This week, one of the stars that shone brightest on the Hollywood firmament turned off their lights. He did it after stealing millions of sighs for more than 50 years. She was 82 years old and until her death, Raquel Welch, a film legend, was considered one of the most beautiful women in the world.
She was named one of Empire magazine’s 100 Sexiest Movie Stars in 1995, and also came third on a similar list of Playboy magazine’s 100 Sexiest Stars of the 20th Century.
Welch (September 5, 1940 Chicago, Illinois, USA – February 15, 2023) was married four times, the first time at the age of 19 to James Welch, from whom she took the surname for the rest of her life. , and the following with Patrick Curtis, Andre Weinfield and Richard Palmer. They had two children, Tahnee and Damon Welch. Nicknamed El Cuerpo for her graceful figure, Welch was of Latino descent and her birth name was Jo Raquel Tejada.
The ‘A Million Years BC’ (1966) actress was one of the group of artists who became legends in the decades of the ’60s and ’70s, when their photographs took over the walls of teenagers’ bedrooms of the era.
Before her success in Hollywood, she already shone in beauty pageants and as an lingerie model. Raquel’s first role was with another sex symbol named Elvis Presley. Repeatedly, the actress denied having undergone any aesthetic surgery, but admitted to having done a rhinoplasty before the success.
The term “sex symbol” was first coined in the first decade of the 20th century. Since then it has been used to describe the fantasies of every generation. The post-war world opened the door to exotic beauties, as did the arrival of color in cinema. Tanned skin and red, full lips became the best strategy, besides her artistic qualities (although this was not always the most important thing), it was a time without filters and without social networks, so her romances – which they almost always ended in divorce -, their demands and, as the French say, this je ne sais quoi (I don’t know what) enveloped them in a mysterious halo.
Her exuberant sensuality, her eternally girlish face and her ever suggestive and generous cleavage made it inevitable to look away every time Bardot entered the scene.
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Bridget Bardot
Brigitte Bardot, known as BB, conquered France and the whole world after making her first film at the age of 18. Then came the film “Et Dieu… créa la femme” directed by her husband, the film director Roger Vadim, which made her a star and a sex symbol.
For many, she was the natural heir to Marilyn Monroe, although her limited English didn’t thrive on her Hollywood career. He worked on the film Ladrones al claro de luna, which is controversial for its nude scenes. It was followed by titles like The Great Seductress and The Happy Girl.
At the age of 39 he retired from the seventh art. By then he had shot more than 60 productions and photographed his entire character around 60,000 times. When he was 45 years old, the French press counted 42 lovers. Many of her romances have ended in suicide attempts, both by herself and those she loved.
When he turned 50, he said: “The difficult thing is not to live; the difficult thing is to survive”. She is currently 88 years old, lives in Paris and is married to Bernard d’Ormale.
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Sofia Loren
At the age of 14 his life took a radical turn when he became a finalist in a regency. These competitions helped fall in love with film producer Carlo Ponti, 22 years her senior, to whom she would eventually marry and have two children. In post-war Italy, beauty pageants were a successful form of career advancement.
She was born Sofia Scicolone Villani, but when she looked up her stage name, promoters initially called her Lazzaro before changing it to Sophia Loren because her body “raised the dead.”
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For her work in the film Two Women (1960) directed by Vittorio De Sica, she received the Best Actress award, BAFTA and Oscar at the Cannes Film Festival and was the first actress to receive the Grand Prize at the Academy through an in character spoken in a foreign language. The actress didn’t attend the ceremony because she feared she might faint in the evening.
She was married to Ponti until his death in 2007. She is 88 years old and La Vida por Ante, like the film she starred in in 2020.
Claudia Cardinale
A photo of Claudia Cardinale appeared on the cover of Bob Dylan’s album Blonde on Blonde (1966).
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She represents the imagery of the typical Italian, although she is Tunisian. She entered the world of cinema after winning a beauty pageant and directors such as Luchino Visconti and Federico Fellini immediately turned to her attention. He directed films for great film masters such as Blake Edwards in The Pink Panther (1964) and Henry Hathaway in The Circus (1964), in which he starred alongside John Wayne and Rita Hayworth.
She was only married once, in 1966 to Franco Cristaldi; The couple divorced in 1975 and have been living with film director Pasquale Squitieri since that year.
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is 85 years old and single.
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Many recognize her as the longest-lived sex symbol in Hollywood. While she hasn’t hesitated in getting cosmetic touch-ups, she’s still one of the most attractive women in the business.
Born practically in film studios as the daughter of Henry Fonda, she has become a benchmark for sensuality and activism over time. Her legend began with her first marriage at age 24 to Roger Vadim, as did Bardot, who was very good at romances with blondes. It was around this time that Fonda was improving as an actress, educated and filmed the huge hit “Barbarella” – her “striptease” scene is one of the most famous in cinema.
Their marriage was one of the most popular in the industry until 1970, when the actress fully entered her anti-Vietnam War anti-Vietnam War phase. With her famous aerobics videos, she financed her second husband Tom Hayden’s political campaign in the 1980s.
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Her rebellion, unafraid of what she will say, has led her directors to see her as a woman of character. She has been nominated for an Oscar five times and won the statuette twice for the films Klute and The Return. She was recently arrested for protesting climate change and a few weeks ago she announced that her cancer is on the mend and that she will be releasing several films this year.