Getty Raquel Welch has died.
The actress and pinup star Raquel Welch has died at the age of 82, according to TMZ.
Citing family members, the entertainment site gave her cause of death as only a “brief illness,” without specifying what it was. CNN also confirmed Welch has died, attributing the news to a statement provided by her manager, Steve Sauer.
“For men of a certain age, Raquel Welch was *it* around the time we hit puberty. #RIPRaquelWelch,” a fan wrote on Twitter.
Here’s what you need to know:
Raquel Welch, Who Was Single at the Time She Died, Leaves Behind Two Children
According to CNN, Welch is survived by her two children, son Damon Welch and Daughter Tahnee Welch.
Welch died on the morning of February 15, 2023, TMZ reported. According to the U.S. Sun, Welch was married four times, but none of her marriages lasted, and she was not married at the time of her death.
According to the Sun, she had two children with her first husband, James Welch, her high school sweetheart. After they divorced, she married producer Patrick Curtis and Andre Weinfeld, The Sun reported, noting that both of those marriages also resulted in divorce. Richard Palmer was her final husband, according to The Sun, which added that they, too, divorced.
According to The Sun, she told Piers Morgan, “I’m too set in my ways. I like what I do, I actually enjoy being me and I make a very good living at it and I’m happy. I don’t have to have a man.” The Sun reported that Welch said her celebrity and the attention she received contributed to her marriages failing.
Raquel Welch, Who Was Born in Chicago, Is Known for a Poster Showing Her in a Prehistoric Bikini
BREAKING
Millions of hearts broken today.
Lost a legend too early.
RIP Raquel Welch gone at 82.
According to her IMDb profile, Welch was born Jo Raquel Tejada in Chicago, Illinois. She is perhaps most famous for the poster of her wearing a prehistoric bikini for the 1966 film “One Million Years B.C,” according to the profile, which says it was the “best-selling pin-up poster of that time.”
ABC News excerpted the passage in her book, “Beyond the Cleavage,” in which Welch wrote about that moment:
Contrary to popular myth, I didn’t just hatch out of an eagle’s nest, circa One Million Years B.C., clad in a doeskin bikini. In fact, I was more surprised than anyone to find myself on location in such an exotic setting, high atop a volcanic mountain in the Canary Islands! With the release of that famous movie poster, in one fell swoop, everything in my life changed and everything about the real me was swept away. All else would be eclipsed by this bigger-than-life sex symbol.
Her parents were Bolivian aerospace engineer Armando Carlos Tejada and his wife Josephine Sarah Hall, who was Irish-American, IMDb reported.
Her career was varied, according to IMDb, which reported that she starred in a variety of movies (like “Legally Blonde” and “Tortilla Soup”) and television series, including “American Family.” She also starred in television movies throughout the years, such as “Right to Die,” and she appeared in infomercials and fitness videos, IMDb reported.
Welch had not tweeted since 2019.
Celebrity Net Worth estimates her net worth at $40 million.
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