RIP Raquel Welch
Although Welch was 82 when she died, somehow the news is still a surprise.
Everybody of a certain age – and even some who are younger – knows that poster with the famous deerskin bikini. It was her body – which seemed bioengineered for an almost-impossible perfection – that made her famous, although her face was beautiful as well. What’s more, later movies revealed she had a good sense of humor.
If you look around at what people are saying about Welch now that she’s gone, it seems she was pretty universally liked. That’s quite a feat when a person looks the way she did. So RIP Raquel Welch, aka Jo Raquel Tejada.
[NOTE: From her Wiki entry: “She began studying ballet at age seven, but after ten years of study, she left the art at seventeen when her instructor told her she did not have the right body type for professional ballet companies.” You can say that again.]
Over at Instapundit they had a post about her. Not one, not one, had anything bad to say about her. That says a lot about the Lady.
Yes, not exactly a ballet body. I enjoyed her performance in “The Three Musketeers.” She proved she had comedic talents as well as others. RIP.
I first became aware of Racquell Tejada back in 1957 when she was doing ads for a San Diego gym. Then I saw her in person at a Torrey Pines glider event. She was there as the hostess of the event. She was a knockout at age 17, and it wasn’t a surprise when I saw that she had become a movie star.
She carried her celebrity and beauty quite well. Nice to see she was well regarded by people who knew her.
May she RIP.
I never had anything against Raquel Welch — who could?
But it was “The Summer of George” episode on Seinfeld which made me realize she was a much larger person than a babe in a deerskin bikini.
On “Seinfeld” she played a bizarre prima donna with a propensity to violence. She was ridiculing the whole “Raquel Welch” movie star brand.
And getting away with it because she could. She had never been that shallow a person.
If I’m not mistaken, she was in the news briefly ten years or so ago for an interview in which she suggested that maybe the sexual revolution was not altogether a good thing. If my memory is at all accurate, she was basically saying that women should not give in too easily. Very old-fashioned. I liked her for that.
What a beauty. I smiled at your last line, Neo. Yeah, I guess she didn’t.
I noticed somewhere else a reference to her playing the “transgender” Myra Breckinridge. I remember the publicity photos for that as much as the animal-skin bikini. One could not come up with a better image refuting the idea that men can be turned into women.
I saw her first in Fantastic Voyage (1966). I thought that was a cool movie.
RIP, Raquel.
Waidmann
Yeah, that was a fabulous film.
(Kinda made you REALLY wanna “follow the science”….)
https://dailytimewaster.blogspot.com/2023/02/raquel-welch-auditioned-for-part-of.html
RIP Raquel, always enjoyed your movies
She managed the sex-symbol persona pretty well. She never did, afaik, any nude shots. She was “almost” going there.
She was what she was, oh, and a sex symbol, too.
At the very least, that was good marketing for a long-term career. Never wore out.
American Thinker has a very nice review of her movies.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/02/remember_raquel_welch.html
Waidmann
I enjoyed this reader’s comment following an article about the one and only Raquel:
“I still remember my dream about her so many years ago. I had just been arrested and warned that anything I might say could be held against me. ‘Raquel Welch,’ I said. Unfortunately, I then woke up.”
She was in “Legally Blonde” and I never knew that until today.
She was blacklisted by Liberal Hollywood and fired from the cast of the film “Cannery Row” in the early 1980s and replaced by Debra Winger who ironically was unoffically blacklisted as well. Raquel sued and won but her movie career for the most part was over. Hollywood is an awful place run by hypocrites who decry McCarthyism and black lists but engages in it themselves.
According to the Wikipedia biography, though, she wasn’t blacklisted for political reasons…
Curiously, in the mid-70s, she appeared on SNL in a show that also featured Emily Litella.
(…And as we well know, in Life there are NO coincidences…)
A funny promotional photo.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062731/mediaviewer/rm481556225/
I probably saw her cavewoman film on tv as a kid but the first time I remember seeing her in the theater was for Kansas City Bomber. Wow.
