https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/raquel-welch-dead-star-one-million-years-bc-myra-breckinridge-1235326714/

Raquel Welch, Star of ‘One Million Years B.C.,’ Dies at 82
Once called "a marvelous breathing monument to womankind," she also was
memorable in 'Fantastic Voyage,' 'Lady in Cement,' '100 Rifles' and 'Myra
Breckinridge.'

BY BENJAMIN SVETKEY
Plus Icon
FEBRUARY 15, 2023 12:30PM

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Raquel-Welch-Obit-Guild-Awards-Getty-H-2023.jpg?w=1296&h=730&crop=1

Raquel Welch, the almond-eyed sex symbol who turned a doeskin bikini into
one of the most iconic cinematic images of the 1960s, has died. She was 82.

Welch’s management company confirmed her death to The Hollywood Reporter.
Her son, Damon Welch, said she died Wednesday at her home in Los Angeles.
No cause of death was announced.

Her success in Hollywood was due partly to talent, partly to perseverance,
but mostly to hitting the genetic jackpot. Although she turned in several
respectable performances — as a scientist’s assistant in Fantastic Voyage
(1966), as Lilian Lust in Bedazzled (1967), as a transgender revolutionary
in Myra Breckinridge (1970) — it was her strikingly photogenic features and
voluptuous figure that catapulted her to international stardom.

“The indelible image of a woman as queen of nature,” is how cultural critic
Camille Paglia once described Welch’s onscreen appeal. The actress herself
put it more succinctly. “I became,” she wrote in her 2010 autobiography,
Beyond the Cleavage, “every male’s fantasy.”

Her first starring role came with her second film after signing with 20th
Century Fox, though it was hardly an actor’s dream. Her biggest line of
dialogue in the prehistoric drama One Million Years B.C. (1966) was, “Me,
Loana … You, Tumak.” Her experience on the set was even less inspiring.

“On the first day of shooting,” she recalled, “I went straight up to the
director, Don Chaffey, and said quite seriously, ‘Listen, Don, I’ve been
studying the script and I was thinking …’ He turned to me in amazement and
said, ‘You were thinking? Don’t.'”

Still, even before the film came out, it was clear it would make Welch a
star. The advance poster — Welch in the animal-skin two-piece — became the
linchpin of the entire marketing campaign (“Mankind’s first bikini,”
boasted one tagline). Although the movie was not a hit, Welch was. “A
marvelous breathing monument to womankind,” raved The New York Times. Time
magazine listed her cavewoman costume in its “Top Ten Bikinis in Pop
Culture.”

Welch was not prepared for the attention. “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,” she wrote in her
autobiography of the rush of sudden fame. “She came into public
consciousness as a physical presence, without a voice. … It felt like I’d
stumbled into a booby trap — pun intended.”

Welch was born in Chicago on Sept. 5, 1940, and christened Jo Raquel
Tejada. Her dad was a Bolivian aeronautical engineer and her mom a
seamstress whose ancestry dated to John Quincy Adams.

Her family moved to San Diego when she was 2, and while her childhood was
mostly trauma-free, it was hardly warm or nurturing. “Physical affection
was in short supply,” she wrote in her memoir. “There was no cuddling or
lovey-dovey stuff happening, even between Mom and Dad. I don’t recall ever
seeing him kiss her or hold her hand.” Her father, she went on, was
“terrifying.”

The “Jo” fell off her name early on in her school days, but the rest of
Raquel took some time to develop, especially in her own estimation. “I
didn’t like my hair (very fine like my mother’s), or my eyes (too deeply
set and almond-shaped, in standard-issue brown), or my nose (not cute
enough) or my mouth (a bit too wide),” she admitted. Nevertheless, while in
high school, she won first prize in a local beauty contest — “Miss
Photogenic” — which launched a string of pageant triumphs. She soon was
crowned Miss La Jolla, Miss San Diego and finally, Maid of California.

She’d also won a scholarship to San Diego State University, where she
studied drama for a time, but her heart was elsewhere. Against her father’s
wishes, she married her high school sweetheart, James Welch.

Soon after, she landed a job as a local TV weather girl, but meteorology
was not her destiny, and she left the gig after giving birth, at age 19, to
Damon. Two years later, she had a daughter, Tahnee. Within a few more
years, though, her marriage fell apart. She wanted to move the family to
New York where she could pursue acting. He didn’t. Instead, Raquel left her
husband and took the kids to Los Angeles, a decision she later described as
rash. “The damage I did to my children and Jim by taking off as I did is
immeasurable,” she wrote. “I have no defense for my foolishness, except to
say that I was young and pigheaded.”

