Raquel Welch Biography, Life, Interesting Facts

Childhood And Early Life

American actress Raquel Welch was born on the 5 September 1940 in Chicago, Illinois to Armando Urquizo and Josephine Hall. She has two siblings, a sister Gayle and a brother James. Welch is of Bolivian, Irish and English ancestry. When she was still an infant, her family relocated to San Diego, California and she was raised there. By fourteen years of age, she was winning beauty contests including Miss San Diego and Maid of California.

Education

Welch was a pupil at La Jolla High School from which Raquel Welch graduated in 1958. She also did drama classes at San Diego State College and began appearing in local productions.

Rise To Fame

Raquel Welch worked as a weather forecaster on the KFMB television station in San Diego. After divorcing her first husband, Welch moved to Dallas, Texas where she worked as a Neiman Marcus model and as a cocktail waitress. Around this time, she was introduced to Hollywood agent Patrick Curtis, and he became her manager. Early appearances included A House Is Not A Home (1964) and Roustabout (1964). Television appearances included Bewitched, The Virginian, McHale S Navy and The Hollywood Palace. She then appeared in A Swingin’ Summer in 1965 and shortly afterward was offered a contract by 20th Century Fox.

Career

Raquel Welch’s breakthrough role was in Fantastic Voyage (1966), a sci-fi film. She then appeared in the film 1000 B.C. and the publicity for the film made her name as a pin-up. She appeared in One Million Years B.C. (1966), a role which established her position as a sex symbol. Other films include Shoot Loud...Louder...I Don’t Understand (1966), Sex Quartet (1966), The Oldest Profession (1967), Fathom (1967), Bedazzled (1967), Lady In Cement (1968) and Tony Rome (1967). She continued acting throughout the 1970s in movies such as The Beloved (1970), Myra Breckinridge (1970) and Hannie Caulder (1971), Bluebeard (1972), the film series The Three Musketeers (1973-1974), The Wild Party (1975). Raquel Welch also appeared in various Broadway productions in the 1980s and early 1990s. 

Recent work includes House of Versace (2013), The Ultimate Legacy (2015) and How To Be A Latin Lover (2017).

Awards And Achievements

Empire magazine nominated Raquel Welch one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in Film History. She was also voted number 2 in the Men’s Health magazine on their Hottest Women of All Time list.

In 1973 she won a Golden Globe Best Actress award for her role of Constance Bonacieux in The Three Musketeers. She also won a Golden Globe Best Actress nomination for her role in Right to Die (1987). She was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1996. And in 2001, she was awarded the Imagen Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award.

Personal Life

Raquel Welch married her childhood sweetheart James Welch in 1959, and they had two children together before divorcing in 1964. She married three more times: Patrick Curtis (m. 1967-div.1972), Andre Weinfeld (m.1980-div.1990) and Richard Palmer (m.1999-div.2008). The actress and model Tahnee Welch is her daughter. She also has a son James Welch.

Her autobiography, Raquel: Beyond The Cleavage was published in 2010.