The last film I saw Welch in was Hannie Caulder a few years ago. Not bad for a revenge genre movie. Supposedly Tarantino used that film as a partial framework for his Kill Bill movies.
Universally liked?
James Mason, unavailable for comment.
When I was in the Navy, the repair officer on the tender had a picture of Raquel on his file cabinet. I submitted a work request for a copy of the picture, which I got and still have. She certainly was beautiful.
She was brought up in a church-going family and kept to her traditional values, notwithstanding the sex symbol stuff. She refused to do nude scenes, and generally (and wisely) refrained from blathering about politics. She went to Vietnam with Bob Hope to entertain the troops.
The “Cannery Row” dustup was ostensibly over her insisting on having her own person do her makeup. Who knows the real story, but she did apparently settle for a $10 million judgment.
She was beautiful, funny, gracious, friendly, and a much better actress than was generally recognized. I second Kate’s recommendation of “The Three Musketeers”.
kept to her traditional values,
Except for the four divorces. She supposedly said at one point she was embarrassed by that.
Wikipedia: “She was due to star in a 1982 adaptation of John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row, but was abruptly fired by the producers a few weeks into production. The studio claimed she was not living up to her contract, by refusing early-morning rehearsals, and was replaced with Debra Winger. Welch sued MGM for breach of contract.[67] Studio executives claimed in testimony the reason Welch was following through with the trial was that she was an actress over 40 and generally actresses in that age range cannot get roles anymore. Welch’s evidence at trial proved there was a conspiracy to falsely blame her for the film’s budget problems and delays. The jury sided with Welch and she won a $10.8 million verdict against MGM in 1986.[68][69]
Despite the win, Welch wished the whole episode never had happened. “I just wanted to clear my reputation and get back to my work, my work in movies”, she said.[70] But she was blackballed by the industry and the incident affected her film career on the big screen from that moment on.[71]”
The Suits never forget and never forgive, regardless of the reason.
Kind of reminds you of the Intelligence Community (aka Deep State, not known for any actual intelligent behavior).
Comments from the Laad post at AT:
Dave Brangan 12 hours ago
If Ketanji Brown Jackson still needs help figuring it out, THIS was a woman. One of supreme beauty and class. RIP
Something NOT mentioned in the Wikipedia article:
BARBARA MAXWELL 11 hours ago
Before she was Raquel Welch the movie star, she was the weather girl Raquel Tejada on local TV in San Diego, where I grew up. She was articulate, intelligent, a very savvy business woman, and as Raquel Welch, used her fame in a positive way. I remember when she went to the US Congress to lobby them against making the vitamin supplement drink, ENSURE Prescription Only. We have Raquel to thank for changing the minds in Washington. ENSURE has been – over-the-counter since. May her family be comforted by their memories of her.
Seems to have been a truly beautiful woman, inside and out.
Had a good laugh this morning with my husband who, as a boy, had a major crush on Raquel – and Anette Funicello, but marries me, a petite anglo. Go figure.
Tommy Jay,
Funny pic, yeah, but all I can think of is; Where can I get that dress?!’
She appeared on the Carson show to promote the movie “Bandolero” and did an accurate impression of Jimmy Stewart. Really funny. Carson seemed to wake up to another dimension of her talent. So did I.
She was great.
“She was brought up in a church-going family and kept to her traditional values…”
Seems to me that if she was inclined in that particular direction, she could have been a rather effective proselytizer…
Molly B.,
I know what you mean. It reminds me of a classic bit of dialog from the film Niagara when Marilyn Monroe playing Rose L. shows up in a great dress.
[Upon seeing Rose Loomis in a low-cut, tight-fitting red dress]
Ray Cutler: Hey, get out the firehose!
[to Polly]
Ray Cutler: Why don’t you ever get a dress like that?
Polly Cutler: Listen. For a dress like that, you’ve got to start laying plans when you’re about thirteen.
She starred in the [1960s?], action film, named Fathom.
I like it.
It’s a silly, action movie, but I [like] silly action movies.
You’re one of my favorites, R.W.! 😀