BEYOND THE BOMBSHELL

ONE OF HOLLYWOOD’S MOST SCINTILLATING STARS, THE ACTRESS WAS AS COURAGEOUS AS SHE WAS CURVACEOUS.

- TOM GLIATTO

In 1965 Raquel Welch was filming One Million Years B.C., the prehistoric action film that would make her a star worldwide. As cave woman Loana, she wore revealing pelts and had only three brief lines, one of which was "Nnnn?" But she was serious about her craft, and one day she decided to ask the director a few questions. "I could tell right away that he was not very interested," she said in 2012. "I've been reading the script,' I said, 'and I've been thinking...' And he turned to me and said, Don't."" He wasn't done putting her down: When he yelled "Action," he told her, all he wanted her to do was run from one rock to another, pausing in the middle to scream (a special-effects monster would be added later). "And then we break for lunch."

But the film, released in 1967, was a hit, and its poster-Welch looking tousled, powerful and gorgeous-created and defined her image as what one critic called "a marvelous breathing monument to womankind." Overnight, Welch wrote in her 2010 memoir Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage, "everything about the real me was swept away. All else would be eclipsed by this bigger-than-life sex symbol."

The actress who went on to make nearly 40 films, few of which didn't capitalize on her physique and the dazzling welcome of her smile died peacefully at her home in Los Angeles on Feb. 15. She was 82. "She passed away with no pain," said son Damon Welch, 63, who survives her along with her actress daughter Tahnee Welch (1985's Cocoon), 61. "I'm very proud about what she contributed to society."