"The most desired woman of the 1970s" Raquel Welch: actress, famous for bikini

American actress and singer Raquel Welch first drew attention to himself, performing one of the leading roles in the 1966 movie "Fantastic voyage". But to our audience as the rest of the world, Welch is likely best known for the film "one Million years BC" of the same year, where the actress says only three phrases and appears in a bikini made out of deer skin.

It was after the release of this movie, Raquel Welch gained fame and became a sex symbol of his time. And her photos in a bikini became a best selling poster.

Jo Raquel Tejada was born September 5, 1940 in Chicago in a family of Bolivian Armando Carlos Tejada of Enciso, aeronautical engineer, and an Englishwoman Josephine Sarah Hall. The actress has a younger brother James and younger sister Gail Carol.

The family moved to San Diego, California when Raquel was two years old. From childhood she was distinguished by the artistry, studied ballet up to 17 years, but left him because, according to the teacher, she was not in the right figure.

With 14 years participated in beauty contests, mainly winning. Parents divorced when Welch graduated from school.

In 1958, future actress graduated from high school and a year later married her high school friend, James Welch, whose name and left after a divorce in 1964. The couple had two children — a son Damon and daughter of Latin.

Only Raquel Welch was married four times but her last marriage to Richard Palmer ended in divorce in 2008. In an interview the actress said that the intention to marry.

Welch studied at the University of California at San Diego, but due to divorce and being a mother of two, and never finished it. Participated in several productions by the local theatre.

He worked at a local TV station KFMB as a leading weather forecast. After the divorce, moved to Dallas, where he worked as a model at Neiman Marcus and a cocktail waitress.

In 1963 he moved to Los Angeles and started going on auditions. Met a Hollywood agent Patrick Curtis, a former childhood star, who became her Manager. Together they came up with the image of a sex symbol and got rid of the real name Tejada below it is not perceived as a Latin American actress, and took the surname of her first husband Welch.

The first characteristic, the role went to Welch in the movie 1965 A Swingin’ Summer. In the same year she received an award as the best debutante and it was noticed by the wife of producer Saul David, who recommended her appointment to the position of the company 20th Century Fox.

Welch was chosen for the lead role in the film "Fantastic voyage," which brought her fame. After that Fox allowed her to star in the film "one Million years BC", the remake of the painting in 1940.

The actress appeared before the audience in a bikini, which enthusiastic critics have called the "canonical image of the 1960s". The newspaper the New York Times film review called the actress "a beautiful and living monument of the female kind." "Although she said during the film three sentences, her curvy figure in a fur bikini made her a star, and the dream of millions of young people."

Publicity photos for the film became the best selling poster and Raquel Welch called the sex symbol of his time.

Thanks to the beauty and popularity of Actresses Playboy named her the "Most desirable woman" of the 1970s.

In 1974 he received a Golden globe as "Best actress in a musical or Comedy" for the film "the Three Musketeers", where she played Constance. She was nominated for a Golden globe for her role in the drama "Right to die" in 1987.

In 1979 posed for Playboy photo shoot, not fully obragas. Hugh Hefner was extremely pleased with its condition not to undress, but later admitted that Raquel Welch "is the sexiest woman in the world and without having to take my clothes off. She refused to undress, and I stepped out. The resulting photos proved her innocence."

Throughout his career, Welch refused to undress completely on the screen. She once said: "what I do on the screen in no way be equated to what I do in my personal life. Off screen I reserved and strict, do not like the hype".