from a previous marriage, broke off his engagement with business partner and actress Cathy Moriarty to pursue Welch in October 1997. In July 17, 1999, they married at her home in Beverly Hills; they separated in August 2003 and divorced a year later.

In 2011, Welch told Elle magazine she would not remarry. Her last known relationship, during the early-to-mid-2010s, was with American Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe.

Religion

Welch was Presbyterian, the religion of her childhood, and had said, "I remembered the wonderful sense of peace I'd felt when sitting under the protection and grace of my mother's faith." She was a faithful member of Calvary Presbyterian Church, a Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) congregation in Glendale, which she described as a "beautiful little church" where the people "weren't Hollywood types. They were modest, unassuming, cheerful and friendly. They welcomed me." Welch said her faith helped her after the death of her mother, a devout Presbyterian, and her sister's recovery from cancer.

Public image

While her image in the 1960s was that of a torrid sex temptress, Welch's private life was quite different. Welch once famously said, "What I do on the screen is not to be equated with what I do in my private life. Privately, I am understated and dislike any hoopla." She also said, "I was not brought up to be a sex symbol, nor is it in my nature to be one. The fact that I became one is probably the loveliest, most glamorous, and fortunate misunderstanding."

Welch posed for Playboy magazine in 1979, but she never did a fully nude shoot. Hugh Hefner later wrote, "Raquel Welch, one of the last of the classic sex symbols, came from the era when you could be considered the sexiest woman in the world without taking your clothes off. She declined to do complete nudity, and I yielded gracefully. The pictures prove her point." Welch refused to take all her clothes off on screen or pose naked throughout her five-decade career, saying this was the way she was brought up.

Political views

Welch showed support for the Vietnam War troops, appearing at United Service Organizations (USO) shows in 1967, often with Bob Hope.

Welch appeared in 2011 on Your World with Neil Cavuto, briefly discussing the conservative candidates choices during political debates for the 2012 election and that she doesn't discuss politics very much in Hollywood.

In 2014, during an appearance on The O'Reilly Factor, Welch described herself as being on the conservative side, attributing it to her upbringing and her mother's Midwestern values. In 2015, Welch attended a gathering for the Republican Jewish Coalition in Beverly Hills.

Death

Welch died from cardiac arrest on February 15, 2023, at her home in Los Angeles, aged 82. At the time of her death, Welch was also suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

Legacy

Welch helped transform America's feminine ideal into its current state. Her beautiful looks and eroticism made her the definitive 1960s and 1970s sex icon, rather than the blonde bombshell of the late 1950s as typified by Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, and others. Welch became a star in the mid-1960s and was exotic, brunette, and smolderingly sexual. Her countless publicity photos helped to popularize her image, dress style, and 1960s and 1970s fashion trends. Welch was among actresses who made big hair popular.

In popular culture

Welch is mentioned in the 1970 song "Raquel Welch" by Shel Silverstein and in the 1971 song, "One's on the Way" also written by Silverstein but made popular by Loretta Lynn. Welch is also mentioned in "Unknown Stuntman", the theme song to The Fall Guy, starring Lee Majors, who also recorded the song. She is also mentioned in the Al Jarreau song "Love Is Real" from the Grammy-winning 1980 album This Time, where Jarreau sings "Raquel and Redford are the tops". Welch is also mentioned in the Tori Amos song "Glory of the 80's" from her 1999 album To Venus and Back, referencing Amos's experience as a background dancer in a Crystal Light commercial starring Welch with the lyric: "Auditioning for reptiles in their Raquel Welsh campaign."

In the 1994 film The Shawshank Redemption, the poster in Andy Dufresne's cell that hid his escape tunnel was the famous pinup image of Welch in One Million Years B.C..

Filmography

Selected discography

Books

Raquel Welch: Raquel: The Raquel Welch Total Beauty and Fitness Program, Publisher: Henry Holt and Company (October 1, 1984), ISBN 978-0-03069-549-0

Raquel Welch: Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage, Publisher: Weinstein Books (March 29, 2010), ISBN 978-1-60286-097-1