The 82-year-old American actress Raquel Welch has passed away. She is frequently credited with helping to establish the modern action heroine in Hollywood movies.
The Hollywood star died peacefully on Wednesday morning following a brief illness, according to her manager.
Welch rose to fame in the 1960s as an international sex icon thanks to her portrayal of a bikini-clad cavewoman in the 1966 movie One Million Years BC.
In addition, she received a Golden Globe nomination for The Three Musketeers in 1974.
Welch, who was given the name Jo Raquel Tejada in 1940, was raised in California, where she competed in teen beauty pageants and later worked as a local weather forecaster.
The divorced mother of two worked as a cocktail waitress and a model for the Neiman Marcus clothing store while she was temporarily residing in Dallas, Texas.
Her big break came in 1964, not long after she returned to California, when cameo appearances in the Elvis Presley musical Roustabout and the film A House Is Not A Home gave her recognition.
Two years later, she gained notoriety for her back-to-back appearances in the fantasy film One Million Years BC and the science fiction film Fantastic Voyage.
Welch only had a few lines in the latter film, but promotional photos of her in a revealing two-piece deerskin bikini propelled her to fame as a top pin-up of the time.
Despite her outward appearance, she has long complained about how her body is portrayed, once stating that it is not in her nature or how she was raised for her to be a sex symbol.
"Becoming one is probably the most adorable, glamorous, and fortunate misunderstanding," she continued.
Welch later addressed her image in her memoir, Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage, where she talked about her upbringing, the difficulties she faced as a young single mother in Hollywood, and why she would never lie about her age.
Welch appeared in more than 30 films and 50 television programs over the course of a career spanning more than five decades.
She portrayed the love interest of Frank Sinatra's character in Lady in Cement in 1968, the title transgender heroine in Myra Breckenridge in 1970, and the lead role in the 1987 TV drama Right to Die, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe.
Later in life, she also introduced a line of wigs under her own name, a jewelry and skincare collection, and a Mac Cosmetics makeup collection.
Latanne "Tahnee" Welch, who is also an actress, and Damon Welch, her son, are among her survivors.
