Today,Raquel Welchis acknowledged as one of the best known sex symbolsof the 20th century. Her sex symbol status was solidified by her role inOne Million Years B.C.in 1966, an adventure fantasy film in which dinosaurs and cavemen dwell amongst each other. Welch’s character Loana appears in a famous fur bikini, which quickly became something of a cultural phenomenon in the late 1960s. Described in retrospect as a definitive look of the era, the actress becoming a symbol of sex and femininity by way of a role in a deeply fictional and ahistorical fantasy vehicle spoke more to the era’s still-restrictive and patriarchal roles for women, even as the counterculture movement of the decade was well underway.
RELATED:Actress Raquel Welch Dead at 82
Raquel Welch Before the Fur Bikini
Prior to the fur bikini, Jo Raquel Tejada worked as a weathergirl in San Diego, where she marriedJames Welchand had two children while still holding tight to her dreams of being an actress. After the divorce, she briefly moved herself and her kids to Dallas, Texas, where she worked as a cocktail waitress and as a model for Neiman Marcus. She briefly entertained the idea of leaving Dallas for New York City. Soon she was hightailing it back to California to give acting another shot.
HiringPatrick Curtisas her business manager, they devised a plan to make her into a sex symbol. It was Curtis who suggested she use her married name to avoid being typecast as a Latina. After landing minor film roles including one in theElvis PresleymusicalRoustabout, she appeared on television series likeBewitchedand got her first featured film role in the beach movieA Swingin’ Summer(1965).
That year, a photoset of Welch inLifemagazine started generating publicity, which would soon lead to her signing a seven-year, non-exclusive contract with 20th Century Fox. A leading role in the sci-fi filmFantastic Voyagebrought her the most recognition yet, but it would beOne Million Years B.C.that would catapult Welch to international superstardom and make her a household name, accomplishing the sex symbol plan she had created with Curtis in 1963. But as much as she achieved the stardom she sought after, it wouldn’t create the career she had ultimately envisioned.
Raquel Welch Became a Sex Symbol, But at What Cost?
FollowingOne Million Years B.C., Welch starred in the spy filmFathom. The film was released in 1967 to mixed reviews, with some critics saying the actress had learned to act while others believed she was far from anything but an attractive screen star. Thereafter, Welch started using her sex symbol status to her advantage: if the culture at large already has a low opinion of her for a film where her only costume was a bikini made of fur and her character only speaks three lines, then expectations were bound to be low anyway, weren’t they?
Welch and Curtis created their own production company, Curtwel, soon thereafter. Owing Fox at least four films a year at this stage in her contract, Welch declined to star in the film adaptation ofJacqueline Susann’s novelValley of the Dolls—she had wanted to portray Neely O’Hara, but the studio insisted she star as Jennifer.
The actress instead turned to more serious roles, starring alongsideDean Martinin the westernBandolero!and withFrank Sinatrain the detective vehicleLady in Cement. Her most controversial film appearance of this period would be 1970’sMyra Breckinridge, a film adaptation of a novel byGore Vidalstarring Welch as a transgender woman which she believed would solidify her reputation as a serious actress and not just a sex symbol. The film was plagued with problems, including a feud between Welch andMae West, and was panned by film critics.
Raquel Welch Sues MGM
Raquel Welch continued to work steadily throughout the 1970s, winning a Golden Globe Award for her performance inThe Three Musketeersin 1975. She began returning to television appearances during the decade as well, including a 1970 variety special calledRaquel!, singing duets with Cher and Miss Piggy respectively onThe Cher ShowandThe Muppet Show, and guest starring onMork & Mindyin 1979.
After turning 40 in 1980, film roles sadly and predictably started to dry up for Welch in misogynistic Hollywood. She made what was billed as her “TV movie debut” in 1982’sThe Legend of Walks Far Woman, which aired on NBC. 1982 proved to be an important year for Welch: she became a candidate for a role that certainly would have shaped the remainder of her career if it had been in the cards for her: Alexis Carrington onDynasty. WhileElizabeth TaylorandSophia Lorenwere also considered, producers ultimately settled onJoan Collinsfor the part.
But the other event of that year that would end up defining the remainder of her film career was the fate of her role in MGM’sCannery Row, an adaptation of the novel byJohn Steinbeck. Fired from the female lead just weeks into the production, the studio’s justification was that she was unreliable and the cause for numerous delays, such as refusing early-morning rehearsals. As a result, she was replaced withDebra Winger… who happened to be 15 years Welch’s junior.
The actress did not go quietly, suing MGM for breach of contract. The studio alleged that she was making a show of her firing with the lawsuit since she was now over 40, and it was a known fact that women over a certain age have a harder time finding roles in Hollywood. But Welch’s evidence in court proved that MGM had conspired to wrongly blame Welch for production delays to justify her firing. In 2015, shestatedthat the studio had just used her casting to generate publicity for the film and that their plan all along was to replace her with Winger. After the jury sided with the actress, she was awarded $10.8 million from MGM in 1986.
What might have been hailed as a feminist triumph today ultimately did not help Welch’s dwindling film career. “I needed to clear my name,” she toldThe Hollywood Reporterin 2015. “But since that time, I’ve never starred in a major motion picture. That’s not the outcome I was looking for.” She did make some film appearances thereafter—only six between 1994 and 2017 and mostly cameos, including as Mrs. Windham Vandermark inLegally Blondein 2001. She did make some notable television appearances throughout the 1990s, including as Aunt Vesta onSabrina the Teenage Witchand her recurring role as Abby Lassiter onSpin City. Still, it is inarguable that Welch’s career was wrongfully damaged by her lawsuit against MGM in the 1980s, a blaring example of the still rampant ageism in Hollywood, particularly against women.
Raquel Welch’s Feminist Legacy
By the 21st century, Welch gave multiple interviews where she spoke frankly about her sex symbol status of decades past, and how difficult it was to rise above her era’s standards for female stars. “I think whether you’reGwyneth Paltrowor Raquel Welch orJennifer Lopez, there’s a certain thing about that white-hot moment of first fame that is just pure pain,” she toldCigar Aficionadomagazine in 2001. “It’s just not comfortable. I felt like I was supposed to be perfect. And because everybody was looking at me so hard, I felt there was so much to prove. It was an enormous burden. But I do think that part of that was my fault, because I couldn’t adjust. I think I could’ve been just a little more patient with myself and not taken some of that early criticism so seriously.” She lamented that, at the height of her fame, she found nothing more intimidating than the pressure of her own image.
Although she became famous for an aforementioned performance in little clothing in a film where she had just three lines, Raquel Welch worked tirelessly to prove herself as a serious actress in an industry that has a documented history of working against women, especially during the actress’ lifetime. In an era wheregender roles for womenwere changing on a dime while still somehow deeply conservative, she began advocating for more powerful roles for herself that could be sold on the basis of her sex appeal. Come for the looks, stay for the talent. While that hardly seems innovative or groundbreaking in the era of third-wave feminism, Raquel Welch fought hard for every ounce of screen time she received, as most women of her era had to. If only she knew that it wasn’t her fault she couldn’t adjust to the pressure.