She was also lucky. She arrived in L.A. in 1963 with no car, no connections
and $200 in her pocket; within a year, she was landing roles in Elvis
Presley movies (1964’s Roustabout) and small parts on TV shows like
Bewitched and McHale’s Navy. At one point, she nearly was Mary Ann on
Gilligan’s Island and a “Bond Girl” in Thunderball.

But even if she always didn’t get the part, her auditions created enough
buzz that she was offered a contract with 20th Century Fox — though not
before some discussion about her name. Her agent convinced her to keep her
married surname, arguing that it would help her avoid being pigeonholed in
Latino roles. The studio tried to convince her to change her given name to
Debbie. Welch declined.

Her first film for Fox was Fantastic Voyage, an ensemble sci-fi thriller
about a team of doctors shrunken to microscopic size and injected into the
body of an ailing scientist. The movie did respectable box office — and won
Oscars for visual effects and art direction — and Welch’s performance was
well-received (even if she spent much of the picture paddling through
hemoglobin in a tight, white scuba suit).

After One Million Years B.C. (1966), she spent the next couple of years
hopping between international productions — an Italian comedy titled Sex
Quartet (1966), a French farce about prostitution called The Oldest
Profession (1967) — and projects for Fox, including 1968’s Lady in Cement,
co-starring Frank Sinatra) and Bandolero!, with James Stewart and Dean
Martin; 100 Rifles (1969), in which she and Jim Brown broke taboos with an
interracial love scene; and Bedazzled, a Stanley Donen satire about the
seven deadly sins in which she was typecast as the incarnation of lust.

“I didn’t have many lines,” she recalled of the part to THR in 2019,
shortly after Donen died. “All I did was saunter up in a red-lace bikini
and say, ‘Hot-buttered buns?’ I did it in a Southern accent because I
figured Lust came from a hot [climate].”

After playing a go-go dancer in Flareup and a slave driver amid topless
oarswomen in Terry Southern’s The Magic Christian in 1969, Welch took on
the role that most stretched her range — and might well have ended her
career. That would be Myra Breckinridge in the film adaptation of Gore
Vidal’s scandalous novel about a gay film buff turned acting teacher who
fakes his own death, undergoes a sex-change operation and then claims to be
his own widow.

“I don’t know exactly what kind of actress you’re looking for,” she
supposedly told producer Richard Zanuck to get the part, “but I was
thinking if a guy was going to change his sex and wanted to be like a movie
star type of girl, don’t you think he might want to look like me?”

The production was a train wreck, with British director Michael Sarne
taking seven-hour “thinking breaks” while the cast and crew waited on the
set (he would never make another Hollywood movie). Meanwhile, Welch and Mae
West, who came out of retirement for a small role, feuded over wardrobe and
refused to shoot scenes with each other.

When it was released, critics tore it to pieces; to this day, Myra
Breckinridge is often cited as “the worst movie ever made.” But Welch —
whose character at one point anally rapes one of her male students —
remained proud of her performance. “Myra Breckinridge is the antithesis of
sex symbol,” she told GQ in 2012. “She’s revolutionary. She’s a warrior.”

Throughout the 1970s, Welch continued to sharpen her acting chops. In ’72,
she starred as a single mom on the professional roller derby circuit in
Kansas City Bomber (Jodie Foster, in one of her first film roles, played
her daughter). She co-starred with Charlton Heston, Oliver Reed and Faye
Dunaway in The Three Musketeers (1973) and The Four Musketeers (1974) and
with Richard Benjamin in The Last of Sheila (1973). There also were leads
in James Ivory’s The Wild Party (1975); Mother, Jugs & Speed (1976), an
ambulance-company comedy with Bill Cosby and Harvey Keitel (she played
Jugs); and the French action film Animal (1977), in which she co-starred
with Jean-Paul Belmondo.

In article
<230676925.698196566.587516.anim8rfsk-cox.net@news.easynews.com>,
anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:

> Still, even before the film came out, it was clear it would make Welch a
> star. The advance poster -- Welch in the animal-skin two-piece -- became
> the linchpin of the entire marketing campaign ("Mankind's first bikini,"
> boasted one tagline). Although the movie was not a hit, Welch was. "A
> marvelous breathing monument to womankind," raved The New York Times.
> Time magazine listed her cavewoman costume in its "Top Ten Bikinis in Pop
> Culture."

