Raquel Welch: Fearless Femme

Raquel’s home was chaotic, with Armand being explosive to Josephine and the children. In Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage, Welch shares: “My romantic life would be something quite different. I wasn’t ever willing to settle for the dry, estranged relationship of my parents. I’m allergic to it. I knew I couldn’t (and wouldn’t) tolerate it. I supposed that in some way, I wanted to vindicate my mother’s suffering and selflessness.”

Raquel studied ballet from the age of 7 to her late teens, preparing the bodacious belle for La Jolla High School’s cheerleading squad. As a sophomore, she started dating the handsome James Welch, who played football. The lure between them was intense. Raquel graduated with honors and a college scholarship, while James quit high school and departed for Peru on a tuna clipper. After a brief break up, Raquel and James rekindled their relationship when he returned home. The two tied the knot in Las Vegas in 1959.

During this time, Raquel’s parents divorced and Raquel started entering pageants, being crowned Miss Fairest of the Fair in 1957 and Maid of California in 1958. In Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage, Welch shares: “I didn’t like my hair (very fine like my mother’s), or my eyes (too deeply set and almond shaped, in standard-issue brown), or my nose (not cute enough), or my mouth (a bit too wide). Then there were my hips (not high or round enough) and my breasts (set too widely apart on my torso). But there were things I did like: my shoulders (square and broad), my back (shaped like an inverted triangle), and my waistline (super small). I also liked my skin (olive and fine-pored), my hands and feet (delicate and well-formed), and my teeth (super white, and I had my mother’s smile). My cheekbones (prominent like Kate Hepburn’s), my ears (small), and my proportions (svelte after years of ballet) were pretty damned good.”

Clockwise from top left: Raquel Welch as a little girl; Welch wears a classic trench in the ’60s; the actress strikes a pose in pink; Welch kicks a ball around in a Chelsea soccer uniform while filming Hannie Caulder in Arizona, 1971; Arnold Schwarzenegger holds Welch in the air at the Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, 1977; besieged by photographers, Welch wears a white crocheted mini dress on her wedding day to manager Patrick Curtis, Paris, 1967. Opposite page, clockwise from top: shaking hands with Queen Elizabeth II at a Royal Film performance in 1966; Welch touching up in Los Angeles, 1962; Welch as Fathom Harvill in Fathom , 1967.

On refusing to be photographed nude—even for Playboy, Welch shared: “I am my father’s daughter and that’s just not the way you behave. You don’t do that if you are a certain kind of a woman and that’s the kind of woman I was raised to be..."

Raquel and James had two children before Raquel turned 21: Damon (in 1959) and Tahnee (in 1961). But the couple separated (before divorcing in 1964), and Raquel moved with the children to Dallas, Texas. There, she modeled for Neiman Marcus and waitressed at Cabana Motor Hotel.

In 1963, The single mother headed back to the West Coast, settling in Los Angeles, California. In Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage, Welch shares: “When I got there, with no car, two hundred bucks in my pocket, two kids, and no connections, it was pretty rough going. I ran into all kinds of weirdness.” She soon landed a role in the film Roustabout (1964), which starred Elvis Presley and Barbara Stanwyck. She was excited to work with Elvis, sharing with the Wall Street Journal: “Something about his voice in that song [‘Heartbreak Hotel’] made me think, ‘This must be what sex is all about.’ My girlfriends and I didn't have a lot of experience in that department, but you just knew Elvis had it all.”

Clockwise from top left: Raquel Welch married four times, first to high school sweetheart James Welch, with whom she had son Damon, born in 1959, and daughter, Tahnee, born in 1961; Welch alongside her then-husband Patrick Curtis in Rome, 1971; Welch and Julie Christie practice curtsying before Queen Elizabeth in London, 1967; Welch on her wedding day to her third husband, French screenwriter André Weinfeld, with Damon and Tahnee, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, 1980; Salvador Dali and Raquel Welch, 1965; the actress in 1966; Welch and Marcello Mastroianni in the Italian film Shoot Loud, Louder... I Don't Understand , 1966. Opposite page, clockwise from top: Welch poses with sailors from the ship Saipan in New York, 1982; playing cards with locals in Saint-Tropez while filming The Biggest Bundle of Them All, 1968; the actress dons a red and white ensemble circa 1960.

