Here is the person biography:
Raquel Welch was born Jo Raquel Tejada on September 5, 1940, in Chicago, Illinois. She was the first of three children to Bolivian-born Armando Carlos Tejada, an aerospace engineer, and his wife, Josephine Sarah (Hall). The family moved to San Diego, California, when Raquel was two years old. She studied at San Diego State College on a scholarship, where she became a local TV weather girl and eventually quit college.
Raquel married her high school sweetheart, James Welch, in 1959, and they had two children, Damon Welch and actress Tahnee Welch. After the end of her marriage in 1962, she moved to Dallas, Texas, where she modeled for Neiman-Marcus and worked as a barmaid. She later returned to California and made the rounds of film and TV auditions, eventually landing her first major film role in "A Swingin' Summer" (1965).
Raquel's breakthrough role came in "One Million Years B.C." (1966),where she played the iconic role of a prehistoric woman in a furry bikini. The film's success catapulted her to international stardom, and she went on to appear in a string of films, including "Bedazzled" (1967),"Fathom" (1967),"100 Rifles" (1969),and "Myra Breckinridge" (1970).
Despite her success, Raquel struggled with typecasting and box office bombs. She won a Golden Globe for her role in "The Three Musketeers" (1973) and appeared in several TV movies, including "The Legend of Walks Far Woman" (1980) and "Right to Die" (1987). She also developed a lucrative career in infomercials and exercise videos.
Raquel married three times, to producer/agent Patrick Curtis, director André Weinfeld, and pizza parlor owner Richie Palmer. She had no children with her last two husbands. Raquel died on February 15, 2023, at the age of 82, after suffering a cardiac arrest at her Los Angeles home. She had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