It might have been worth mentioning that younger generations became
familiar with her when that poster (after ones with Rita Hayworth and
Marilyn Monroe) was used to cover up Tim Robbins' escape hole in The
Shawshank Redemption.

> She was also lucky. She arrived in L.A. in 1963 with no car, no connections
> and $200 in her pocket; within a year, she was landing roles in Elvis
> Presley movies (1964's Roustabout)

What character did she play in Roustabout? That's the first time I've
heard that and she isn't listed in the cast at all in a book I have
about Elvis movies. I knew an uncredited Teri Garr was one of the
carnival chorus girls but she didn't have a speaking part.

> Mother, Jugs & Speed (1976)

Not the most subtle movie title ever conceived, lol. At least that
didn't have an X rating.

>https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/raquel-welch-dead-star-one-million-years-bc-myra-breckinridge-1235326714/

>Raquel Welch, Star of 'One Million Years B.C.,' Dies at 82

>. . .

>Throughout the 1970s, Welch continued to sharpen her acting chops. In '72,
>she starred as a single mom on the professional roller derby circuit in
>Kansas City Bomber (Jodie Foster, in one of her first film roles, played
>her daughter). She co-starred with Charlton Heston, Oliver Reed and Faye
>Dunaway in The Three Musketeers (1973) and The Four Musketeers (1974) and
>with Richard Benjamin in The Last of Sheila (1973). There also were leads
>in James Ivory's The Wild Party (1975); Mother, Jugs & Speed (1976), an
>ambulance-company comedy with Bill Cosby and Harvey Keitel (she played
>Jugs); and the French action film Animal (1977), in which she co-starred
>with Jean-Paul Belmondo.

Mother, Jugs & Speed wasn't a good movie.

>. . .

Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
>> https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/raquel-welch-dead-star-one-million-years-bc-myra-breckinridge-1235326714/
>
>> Raquel Welch, Star of 'One Million Years B.C.,' Dies at 82
>
>> . . .
>
>> Throughout the 1970s, Welch continued to sharpen her acting chops. In '72,
>> she starred as a single mom on the professional roller derby circuit in
>> Kansas City Bomber (Jodie Foster, in one of her first film roles, played
>> her daughter). She co-starred with Charlton Heston, Oliver Reed and Faye
>> Dunaway in The Three Musketeers (1973) and The Four Musketeers (1974) and
>> with Richard Benjamin in The Last of Sheila (1973). There also were leads
>> in James Ivory's The Wild Party (1975); Mother, Jugs & Speed (1976), an
>> ambulance-company comedy with Bill Cosby and Harvey Keitel (she played
>> Jugs); and the French action film Animal (1977), in which she co-starred
>> with Jean-Paul Belmondo.
>
> Mother, Jugs & Speed wasn't a good movie.
>
>> . . .
>

I was horrified that they mentioned Myra Breckinridge at all much less in
the top two. But, transgender.

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.

On 2/16/23 3:16 AM, anim8rfsk wrote:
> Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
>>> https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/raquel-welch-dead-star-one-million-years-bc-myra-breckinridge-1235326714/
>>
>>> Raquel Welch, Star of 'One Million Years B.C.,' Dies at 82
>>
>>> . . .
>>
>>> Throughout the 1970s, Welch continued to sharpen her acting chops. In '72,
>>> she starred as a single mom on the professional roller derby circuit in
>>> Kansas City Bomber (Jodie Foster, in one of her first film roles, played
>>> her daughter). She co-starred with Charlton Heston, Oliver Reed and Faye
>>> Dunaway in The Three Musketeers (1973) and The Four Musketeers (1974) and
>>> with Richard Benjamin in The Last of Sheila (1973). There also were leads
>>> in James Ivory's The Wild Party (1975); Mother, Jugs & Speed (1976), an
>>> ambulance-company comedy with Bill Cosby and Harvey Keitel (she played
>>> Jugs); and the French action film Animal (1977), in which she co-starred
>>> with Jean-Paul Belmondo.
>>
>> Mother, Jugs & Speed wasn't a good movie.
>>
>>> . . .
>>
>
> I was horrified that they mentioned Myra Breckinridge at all much less in
> the top two. But, transgender.

Yes, obviously you'd feel threatened by this.

In article
<super70s-AE7DCB.22051315022023@reader01.eternal-september.org>,
super70s <super70s@super70s.invalid> wrote:

> > Mother, Jugs & Speed (1976)
>
> Not the most subtle movie title ever conceived, lol. At least that
> didn't have an X rating.

