The poster of her in the leather bikini adorned my bedroom in my college dorm. She was a beautiful woman.
And you know, she stayed beautiful for a really long time. I think it was around the year 2000 that she was on an episode of Seinfeld looking hella-good for being 50-something.
"One Million Years BC" has been one of my all-time favorite classic movies, ever since my older brother and his new wife and I saw it when it first came came out; I was just a week or so shy of ten, back then!. My folks and I saw it again just a few days later (actually, we saw it five times in total, at two different movie houses!) I well recall all the hoopla surrounding the film, and the now-iconic posters touting the film displayed on train station platforms and in the stations in the New York area. I actually did I double-take when I first heard the news of her passing; for a second, I thought I had heard wrong (I had forgotten she had to be in her 80's by now) Though, of course, Raquel was an extremely beautiful and talented woman, her other films (for me) fade off into the background; "Qne Million Years BC" is, to me, the ULTIMATE Raquel Welch film.........not only did Raquel, as "Loana" (donning her "cave girl bikini") light up the screen, it was also the excellent Ray Harryhausen special effects, the brutal, breathtaking scenery, and the haunting, memorable music that was so very intriguing (of course, dinosaurs were long, long gone by the time the first humans appeared. Raquel was indeed a sex symbol, back then, but she proved that, indeed, a woman could be sexy without being "slutty". Even in playing beautiful cave girl "Loana" (of the "Shell tribe"), you could sense her intellegence, her ingenuity, and her courage. The night I heard of her passing, I watched the film on DVD, where Raquel will remain forever young, and forever beautiful. RIP, Raquel.......you will always be remembered and never will b e fotgotten. Perhaps, somewhere in the Great Beyond, she and "Tumak" (of the "Rock tribe") are together with their respective peoples, living forever in a lush, tropical Eden...... "Live long and prosper"
Raquel also proved that she was far more than a sex symbol; recall her role in "Fantastic Voyage" (Cora Peterson); it was clear that she was also a woman of intelligence and intellect. That, coupled with her beauty, made for one VERY impressive and beautiful woman, a woman who combined a sultry sex appeal with keen intelligence and, yes, even grace.........NEVER will there be another......RIP, "Loana".......you will be greatly missed..... "Live long and prosper"
She became a sex symbol; without doing a nude scene in any movie. Not even for a mag or anything else. Her reasoning, she was terrified of upsetting her father.
Without really thinking, Raquel proved that a young, attractive woman COULD indeed be a sex symbol, but WITHOUT resorting to nude centerfolds and other tawdry "presentations". And, it was also clear that she was not a typical "dumb, airhead sex symbol, all body and little brain. She was INTELLIGENT and BEAUTIFUL, and, indeed, became the most popular sex symbol of the 60's, almost overnight. The word "iconic" barely describes what international status she created, just by being herself, and having her natural beauty and talent work for her.... "Live long and prosper"
