Raquel Welch, the big-screen star of the 1960s and ’70s who gained famed in movies including Fantastic Voyage, One Million Years B.C., Myra Breckinridge and many others, died today after a brief illness. She was 82.
Her death was confirmed by her reps at Media 4 Management.
Welch got her start as TV weathercaster in San Diego before starting to land guest roles on such classics TV series as McHale’s Navy, Bewitched, The Virginian and others. Her breakout role came as Cora in the wild 1966 sci-fi pic Fantastic Voyage, opposite Stephen Boyd, Edmund O’Brien and Arthur Kennedy. It followed the adventures of a group who are miniaturized along with a submarine and injected into the bloodstream of a scientist who was the target of assassins in an effort to save the life. But they only have an hour before they return to real size.
The film won Oscars for its visual effects and for Art Direction.Set Decoration and became a cult classic. It maintains a 91% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Welch then starred as a clan cavewoman in the 1966 British film One Million Years B.C., another wild tale set in an age when humans and dinosaurs existed together. A slightly censored version was released in the U.S., and the film became a TV staple in later years.
She went on to star with Dudley Moore and Peter Cook in the London-set 1967 comedy Bedazzled and opposite James Stewart, Dean Martin and George Kennedy in the 1968 western Bandolero! Welch’s next major film was with Mae West and John Huston in the title role of Myra Breckinridge. Based on the satirical Gore Vidal novel that reportedly was the first whose main character underwent a sex-change procedure, the 1970 film followed her character’s journey to Hollywood in search of stardom and a cut of her wealthy uncle’s estate.
Firmly established as a movie star, Welch continued her big-screen career opposite some of the era’s biggest stars. She appeared with Burt Reynolds in the 1972 cop comedy Fuzz; with Richard Burton in Bluebeard the same year; with James Coburn, Richard Benjamin and others in Herbert Ross’ The Last of Sheila, written by Stephen Sodnheim and Anthony Perkins; and opposite Chamberlain, Oliver Reed and Michael York in 1973 The Three Muskateers. That pic spawned a 1974 sequel, The Four Musketeers: Milady’s Revenge. She also starred with Bill Cosby and Harvey Keitel in the 1976 ambulance-crew romp Mother, Jugs & Speed.
Among her lesser-known films of the era was Kansas City Bomber, the 1972 drama set in then-popular world of roller derby, along with The Beloved (1971) and toplining the western Hannie Caulder with Robert Culp and Ernest Borgnine.
Welch also appeared twice on Broadway. The first time in 1981, when she filled in for a vacationing Lauren Bacall in Woman of the Year. In 1997, she played the lead role of Victoria Grant in Victor/Victoria, replacing original star Julie Andrews.
MORE TO COME…