It was also a TV series for a very little while. The title was changed
to Mother, Juggs and Speed.

anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:
>Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:

>>>https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/raquel-welch-dead-star-one-million-years-bc-myra-breckinridge-1235326714/

>>>Raquel Welch, Star of 'One Million Years B.C.,' Dies at 82
>>>. . .
>
>>>Throughout the 1970s, Welch continued to sharpen her acting chops. In '72,
>>>she starred as a single mom on the professional roller derby circuit in
>>>Kansas City Bomber (Jodie Foster, in one of her first film roles, played
>>>her daughter). She co-starred with Charlton Heston, Oliver Reed and Faye
>>>Dunaway in The Three Musketeers (1973) and The Four Musketeers (1974) and
>>>with Richard Benjamin in The Last of Sheila (1973). There also were leads
>>>in James Ivory's The Wild Party (1975); Mother, Jugs & Speed (1976), an
>>>ambulance-company comedy with Bill Cosby and Harvey Keitel (she played
>>>Jugs); and the French action film Animal (1977), in which she co-starred
>>>with Jean-Paul Belmondo.
>>Mother, Jugs & Speed wasn't a good movie.
>>>. . .

>I was horrified that they mentioned Myra Breckinridge at all much less in
>the top two. But, transgender.

I've had that movie sitting on the TiVo for years and haven't watched
it. I've read terrible things about the production; the obit mentioned
the director would take off for 7 hour thinking breaks with cast and
crew sitting on set.

Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
> anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:
>> Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
>
>>>> https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/raquel-welch-dead-star-one-million-years-bc-myra-breckinridge-1235326714/
>
>>>> Raquel Welch, Star of 'One Million Years B.C.,' Dies at 82
>
>>>> . . .
>>
>>>> Throughout the 1970s, Welch continued to sharpen her acting chops. In '72,
>>>> she starred as a single mom on the professional roller derby circuit in
>>>> Kansas City Bomber (Jodie Foster, in one of her first film roles, played
>>>> her daughter). She co-starred with Charlton Heston, Oliver Reed and Faye
>>>> Dunaway in The Three Musketeers (1973) and The Four Musketeers (1974) and
>>>> with Richard Benjamin in The Last of Sheila (1973). There also were leads
>>>> in James Ivory's The Wild Party (1975); Mother, Jugs & Speed (1976), an
>>>> ambulance-company comedy with Bill Cosby and Harvey Keitel (she played
>>>> Jugs); and the French action film Animal (1977), in which she co-starred
>>>> with Jean-Paul Belmondo.
>
>>> Mother, Jugs & Speed wasn't a good movie.
>
>>>> . . .
>
>> I was horrified that they mentioned Myra Breckinridge at all much less in
>> the top two. But, transgender.
>
> I've had that movie sitting on the TiVo for years and haven't watched
> it. I've read terrible things about the production; the obit mentioned
> the director would take off for 7 hour thinking breaks with cast and
> crew sitting on set.
>

I saw it in the theater.

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.

anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:
>Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
>>anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:
>>>>>https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/raquel-welch-dead-star-one-million-years-bc-myra-breckinridge-1235326714/

>>>>> . . .

>>>I was horrified that they mentioned Myra Breckinridge at all much less in
>>>the top two. But, transgender.

>>I've had that movie sitting on the TiVo for years and haven't watched
>>it. I've read terrible things about the production; the obit mentioned
>>the director would take off for 7 hour thinking breaks with cast and
>>crew sitting on set.

>I saw it in the theater.

You lost a bet?

Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
> anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:
>> Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
>>> anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:
>
>>>>>> https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/raquel-welch-dead-star-one-million-years-bc-myra-breckinridge-1235326714/
>
>>>>>> . . .
>
>>>> I was horrified that they mentioned Myra Breckinridge at all much less in
>>>> the top two. But, transgender.
>
>>> I've had that movie sitting on the TiVo for years and haven't watched
>>> it. I've read terrible things about the production; the obit mentioned
>>> the director would take off for 7 hour thinking breaks with cast and
>>> crew sitting on set.
>
>> I saw it in the theater.
>
> You lost a bet?
>

I think we must’ve been hoping to see Racquel naked.

It was at a drive-in, and the image was so dark we could barely even tell
what was happening.

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.

