Rare Vintage Photographs Of Raquel Welch That Even Superfans Probably Won’t Remember

Welch adored acting, but she was more interested in ballet dancing as a youth. She even fell for her teacher, Irene Clark. “Then came the day when this ballet goddess broke my heart,” Welch wrote in her 2010 autobiography, Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage. “When I was 17, Irene told me that I would never become a classical ballerina. She thought I would make a better comedienne.”

Even from a young age Welch got attention from males, which she described in her book as “uncomfortable, but intoxicating.” Most of it was unwanted though, with guys making various advances and even trying to lure her into their car. Luckily she learned to fend off creepers, a talent which served her well throughout the rest of her life. 

Welch’s popularity gave her the edge in landing a job as weather girl for San Diego news channel KFMB. The actress wrote in her autobiography, “It was a popular morning show called Sun Up and a great opportunity I didn’t want to miss. So I didn’t mind that I had to rise and shine each morning at 5:00 a.m. and leave early to tape the show.” 

Of course, Welch became famous for her allure, both on- and off-screen. This was something she and Curtis purposefully played up to for her rebranding. A 1964 issue of The Journal News wrote a feature of her titled “Starlet is Seeking Sultry Roles,” in which Welch said, “I think I can fit into roles that ask for glamor, sultriness and sexiness.”

Raquel’s surname was actually Tejada, but Patrick Curtis — her Hollywood agent and future husband — didn’t want her unfairly typecasted. Instead, he recommended Raquel used the surname of the husband from whom she was separated. At his insistence she started using the stage name Raquel Welch, and several small TV roles followed her rebranding.

That’s right, Welch had a husband before she made it big in Hollywood. Actually, she had a family, including a daughter called Tahnee and a son named Damon. Unfortunately the marriage dissolved and she left her life behind. “I have no defense for my foolishness, except to say that I was young and pigheaded,” she wrote. “My children are the best thing in my life… that I haven’t done.”

Welch attributes her famous figure to the years of ballet training, but after the ballet when she next stood on stage it wasn’t as a stand-up comic. You won’t be surprised to hear that she found success as a beauty-queen contestant instead. The future actress won several titles, including Miss San Diego, Miss Photogenic and Miss Contour. And unlike many other girls her age, Welch enjoyed wearing high heels!  

That doesn’t mean Welch was content to be typecast in the stereotypical beauty role, though: she had her sights set on bigger things. “I want to play the girl with problems,” she informed The Journal News, “not the pretty dumb girl who lives next door. There are too many who fit the part around town right now. I’m not the Anne Bancroft type.”

Welch’s sultry image actually went against the conservative values of her family upbringing. All the same, she later told magazine Closer Weekly that she considered it a role, like any other in an actress’ arsenal. And Welch admitted to feeling more intimidated by the expectations of her image than anyone else was. She feared she wouldn’t live up to it, but she remains glamorous to this day.

You see, despite her outward confidence, the actress wasn’t always comfortable in her own skin. And there was a lot on show for the time period! In 1985 Welch told Barbara Walters that she occasionally felt vulnerable in front of the camera. Even so, Welch admits that she never felt pressured by Hollywood to conform to the image. It was all her, and she owned it.

Welch became famous for her portrayal as Loana in 1966, which was even referenced over three decades later in 1994’s The Shawshank Redemption. Critic Camille Paglia described Welch’s depiction of Loana as “the indelible image of a woman as queen of nature. She was a lioness — fierce, passionate and dangerously physical.” In that sense, she had universal appeal. 

Along her way through the annals of Hollywood, Welch was almost part of an exclusive and iconic group of sex symbols. She nearly featured in the 1965 James Bond movie Thunderball as Bond girl Domino! In the end, Welch was given permission to drop out of her contract to star in Fantastic Voyage, and Claudine Auger claimed the role in her stead. 

