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Raquel Welch (born September 5, 1940) is an United
States|American actor|actress.  

== Early life ==
Welch was born Jo Raquel Tejada in Chicago,
Illinois, the oldest of three children born to
Armando Carlos Tejada and Josephine Sarah Hall.
Her father was an immigrant from Bolivia of
Castile|Castilian Spain|Spanish extraction who was
an aerospace engineer, and her mother an United
States native of Ireland|Irish descent.

In 1942, Armand Tejada was transferred to San
Diego, California. The family moved to the suburb
of La Jolla, California|La Jolla, where Raquel
grew up. She took dancing lessons as a child, and
was winning beauty pageants by the time she was a
teenager. Among her titles were "Miss Photogenic,"
"Miss La Jolla," "Miss Contour," and "Miss San
Diego." In 1957, she was named "Miss Fairest of
the Fair" at the San Diego County Fair. After high
school she entered San Diego State College on a
theater arts scholarship. The following year she
married a high school sweetheart, James Welch.

== Career ==
In 1959, Raquel Welch played the title role in the
famous The Ramona Pageant|Ramona Pageant, a yearly
outdoor play at Hemet, California, which is based
on the novel Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson.  

Welch became a Weather forecasting|weather
forecaster at a local San Diego television
station. Because of her heavy schedule, she
decided to leave college. Her marriage broke up
and she moved with her two children to Dallas,
Texas, where she Model (person)|modeled for
Neiman-Marcus and worked as a cocktail hostess,
intending to move on to New York City from there.

Instead, she moved back to California. She found a
place in Los Angeles, California|Los Angeles and
started making the rounds of the Movie
studio|movie studios. She was cast in bit parts in
2 films and television shows such as Bewitched,
McHale's Navy, The Hollywood Palace, and The
Virginian. Welch's first featured role was in A
Swingin' Summer, which led to a contract with 20th
Century Fox. She was then cast in the Science
fiction|Sci-fi hit Fantastic Voyage, which finally
made her a star.

On loan out to Hammer Studios in United
Kingdom|Britain, she starred in the remake of One
Million Years B.C.. After her appearance as Lust
incarnate in Bedazzled (1967 movie)|Bedazzled, she
returned to the United States and appeared in a
Western movie|Western with James Stewart
(actor)|James Stewart and Dean Martin titled
Bandolero!, which was followed by Lady in Cement
with Frank Sinatra. Her first real starring role
was in Myra Breckinridge with Mae West, which
turned out to be a dismal failure.

Despite box office disappointments, Welch became
one of the leading sex symbols of the 1960s and
1970s. Her most memorable publicity still, where
she was clad in a furry animal-skin bikini for One
Million Years B.C., became a bestselling poster.


Her television appearances include the series The
Hollywood Palace, the made for TV movies The
Legend of Walks Far Woman and Right to Die, in
which she turned in a stirring performance as a
woman with Lou Gehrig's disease, and in the PBS
series American Family, about a Mexican American
family in East Los Angeles. She has also appeared
in the night time soap opera CPW and made
infomercial|infomercials and exercise videos.
While she never appeared on the show, her name was
frequently used as an all-purpose answer on the
game show Match Game.

She has also performed in a nightclub act in Las
Vegas and has starred on Broadway in Woman of the
Year and in Victor/Victoria, where she replaced
Julie Andrews.

== Personal life ==
She has been married to James Welch (1959-1962),
publicist and agent; Patrick Curtis (who played
the baby of Olivia de Havilland in Gone With The
Wind) (1967-1972), writer; Andre Weinfeld
(1980-1990); and Richard Palmer (1999).

She is the mother of Damon Welch and actress
Tahnee Welch.

==Achievements and awards==
In 1974 in film|1974, Raquel Welch won a Golden
Globe for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Musical
or Comedy for The Three Musketeers. She was also
nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance
in the TV drama Right to Die (1988 in
television|1988).

She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at
7021 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood,
California|Hollywood.

==Filmography==
*A House Is Not a Home (1964)
*Roustabout (1964)
*A Swingin' Summer (1965)
*The Queens (1966)
*Fantastic Voyage (1966)
*One Million Years B.C. (1966)
*Shoot Loud, Louder... I Don't Understand (1966)
*Think Twentieth (1967) (short subject)
*The Oldest Profession (1967)
*Fathom (1967)
*Bedazzled (1967 movie)|Bedazzled (1967)
*The Biggest Bundle of Them All (1968)
*Bandolero! (1968)
*Lady in Cement (1968)
*100 Rifles (1969)
*Flareup (1969)
*The Magic Christian (1969)
*The Beloved (1970)
*Myra Breckinridge (1970)
*Hannie Caulder (1971)
*Bluebeard(film)|Bluebeard (1972)
*Fuzz (1972)
*Kansas City Bomber (1972)
*The Last of Sheila (1973)
*The Three Musketeers (1973)
*The Four Musketeers (1974)
*The Wild Party (1975)
*Mother, Jugs & Speed (1976)
*The Animal (1977)
*Crossed Swords (1978)
*Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994) (Cameo)
*Chairman of the Board (1998)
*What I Did for Love (1998)
*Tortilla Soup (2001)
*Legally Blonde (2001)
*Jim Brown: All American (2002) (documentary)
*Forget About It (2005)

==Television work==
*The Hollywood Palace (regular performer in 1964)
*Raquel! (1970)
*Mork & Mindy (1979) - "Captain Nirvana" in "Mork
vs. The Necrotons"
*The Legend of Walks Far Woman (1982)
*Right to Die (1987)
*Scandal in a Small Town (1988)
*Trouble in Paradise (1989)
*Tainted Blood (1993)
*Torch Song (1993)
*Hollyrock-a-Bye Baby (1994) (voice)
*Central Park West (1995) (pilot for series of
same name)
*Central Park West (cast member in 1996)
*Seinfeld (1997)
*Spin City (1997,1998 and 2000) - "Abby Lassiter"
in the episodes "Porn in the U.S.A.", "A River
Runs Through Me" and "Balloons over Broadway"
*American Family (2002-2004)

== External links ==
* imdb name|id=0000079|name=Raquel Welch
* http://www.triviatribute.com/raquelwelch.html
Raquel Welch Tribute (photos)
*
http://www.ramonabowl.com/ramona/funfacts/index.sh
tml Facts About The Ramona Pageant (with photo)
*
http://www.crankycritic.com/qa/pf_articles/raquelw
elch.html Interview with Welch when she turned
sixty
*http://www.cultsirens.com/welch/welch.htm Cult
Sirens: Raquel Welch