On Thu, 16 Feb 2023 10:40:44 -0700, anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:

>Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
>> anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:
>>> Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
>>>> anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:
>>
>>>>>>> https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/raquel-welch-dead-star-one-million-years-bc-myra-breckinridge-1235326714/
>>
>>>>>>> . . .
>>
>>>>> I was horrified that they mentioned Myra Breckinridge at all much less in
>>>>> the top two. But, transgender.
>>
>>>> I've had that movie sitting on the TiVo for years and haven't watched
>>>> it. I've read terrible things about the production; the obit mentioned
>>>> the director would take off for 7 hour thinking breaks with cast and
>>>> crew sitting on set.
>>
>>> I saw it in the theater.
>>
>> You lost a bet?
>>
>
>I think we must’ve been hoping to see Racquel naked.
>
>It was at a drive-in, and the image was so dark we could barely even tell
>what was happening.

One of my guilty pleasures was her movie, Fathom. I haven't seen that in
decades but remember it being a cute spy spoof where she's a skydiver
enlisted into an espionage plot.

EGK <memyself@null.net> wrote:
> On Thu, 16 Feb 2023 10:40:44 -0700, anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:
>
>> Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
>>> anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:
>>>> Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
>>>>> anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>>>>>> https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/raquel-welch-dead-star-one-million-years-bc-myra-breckinridge-1235326714/
>>>
>>>>>>>> . . .
>>>
>>>>>> I was horrified that they mentioned Myra Breckinridge at all much less in
>>>>>> the top two. But, transgender.
>>>
>>>>> I've had that movie sitting on the TiVo for years and haven't watched
>>>>> it. I've read terrible things about the production; the obit mentioned
>>>>> the director would take off for 7 hour thinking breaks with cast and
>>>>> crew sitting on set.
>>>
>>>> I saw it in the theater.
>>>
>>> You lost a bet?
>>>
>>
>> I think we must’ve been hoping to see Racquel naked.
>>
>> It was at a drive-in, and the image was so dark we could barely even tell
>> what was happening.
>
> One of my guilty pleasures was her movie, Fathom. I haven't seen that in
> decades but remember it being a cute spy spoof where she's a skydiver
> enlisted into an espionage plot.
>

Yeah, I saw that on TV years and years and years ago. Didn’t they say she
was named fathom because she was 6 feet tall? When she barely topped 5
feet?

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.

On 2/16/23 10:17 PM, RichA wrote:
> On Thursday, 16 February 2023 at 12:40:49 UTC-5, anim8rfsk wrote:
>> Adam H. Kerman <a...@chinet.com> wrote:
>>> anim8rfsk <anim...@cox.net> wrote:
>>>> Adam H. Kerman <a...@chinet.com> wrote:
>>>>> anim8rfsk <anim...@cox.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>>>>>> https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/raquel-welch-dead-star-one-million-years-bc-myra-breckinridge-1235326714/
>>>
>>>>>>>> . . .
>>>
>>>>>> I was horrified that they mentioned Myra Breckinridge at all much less in
>>>>>> the top two. But, transgender.
>>>
>>>>> I've had that movie sitting on the TiVo for years and haven't watched
>>>>> it. I've read terrible things about the production; the obit mentioned
>>>>> the director would take off for 7 hour thinking breaks with cast and
>>>>> crew sitting on set.
>>>
>>>> I saw it in the theater.
>>>
>>> You lost a bet?
>>>
>> I think we must’ve been hoping to see Racquel naked.
>>
>> It was at a drive-in, and the image was so dark we could barely even tell
>> what was happening.
>> --
>> The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.
>
> Ebert's movie, "Beyond the Valley Of the Dolls" was better.

Ebert wrote the script. Russ Meyer directed. It's customary to say
it's the director's movie, hence the term director. You're cognitive
abilities have turned to complete shite at this point.

Another transgender or "conversion" nutjob gets insulted and takes a
guy's head off with a sword.

On 2/16/23 11:40 AM, anim8rfsk wrote:
> Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
>> anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:
>>> Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
>>>> anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:
>>
>>>>>>> https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/raquel-welch-dead-star-one-million-years-bc-myra-breckinridge-1235326714/
>>
>>>>>>> . . .
>>
>>>>> I was horrified that they mentioned Myra Breckinridge at all much less in
>>>>> the top two. But, transgender.
>>
>>>> I've had that movie sitting on the TiVo for years and haven't watched
>>>> it. I've read terrible things about the production; the obit mentioned
>>>> the director would take off for 7 hour thinking breaks with cast and
>>>> crew sitting on set.
>>
>>> I saw it in the theater.
>>
>> You lost a bet?
>>
>
> I think we must’ve been hoping to see Racquel naked.

Wouldn't prevent you from being a closet homosexual though.

> It was at a drive-in, and the image was so dark we could barely even tell
> what was happening.
>