Welch once told The Newark Advocate, “I really got nowhere, even in Hollywood, until I bought a few sexy, clinging, low-necked dresses. And I’ve never stopped working since.” In Beyond the Cleavage she elaborated, “The irony of it all is that even though people thought of me as a sex symbol, in reality I was a single mother of two small children!” 

Welch wasn’t a star student at school by any means. Like many young teenagers, swirling hormones saw to that. “Love distracted me from my studies,” she explained in her book. The subject of her affections was no other than James Welch, her future husband and father to her children. So at least Welch’s feelings weren’t misplaced!

Did you know that Welch was just as fiery as the tough characters she played such as skydiver Fathom in the movie of the same name? She even defended her mother against her abusive father by threatening him with a poker! It was a defining moment in Welch’s life that made her realize just how strong she could be in real life. 

“After four husbands, I don’t think I’m a good candidate for wifedom,” Welch wrote in her autobiography. “I like my independence too much... A life of female servitude doesn’t appeal to me mainly because I saw my mother being taken for granted.”

Speaking of music, the popular sex symbols of her time were Welch’s idols. She was particularly fond of Elvis and his music, which apparently dominated her record player. Although she was new to the world of romance at the time, Welch had a big crush on The King — much like everyone else of her generation. She even went to his first live concert! 

Elvis wasn’t the only star Welch found enchanting. She was also fond of Marilyn Monroe, although her feelings were mixed on the subject. Welch wrote, “Marilyn oozed availability…. What troubled me back then was the fact that as hypnotic as Marilyn was to watch, she gave the impression of someone who could be easily taken advantage of and who couldn’t fight back… like my mother.”

When Welch first got her part in Fantastic Voyage she was actually quite disappointed. She revealed in Beyond the Cleavage, “Here I was ready to snuggle up to Sean Connery but was assigned to eight months floating through the human bloodstream in a wet suit instead.” Considering the successful career that followed, it turned out to be the right move.

Fantastic Voyage was a surprising success, and Welch has a canny observation on the topic. “Since the ’60s, sexy girls always seem to end up in sci-fi features,” she wrote. “And they’re still doing it. Look at Jessica Alba and Megan Fox.” She was overjoyed with the success and hoped it would lead to “more challenging roles.” 

Welch proved that she didn’t have to wear skimpy clothes to be sexy, as evidenced by her conservative naval uniform in the 1970s movie Myra Breckinridge. But her most iconic role revealed more skin. Even so, Welch didn’t think she’d be remembered for her role as cavewoman Loana in One Million Years B.C. History reveals she was mistaken. 

On the subject of her Loana role Welch wrote, “In one way the image was very apt, because I knew I was going to have to fight to stay afloat in the most treacherous of identities — the role of sex symbol. There I was, stranded and easy prey in that desolate realm of overnight success. But I was nobody’s pushover.” 

Despite only having four words in One Million Years B.C., Welch performed admirably using only body language. Still, while the rest of the cast were wrapped in warm layers, the lead actress’ bikini did little to protect her from the freezing cold. She came down with a case of tonsillitis during filming because, she was told, “Cave girls don’t have parkas.” 

In 1972 Welch played roller-derby skater K.C. Carr in Kansas City Bomber, and apparently it was the first filming experience she genuinely enjoyed. She found kinship with the professional skaters with whom she worked, since they were labeled with a butch image just as people had preconceptions about Welch herself. 

Welch was once embroiled in a lawsuit over the film Cannery Row which she only worked on for a few weeks! MGM apparently let her go for contract violation: Welch, then 40, did her hair and makeup at home instead of on set. The studio quickly replaced her with Debra Winger, who was 25 at the time.

When she wasn’t offered a replacement role, Welch took MGM to court for contract breach and announced they used her image as a marketing tool for Cannery Row. So how did it work out? The court ruled in Welch’s favor and awarded her $10 million, yet the incident damaged her Hollywood reputation. 

