Raquel Welch

Raquel Welch
Welch in April 2010
Born	Jo Raquel Tejada (1940-09-05) September 5, 1940 (age 76) California, United States
Nationality	American
Occupation	Actress, singer,
Years active	1959–present
Height	1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)
Spouse(s)	James Welch (m. 1959; div. 1964) Patrick Curtis (m. 1967; div. 1972) André Weinfeld (m. 1980; div. 1990) Richard Palmer (m. 1999; separated 2008)
Children	2, including Tahnee Welch

Raquel Welch (born Jo Raquel Tejada; September 5, 1940) is an American actress and singer.

She first won attention for her role in Fantastic Voyage (1966), after which she won a contract with 20th Century Fox. They lent her contract to a British studio, for whom she made One Million Years B.C. (1966). She had only three lines in the film, yet images of her in the doe-skin bikini which she wore became best-selling posters that turned her into a celebrity sex symbol. She later starred in notable films including Bedazzled (1967), Bandolero! (1968), 100 Rifles (1969), and Myra Breckinridge (1970). She made several television variety specials. In late 2008, she became a spokeswoman for Foster Grant's reading glasses campaign, created by Ferrara and Company.

Welch's unique persona on film made her into an icon of the 1960s and 1970s. She carved out a place in movie history portraying strong female characters and breaking the mold of the submissive sex symbol. In 1995, Welch was chosen by Empire magazine as one of the "100 Sexiest Stars in Film History". Playboy ranked Welch No. 3 on their "100 Sexiest Stars of the Twentieth Century" list. In 2011, Men's Health ranked her No. 2 in its "Hottest Women of All Time" list.

Welch was born as Jo-Raquel Tejada on September 5, 1940, in Chicago, Illinois. Her father, Armando Carlos Tejada Urquizo (1911–1976), was an aeronautical engineer from La Paz, Bolivia, born to Agustin Tejada and Raquel Urquizo; Welch was named after her paternal grandmother. Her mother, Josephine Sarah (née Hall; 1909–2000), was the daughter of architect Emery Stanford Hall and his wife Clara Louise Adams, and was of English origin, originally of Salford, Lancashire, that dated back to the Mayflower. She has a younger brother James "Jim" Stanford and younger sister Gayle Carole.