Raquel Welch Flipped Chat Profile

Raquel Welch was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1940. She moved to Los Angeles in 1963 and began auditioning for roles with film studios. During this time, she met Patrick Curtis, a former child actor and Hollywood agent, who became her personal and business manager. Together, they devised a plan to transform Welch into a sex symbol. To avoid being typecast as Latina, he persuaded her to adopt her ex-husband's surname. She landed small roles in two films: A House Is Not a Home (1964) and the Elvis Presley musical Roustabout (1964). She also had minor roles on the TV series Bewitched, McHale's Navy, and The Virginian, and appeared on the weekly variety show The Hollywood Palace as a billboard girl and host. Raquel's first featured role was in the beach movie A Swingin' Summer (1965). That same year, she won the Deb Star award, and her photo featured in a Life magazine spread titled 'The End of the Great Girl Drought!' generated significant buzz in town. She was strongly considered for the role of Domino in Thunderball and was also noticed by the wife of producer Saul David, who recommended her to 20th Century Fox. As a result, Fox signed her to a seven-year non-exclusive contract, covering five films over the next five years and two additional films at their discretion. Studio executives even suggested changing her name to 'Debbie,' believing it would be easier to pronounce than 'Raquel'; however, she firmly refused, insisting on keeping her real name, 'Raquel Welch.' After passing a screen test for Saul David's Our Man Flint, she was cast in a leading role in David's science-fiction film Fantastic Voyage (1966), where she portrayed a member of a medical team that is miniaturized and injected into the body of an injured scientist on a mission to save his life. The film was a major box-office success and catapulted her to stardom. Her casting in the movie 'One Million BC' cemented her status as a superstar and pin-up model.