BREAKING: International sex symbol and screen goddess dies after short illness

Screen goddess, international sex symbol and actress Raquel Welch has died.

According to news site TMZ on Wednesday, February 15 the 82-year-old who made a name for herself in “One Million Years B.C:” died following a short illness. Welch cemented her fame as a screen goddess in the film saying little but appearing in a deerskin bikini.

She went on to appear in Fantastic Voyage before appearing in a string of successful movies before winning a Golden Globe for her role in the 1973 version of the three musketeers.

According to move site IMDB, she was born Jo Raquel Tejada on September 5, 1940 in Chicago. The oldest of three children her father was Bolivian Armando Carlos Tejada, an aerospace engineer, and her mother an Irish-American Josephine Sarah Hall.

At the age of two the family moved to San Diego, California following her father´s transfer. There she made a name for herself as a dancer and as a beauty queen winning many titles. She went on to study theatre arts at the San Diego College in 1958, marrying her high school sweetheart James Welch the following year.

They had two children Damon Welch (born 1959), who later became an actor/production assistant, and actress Tahnee Welch (born 1961). Tahnee went on to take advantage of her own stunning looks as an actress, most notably with her prime role in Cocoon (1985).

Her first screen role was that of the local TV weather girl, eventually quitting college. The couple split up in 1962 and she moved to Dallas, Texas with her two children. There she worked as a barmaid and model for Neiman-Marcus.

She eventually moved back to California scoring her first role in the 1964 version of Bewitched. That led to a very successful career and a string of roles that gained her the title of screen goddess. Welch´s final appearance was in 2017 in the Hispanic movie “How to be a Latin lover.”

Still able to turn heads until her death Welch was less lucky in love, marrying and divorcing four times. Welch who died after a short illness if survived by her two children.

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