Short Biography

Jo Raquel Tejada best known by her stage name Raquel Welch, is an American actress who reached fame during the 1960s as one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood.

Welch was born in Chicago, Illinois, the oldest of three children born to Armando Carlos Tejada Urquizo and Josephine Sarah Hall. Her father, who immigrated from La Paz, Bolivia, was an aerospace engineer of Castilian Spanish descent; her mother was an Irish-American In 1942, Armando Tejada was transferred to San Diego, California. The family moved to the suburb of La Jolla, where Welch grew up. She took dancing lessons as a child, and was winning beauty pageants by the time she was a teenager. Among her titles were "Miss Photogenic," "Miss La Jolla," "Miss Contour," and "Miss San Diego." In 1957, she was named "Miss Fairest of the Fair" at the San Diego County Fair. After attending La Jolla High School, she entered San Diego State College on a theater arts scholarship. The following year she married a high school sweetheart, James Welch.

In 1959, Welch played the title role in the famous Ramona Pageant, a yearly outdoor play at Hemet, California, which is based on the novel Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson.


Raquel Welch as Loana in One Million Years B.C. (1966)She became a weather forecaster at KFMB, a local San Diego television station. Because of her heavy schedule, she decided to leave college. Her marriage broke up and she moved with her two children to Dallas, Texas, where she modeled for Neiman Marcus and worked as a cocktail hostess, intending to move on to New York City from there.

Instead, Welch moved back to California. She found a place in Los Angeles and started making the rounds of the movie studios. She was cast in bit parts in two films and in the television shows Bewitched, McHale`s Navy, The Hollywood Palace, and The Virginian. She auditioned for the part of "Mary Ann" on Gilligan`s Island but lost out to Dawn Wells.[citation needed]

Welch`s first featured role was in A Swingin` Summer, which led to a contract with 20th Century Fox. She was then cast in the Sci-fi hit Fantastic Voyage (1966), which finally made her a star.

On loan out to Hammer Studios in Britain, Welch starred in the remake of One Million Years B.C.. After her appearance as Lust incarnate in the hitBedazzled, she returned to the United States and appeared in a Western with James Stewart and Dean Martin titled Bandolero!, which was followed by Lady in Cement with Frank Sinatra.


Myra Breckinridge (1970)Welch`s first real starring role was in Myra Breckinridge with Mae West. She took the role as the film`s transsexual heroine in an attempt to be taken seriously as an actress, but the movie turned out to be a dismal failure.

Welch became one of the leading sex symbols of the 1960s and 1970s. Her most memorable publicity still, where she was clad in a furry animal-skin bikini for One Million Years B.C., became a bestselling poster. Playboy called her the "Most Desired Woman" of the 1970s. Despite her iconic sex symbol status and having appeared in numerous films and magazine layouts, including Playboy, Welch has never appeared or posed nude.

Welch was due to star in the 1982 adaptation of Cannery Row, but was fired by the producers only a few days into production (allegedly, she was taking too long to get ready each day). She was replaced with Debra Winger. Welch successfully sued, collecting a multi-million dollar award, but

Miscellaneous Information

Measurements

Bust: 37" D  Waist: 26"  Hips: 36"

Friends and Family

Josephine Sarah Hall [Mother] (Irish-American.)

Armando Carlos Tejada Urquizo [Father] (immigrated from La Paz, Bolivia)

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