Timeline Raquel Welch

American actress and cultural icon who rose to international fame in the 1960s. Born Jo Raquel Tejada to a Bolivian father and American mother, she became one of the defining sex symbols of her era following her appearance in One Million Years B.C. (1966). She won a Golden Globe for The Three Musketeers and had a career spanning over fifty years.

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Raquel Welch 15

1940 Raquel Welch born in Chicago Born Jo Raquel Tejada in Chicago, Illinois. Her father was a Bolivian aerospace engineer and her mother was of English ancestry. The family moved to San Diego when she was two.
1958 – 1959 Beauty Queen and College Won the title of Miss Photogenic, Miss La Jolla and Miss San Diego as a teenager. Entered San Diego State College on a drama scholarship in 1958.
1959 First Marriage and Beauty Titles Married high school sweetheart James Welch, taking his surname. Had already won several teen beauty titles including Miss Photogenic and Miss La Jolla.
1964 Early Hollywood Roles Made her screen debut with small roles in films including Roustabout with Elvis Presley and A House Is Not a Home.
1966 Fantastic Voyage and One Million Years B.C. Starred in Fantastic Voyage and One Million Years B.C. in the same year. A poster of Welch in a prehistoric doeskin bikini from the latter film became one of the best-selling pin-up posters of the decade and made her an international sex symbol.
1967 Bedazzled and Fathom Played Lust in the comedy Bedazzled with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, and starred as a glamorous secret agent in the spy spoof Fathom.
1969 – 1971 USO Tours with Bob Hope Toured with Bob Hope entertaining US troops in Vietnam, missing Christmas at home for three years. Her son Damon later said this was the achievement she was most proud of.
1970 Myra Breckinridge Played the title role in the controversial film adaptation of Gore Vidal's Myra Breckinridge, portraying a transgender revolutionary.
1971 Hannie Caulder Starred in the revenge western Hannie Caulder, becoming one of the first women to play the lead role — not the love interest — in a western. The film later inspired Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill.
1973 – 1974 The Three Musketeers Won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy for her performance as Constance Bonacieux in The Three Musketeers (1973), reprising the role in The Four Musketeers (1974).
1987 Right to Die Received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in Television Film for her dramatic role in Right to Die.
1996 Hollywood Walk of Fame Received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, honouring her contribution to the film industry.
2001 – 2002 Embracing Latina Heritage Played Latina roles in Tortilla Soup and the PBS series American Family, openly embracing her Bolivian heritage and identity as a Latina actress in Hollywood.
2017 Final Film Role Made her final film appearance in How to Be a Latin Lover.
2023 Raquel Welch dies in Los Angeles Died at her home in Los Angeles at the age of 82. Her death certificate listed cardiac arrest as the cause, with Alzheimer's disease as an underlying factor.