Home> Facts and Trivia > Stars > Raquel Welch
Raquel Welch Facts
| Sign | Virgo |
| Born |
Sep 5, 1940 Chicago, IL |
| Died |
Feb 15, 2023 Los Angeles, CA |
| Age | Died at 82 |
| Total Facts | 33 |
[1996] Dated champion boxer Gary Stretch when she was 56 and he was 31. Gary was younger than her two children, Damon Welch and Tahnee Welch. Raquel was also born the same year as Gary's father, Ron Stretch. Their brief romance ended because of their age difference.
[c. 1973] Ex-girlfriend of costume designer Ron Talsky, who also designed her clothes for the films Kansas City Bomber (1972) and The Last of Sheila (1973).
30 August 2003 - Broke her wrist in a Los Angeles car crash.
Among her many beauty contest titles were "Miss Photogenic", "Miss Contour" and "Miss Maid of California" - all won while she was in her teens.
Auditioned for the role of Mary Ann in "Gilligan's Island" (1964).
Born at 2:04pm-CDT
Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#18). [1995]
Ex-stepmother of Damon Curtis.
Graduated La Jolla High School, La Jolla, California at age 16. [1957]
Had a notorious backstage feud with the indomitable Mae West on the set of Myra Breckinridge (1970).
Has a home on the private island of Mustique
Has American ancestry on her mother's side, dating back to both John Quincy Adams and the Mayflower. Her father immigrated from La Paz, Bolivia at age 17. His ancestry can be traced back to Armando Carlos Tejada Urquizo, a Bolivian of Spanish descent.
Her father is Bolivian.
Her former assistant was Polly Brown.
Her younger brother is Castillo Tejada.
Her younger sister, Gail, is an ovarian cancer survivor.
Husband Richard Palmer is a restaurateur. The couple are now separated.
In 1970, she accepted the Oscar for "Best Actress in a Supporting Role" on behalf of Goldie Hawn, who wasn't present at the awards ceremony
Measurements: 37C-22 1/2-35 1/2 (measured in 1967), 37-23 1/2-35 1/2 (from 1980 fitting), 37D-26-36 (@ age 43 in 1985), (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)
Mentioned in the theme song of the 1980s TV hit "The Fall Guy" (1981).
Miss Fairest of the Fair, San Diego, Ca. [1957]
Mother of Tahnee Welch and Damon Welch.
One of the bombshells shown in The Shawshank Redemption (1994). (The other two were Rita Hayworth and Marilyn Monroe.)
Profiled in the book "Film Fatales: Women in Espionage Films and Television, 1962-1973" by Tom Lisanti and Louis Paul (McFarland, 2002).
Revealed that her first marriage was the best of her four.
Second husband, producer Patrick Curtis, reportedly was one of several infants who took turns playing the baby of Olivia de Havilland in Gone with the Wind (1939).
She was crowned Miss La Jolla La Jolla and Miss Southern California before dropping out of college in San Diego where she had an acting scholarship, to get married to her high-school sweetheart, James Welch, at 19.
She was fired from Cannery Row (1982) and replaced by Debra Winger. She then sued MGM and won a $10 million judgement.
Son Damon Welch married the daughter of England and Yorkshire cricket legend Freddie Trueman.
Ten months after the large age gap brought her relationship with Gary Stretch to an end, she dated Los Angeles restaurateur Richard Palmer, who is 15 years her junior. Richard left his fiancée, actress Cathy Moriarty for Raquel after they met in October 1997 at Ago, the West Hollywood restaurant owned by Robert De Niro.
Was a former cocktail waitress.
Was named "The Worst Actress of All Time" in Harry Medved and Michael Medved's 1980 book "The Golden Turkey Awards", beating out Candice Bergen, Mamie Van Doren, and even Vera Ralston. Interestingly, her co-star in Bluebeard (1972), Richard Burton, was named "The Worst Actor of All Time" in the same book.
Was promoted as a sex symbol by her then-husband Patrick Curtis, a film producer and Hollywood press agent.