In 2015 Welch told newspaper The Hollywood Reporter, “I needed to clear my name. But since that time, I’ve never starred in a major motion picture. That’s not the outcome I was looking for.” Fortunately, there were other avenues of entertainment, such as the stage and even the small screen. Where else would Welch get the opportunity to meet fellow sex symbol, Miss Piggy? 

That’s right, alongside a well-received performance on Broadway in the show Woman of the Year, Welch made a decent career appearing on TV shows such as Mork & Mindy, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and The Muppet Show. She also showed her acting range in a host of TV movies. 

Even though Welch’s court case gave her a prickly reputation in Hollywood, she wasn’t ostracized entirely. You might have seen her in 2001’s Legally Blonde as Windham Vandermark. If you haven’t been following her life outside of film, you may be interested to know she went back to her roots, in a sense. 

Actually, the fitness community welcomed Welch back with open arms! After all, the actress always had to keep a slim figure to conform to the Hollywood sex-symbol ideal. And remember that she had a history in ballet. Well, she filled the hole in her movie career with a range of videos and books called The Raquel Welch Total Beauty and Fitness Program.

Back in 1984 when she released her first book, Welch revealed some of her fitness secrets. She wrote, “The fact is that the mind and the body are interrelated. When [women] hear that I have given up salt, sugar, oil and processed food, they are aghast.” She described her style, which incorporated Hatha yoga, as “when East meets Welch.” 

Welch also used her reputation to its full extent by adding sex appeal to her book, and even got the U.S. Olympic male swimming team to assist! She conceived the idea during her aforementioned Broadway show Woman of the Year as an alternative to celebrity fitness guru Jane Fonda. Welch wrote, “I love Jane, but that book was sort of, well, tacky.”  

We mentioned earlier how Welch changed her Hispanic surname — Tejada — to avoid typecasting. Well, did you know she omitted part of her first name, too? Yep, her real name isn’t Raquel but Jo-Raquel. Still, she didn’t alter it for Hollywood. Welch simply decided during her school years that she preferred Raquel, and the rest is history. 

In dropping the name Jo, Welch had subconsciously moved closer towards her Latina heritage. During her life the actress felt detached from her Hispanic roots, especially since she only spoke a little Spanish. According to Fox News in 2017, Welch said, “I think language is very important to your identity and not having that... I sometimes feel isolated from that part of me.” 

Even though she lacks the language, Welch never abandoned her heritage in her heart. “I still feel very, very Hispanic,” Fox News quoted her as saying. “The essence of who I am is a Latina.” And the National Association of Latino Independent Producers agrees with her: in 2015 they presented Welch with a Lifetime Achievement Award!

Speaking of heritage and bloodlines, you may be wondering what happened with Welch’s children. She revealed in her book Beyond the Cleavage, “Fortunately, my children and I have a good relationship, and they’re still my great joy. My son, Damon, became a computer consultant engineer, and my daughter, Tahnee, a talented actress known for her role in Cocoon.”

It’s clear that Welch’s children mean the world to her. “They are a source of pride and hope to me because of the kind of people they’ve turned out to be,” she wrote. “They have always grounded me and given me purpose, as well as the moral courage to follow my better convictions. Now if they’ll just give me grandchildren, I’ll be complete.”

It’s unfortunate that Welch’s first marriage dissolved, but things worked out for her ex-husband James. She’s on friendly terms with him now, too. Welch didn’t give up on marriage, though! She wed three other guys — her relationship to Patrick Curtis began in 1961 and ended in 1972, while Welch’s decade-long marriage to Andre Weinfeld started in 1980. 

Welch stated that her five-year marriage to Richard Palmer in 1999 would be her last. She’ll turn 82 in September 2022, which is as good a reason as any to celebrate her incredible life. She’s learned so much along the way, and she’s shared a lot of it in her book. She sums it all succinctly at the end of the first chapter in Beyond the Cleavage.

Welch wrote, “I’ve noticed a tendency in my gender to underestimate the value of being a member of the female sex. I’ve fought that tendency in myself, and have come to adopt a more positive and empowering attitude toward the art of being a woman.”