Raquel began auditioning for roles like Mary Ann Summers on Gilligan’s Island. The star’s first credited role came in A Swingin’ Summer (1965), which included a singing/dancer number called “Ready to Groove.” She signed with Fox, which tested her for the James Bond film Thunderball starring Sean Connery, before placing her in the sci-fi classic Fantastic Voyage (1966). She would have preferred to be a Bond Girl but she understood that the sci-fi genre was, basically, a rite of passage for desirable, sexy actresses.

Then, the flick—or, rather, the poster for the flick—that would launch her to fame: One Million Years B.C. (1966). Raquel had three lines playing Loana The Fair One, but she was dressed in the iconic deer-skin bikini that would grace posters around the globe. She fell ill with a severe case of tonsillitis (the shoot took place in the Canary Islands in the winter). In Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage, Welch shares: “Why didn’t I have a parka? ‘Cave girls don’t have parkas,’ I was told.”

Mary Ann

Myra Breckinridge, 1970; Welch in Shout Loud, Louder... I Do Not Understand, 1966; Welch and Ringo Starr in a scene from The Magic Christian, 1969; Welch and Stephen Boyd in the cult science-fiction drama Fantastic Voyage, 1966; Welch photographed in costume as Myra Breckinridge, 1970; Welch in her first leading role as Cora Peterson in Fantastic Voyage; Welch modeling a look by Pierre Cardin, 1967. Opposite page, clockwise from lower left: Welch in The Three Musketeers, 1973; the actress in the The Oldest Profession, 1967; Welch as Cora on the set of Fantastic Voyage; Welch in a publicity shot for One Million Years B.C., 1966; Welch stands over people sleeping in the 1967 British comedy, Bedazzled

Reflecting on this moment, Welch shared with Cigar Aficionado: "I think whether you're Gwyneth Paltrow or Raquel Welch or Jennifer Lopez, there's a certain thing about that white-hot moment of first fame that is just pure pain. It's just not comfortable. I felt like I was supposed to be perfect. And because everybody was looking at me so hard, I felt there was so much to prove. It was an enormous burden.”

The features that followed included Bedazzled (1967), Bandolero! (1968) starring James Stewart, and Lady in Cement (1968) starring Frank Sinatra. In 1975, she won a Golden Globe for The Three Mus(1973). Later, she would have cameos in T.V. shows, like Seinfeld, and roles as a gorgeous divorcée in both Legally Blonde (2001) and How to be a Latin Lover (2017).

Raquel married three times (after James) to producer Patrick Curtis (from 1967 to 1972), French producer André Weinfeld (from 1980 to 1990), and restaurateur Richard Palmer (from 1999 to 2008).

The forever babe died in her eighties on February 15, 2023, at her Beverly Hills home in Los Angeles, California. Reese Witherspoon (Raquel’s Legally Blonde co-star) tweeted: “So sad to hear about Raquel Welch's passing. I loved working with her on Legally Blonde. She was elegant, professional, and glamorous beyond belief. Simply stunning”. And Reese was right… Raquel Welch will be remembered for her iconic looks, which were fierce and timeless— and era-defining—not to mention the dignity and strength that she carried through life.◆

2001; photos of the late actress; entertaining troops in Vietnam, December 1, 1967; Welch touches Marcello Mastroianni's beard on the set of Shoot Loud, Louder ... I Don’t Understand , Rome, 1966; the actress speaking in Los Angeles at PORTER Hosts Incredible Women Gala in Association with Estée Lauder, 2017; Welch in Spain, 1968; Welch as roller derby skater K.C. Karr in Kansas City Bomber , 1972. Opposite page, from above: Welch poses for photographers in Paris, 1970; Welch in Cannes, 1966; the actress dressed in yellow, 1967; Welch in a scene from Myra Breckinridge , 1970.