‘Fantastic Voyage’ and ‘One Million Years B.C.’ star Raquel Welch dies at 82

Award-winning American actress Raquel Welch has died on the age of 82 following a brief sickness after a prolific profession in Hollywood that included starring roles in a pair of traditional science fiction and fantasy movies with “Implausible Voyage” and “One Million Years B.C.”

Per Deadline (opens in new tab), Welch handed away on Wednesday (Feb. 15) leaving a legacy of greater than 50 characteristic movies and dozens of TV collection appearances that included roles in “McCale’s Navy,” “Bewitched,” “The Virginian,” and even a later 1997 cameo on “Seinfeld.” 

Born in Chicago on September 5, 1940 as Jo Raquel Tejada, Welch was a theater arts main at San Diego State College previous to scoring small display gigs on her solution to bigger fame. In 1966, her on-screen charisma and appreciable intercourse enchantment took Hollywood by storm and landed Welch main roles in two iconic 1966 characteristic movies that also resonate with audiences as we speak

First was director Richard Fleischer’s science fiction fantasy journey, “Implausible Voyage.” Right here she portrayed the character of Cora Peterson, a medical assistant miniaturized together with a particular staff inside a submarine-like craft and injected into the physique of a dying Chilly Conflict scientist to try to save his life. The imaginative manufacturing was nominated for 5 Oscars on the thirty ninth Academy Awards, finally successful for each Finest Visible Results and Finest Artwork Course.

“Implausible Voyage” has been focused for a remake over the a long time by everybody from filmmakers James Cameron and Roland Emmerich, to Sean Levy and Guillermo del Toro but the film nonetheless stays unmade.

Subsequent was the Hammer Movies/Seven Arts fantasy epic, “One Million Years B.C.,” which was first launched within the U.Okay. in December of 1966 earlier than scoring a U.S. rollout the following yr in a barely edited type. Not precisely traditionally correct, the prehistoric spectacle noticed Welch taking part in Loana, a scantily-clad cavewoman of the Shell Tribe who hooks up with the banished Tumak (John Richardson) of the Rock Tribe in a struggle for survival amid indignant marauding dinosaurs. Legendary stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen offered the spectacular creature results. 

Later performances in films like “Bandolero!,” “100 Rifles,” “Myra Breckinridge,” “Kansas Metropolis Bomber,” “Fuzz,” “The Three Musketeers,” and “The 4 Musketeers” solidified her place as a global intercourse image and bankable Hollywood star.