Raquel Welch
Actress, model
Webcast May 6, 2002, 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT

Raquel Welch burst on the scene in the 1960s and became the quintessential bombshell actress. She is most memorable clad in her furry animal-skin bikini on a best-selling poster. Now Welch, 61, is starring in the first Latino family drama on broadcast in PBS' American Family.

As the drama queen of the family, Welch's character Dora is both comic and tragic. Always on the fringe of the Hollywood scene, Dora might have become a star if only things had been different. And though Welch is unquestionably a star, the role does echo some of her own experience.

For all her exposure, Welch never maintained a long-term big-screen career. She broke into films in 1964 with bits in A House Is Not a Home and Elvis Presley's Roustabout. The following year she appeared briefly in A Swingin' Summer. Welch also modeled extensively to help pay the bills. In 1964 she became the "billboard girl" on TV's Hollywood Palace.

Welch appeared in dozens of films over the years and had a contract with 20th Century-Fox. Fantastic Voyage (1966) gave her a costarring part in a hit movie, while the British-made prehistoric saga One Million Years B.C (also 1966) was promoted with a poster that made her a household name. But while Welch proved to have screen presence and a sense of humor, many were more interested in her skin-tight costumes and bikinis -- not her acting range.

In the 1980s, Welch she launched a cabaret act, taking it to Broadway and winning the lead in the musical Woman of the Year. She says she is most proud of the TV movie The Legend of Walks Far Woman, in which she played an Indian woman at various stages of her life. It was filmed in 1979 but didn't air until 1982. Since then she has starred in other television films, such as 1987's Right to Die and the 1988 Scandal in a Small Town and Trouble in Paradise. And she's still exploiting her figure with a series of best-selling exercise videotapes and accompanying fitness books.

Related Links:
PBS' American Family

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