Raquel Welch

Mother of Tahnee Welch and Damon Welch.

Miss Fairest of the Fair in San Diego, California.

Attended and graduated from La Jolla High School in La Jolla, California .

Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#18).

Her father, Armando Carlos Tejada Urquizo (1911-1976), was Bolivian.

Husband Richard Palmer is a restaurateur. The couple are now separated.

She was fired from Cannery Row and replaced by Debra Winger. She then sued Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and won a $10 million judgement.

Among her many beauty contest titles were "Miss Photogenic", "Miss Contour" and "Miss Maid of California" - all won while she was in her teens.

She broke her wrist in an automobile crash in Los Angeles, California on August 30, 2003.

Mentioned in the theme song of the 1980s television series "The Fall Guy" .

Had a notorious backstage feud with the indomitable Mae West on the set of Myra Breckinridge .

Auditioned for the role of Mary Ann Summers on "Gilligans Island" , which went to Dawn Wells.

Her former assistant was Polly Brown.

Was a former cocktail waitress.

Her ex-husband, Director Producer Andr Weinfeld , had a property on the private island of Mustique.

Son Damon Welch married the daughter of England and Yorkshire cricket legend Fred Trueman.

One of the bombshells shown in The Shawshank Redemption (The other two were Rita Hayworth and Marilyn Monroe ).

In 1970, she accepted the Oscar for "Best Actress in a Supporting Role" on behalf of Goldie Hawn , who wasnt present at the awards ceremony

Second husband, producer Patrick Curtis , reportedly was one of several infants who took turns playing the baby of Olivia de Havilland in Gone with the Wind .

Profiled in the book "Film Fatales: Women in Espionage Films and Television, 1962-1973" by Tom Lisanti and Louis Paul (McFarland, 2002).

Ex-stepmother of Damon Curtis.

Ex-girlfriend of costume designer Ron Talsky , who also designed her clothes for the films Kansas City Bomber and The Last of Sheila .

Was promoted as a sex symbol by her then-husband Patrick Curtis , a film producer and Hollywood press agent.

Has a younger brother, James Stanford Tejada, and a younger sister, Gayle Carole Tejada, an ovarian cancer survivor.

Was named "The Worst Actress of All Time" in Harry Medved and Michael Medved s 1980 book "The Golden Turkey Awards", beating out Candice Bergen , Mamie Van Doren , and even Vera Ralston. Interestingly, her co-star in Bluebeard , Richard Burton , was named "The Worst Actor of All Time" in the same book.

Dated champion boxer Gary Stretch when she was 56 and he was 31. Gary was younger than her two children, Damon Welch and Tahnee Welch. Raquel was also born the same year as Garys father, Ron Stretch. Their brief romance ended because of their age difference.

Revealed that her first marriage was the best of her four.

She was crowned Miss La Jolla and Miss Southern California before dropping out of college in San Diego, California where she had an acting scholarship, to get married to her high-school sweetheart, James Welch, at age 19.

Ten months after the large age gap brought her relationship with Gary Stretch to an end, she dated Los Angeles restaurateur Richard Palmer, who is 15 years her junior. Richard left his fiance, actress Cathy Moriarty for Raquel after they met in October 1997 at Ago, the West Hollywood restaurant owned by Robert De Niro.

Has American ancestry on her mothers side, dating back to both John Quincy Adams and the Mayflower. Her father immigrated from La Paz, Bolivia at age 17. His ancestry can be traced back to Armando Carlos Tejada Urquizo, a Bolivian of Spanish ancestry.

20th Century Fox wanted her to change her name to Debbie Welch, because they thought Raquel was too difficult to pronounce.

She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on June 8, 1996.

As of 2013, celebrity spokesperson for Foster Grant sunglasses since the 1960s.

Her grunting in One Million Years B.C. was dubbed by Nikki Van der Zyl.

Was considered for the title role in Norma Rae but Sally Field was cast instead (she went on to be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her performance and won).

Is one of 20 actresses who did not receive an Oscar nomination for their Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical Golden Globe-winning performance; hers being for The Three Musketeers . The others, in chronological order, are: June Allyson for Too Young to Kiss , Ethel Merman for Call Me Madam , Jean Simmons for Guys and Dolls , Taina Elg and Kay Kendall for Les Girls , Marilyn Monroe for Some Like It Hot , Rosalind Russell for A Majority of One and Gypsy , Patty Duke for Me, Natalie , Twiggy for The Boy Friend , Barbra Streisand for A Star Is Born , Bernadette Peters for Pennies from Heaven , Kathleen Turner for Romancing the Stone and Prizzis Honor , Miranda Richardson for Enchanted April , Jamie Lee Curtis for True Lies , Nicole Kidman for To Die For , Madonna for Evita , Rene Zellweger for Nurse Betty , Sally Hawkins for Happy-Go-Lucky , and Amy Adams for Big Eyes .

After Welch starred in One Million Years B.C. for Hammer Films, they planned a vehicle for her called Mistress of the Seas, a biopic of 18th century pirate Anne Bonney, "The true story of Anne Bonney who slashed her way to fame and fortune alongside the most dreaded scourges of the Caribbean!" This was canned for financial reasons. Surviving poster artwork depicts Welch with a pistol in one hand and a cutlass in the other, very scantily clad.

Has appeared with Christopher Lee in four films: The Magic Christian , Hannie Caulder , The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers .

Has appeared with Sybil Danning in four films: Bluebeard , The Three Musketeers , The Four Musketeers and The Prince and the Pauper .

Is the 21st great-granddaughter of King Edward I.

Mentioned in the song "Glory of the 80s" by Tori Amos.

Once you get rid of the idea that you must please other people before,you please yourself, and you begin to follow your own instincts - only,then can you be successful. You become more satisfied, and when you,are, other people will tend to be satisfied by what you do.

Being a sex symbol was rather like being a convict. The mind is an,erogenous zone.

[In 2008] I have pictures of me at 23 or 24 and I think, "Oh my God, I,was really once that size!". But actually, I think my face looks better,now.

[on her marriage to James Welch] I was crazy in love with him - I was,sure the moment I saw him he would be the father of my children. He was,beautiful, he had this surly quality, and that was it! We were foolish,we ran away and got married, had two children too quickly. It was a,romantic fantasy, which I am really good at.

[Hollywood name-changing] was mostly an American insecurity. Americans,were not sure how to deal with the exotic. I was lucky that one of my,first movies, One Million Years B. C. (1966) was made in Europe,by a British company. The Brits, and a lot of the rest of Europe,seemed to really love exotic women. The fact that I was American and,exotic just made me more appealing to them.

Actually, there was never just one bikini. They made several of them.

We all have a childhood dream that when there is love, everything goes like silk, but the reality is that marriage requires a lot of compromise.

My body is the shape I live in and it shapes the way I live.

Once you get rid of the idea that you must please other people before you please yourself and you begin to follow your own instincts-only then can you be successful. You become more satisfied and when you are other people tend to be satisfied by what you do.

Once you get rid of the idea that you must please other people before you please yourself and you begin to follow your own instincts-only then can you be successful. You become more satisfied and when you are other people tend to be satisfied by what you do.