The Hollywood sex icon known for her roles in "One Million Years B.C." and "Fantastic Voyage" in the 1960s, Raquel Welch, has passed away at the age of 82.
Steve Sauer, Welch's manager, confirmed that she passed away early on Wednesday morning after a brief illness.
Welch had a 50-year career that included 30 films, 50 TV series, and appearances. She was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance in "Right to Die," a 1987 television movie, and won a Golden Globe for best actress in a comedy or musical for her performance in "The Three Musketeers" in 1975.
Jo Raquel Tejada was born in Chicago on September 5, 1940, to an American mother and a Bolivian father. Her family moved to San Diego as a child, where she learned to dance and participated in beauty pageants.
Before landing her first film roles in 1964's "A House Is Not a Home" and the Elvis Presley musical "Roustabout," she studied performing arts at San Diego State College and worked as a weather forecaster and model.
Welch claims that higher-ups in Hollywood pressured her to change her name to "Debbie" early in her career. The actress, however, declined and has always been proud of her Hispanic heritage.
Due to films like "Bedazzled," "The Biggest Bundle of Them All," and the Frank Sinatra crime comedy "Lady in Cement," Welch became a sex icon in the late 1960s.
She also appeared in the 1970 X-rated film "Myra Breckinridge," but she did not regret starting out in roles that were more sexist.
In 1966, Welch made his acting debut in the roles of " In both "One Million Years B.C." and "Fantastic Voyage," a sci-fi adventure about a submarine crew that shrinks down and is injected into a scientist's bloodstream, Playboy named her the "most desired woman" of the 1970s despite the fact that she never appeared completely naked in the magazine