Raquel Welch (born September 5, 1940) is an American actress.
Welch was born Jo Raquel Tejada in Chicago, Illinois, the oldest of three children and the daughter of Josephine Sarah (née Hall) and Armando Carlos Tejada Urquizo. Her father, an aeronautical engineer, emigrated from La Paz, Bolivia; her mother was American, the daughter of architect Emery Stanford Hall (1869-1939) and wife Clara Louise Adams.
In 1959, Welch played the title role in t...
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Raquel Welch (born September 5, 1940) is an American actress.
Welch was born Jo Raquel Tejada in Chicago, Illinois, the oldest of three children and the daughter of Josephine Sarah (née Hall) and Armando Carlos Tejada Urquizo. Her father, an aeronautical engineer, emigrated from La Paz, Bolivia; her mother was American, the daughter of architect Emery Stanford Hall (1869-1939) and wife Clara Louise Adams.
In 1959, Welch played the title role in the famous Ramona Pageant, a yearly outdoor play at Hemet, California, which is based on the novel Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson and Bob Biloe.
She became a weather forecaster at KFMB, a local San Diego television station. Because of her heavy schedule, she decided to leave college. Her marriage broke up and she moved with her two children, Damon and Latanne, to Dallas, Texas, where she modeled for Neiman Marcus and worked as a cocktail hostess, intending to move on to New York City from there.
Instead, Welch moved back to California and found a...
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