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Actress Raquel Welch passed away on February 15, 2023, at the age of 82 following a brief, previously unreported illness. Before becoming a Hollywood legend, Raquel was a trained ballerina, beauty queen, and eventually, an actress. Her breakthrough came in the 1960s with roles in Fantastic Voyage (1966) and One Million Years B.C. (1966). It was the latter, where she famously wore a doe-skin bikini, that turned her into an international sex symbol. In a previous interview with the Los Angeles Times, Raquel revealed her attraction to the role was because her character exuded strength. “I liked that there was something very superhero about her. At least I wasn’t one of those mincing little girls; I never wanted to be that,” she said.
By the time she became a global sensation, Raquel was already a mother. She had two children with her first husband, James Welch, whom she married shortly after high school. Read on to learn more about her children, born in 1959 and 1961.
Damon Welch
Raquel Welch poses with her son, Damon, at her Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony in 1996 (Photo: Shutterstock)
The oldest child of James and Raquel is their son Damon Welch, who was born on Nov. 6, 1959. Damon followed his Golden Globe Award-winning mother‘s footsteps into the industry, but only for a short while. He has just one acting credit under his IMDb page for The Beloved, in which he played a little boy when he was two years old. He also served as a production assistant in 1979’s The Day the Earth Got Stoned and a production associate in his mother’s Raquel: Total Beauty and Fitness, which debuted in 1984. He contributed to two productions as himself as well.
Damon lives an extremely private life and does not have any known public social media profiles. He was once married to the daughter of an English cricket player, Rebecca Trueman.
Tahnee Welch
Tahnee Welch had a successful acting career in the 1980s and 1990s (Photo: Shutterstock)
Tahnee Welch, James and Raquel’s second child, was born on Dec. 29, 1961. She lives a very private life like her brother but has done much more in the acting space. She has 21 acting credits listed on her IMDb page, the last of which occurred in 1999. She was an uncredited actor in The Beloved like her older brother and got back on the screen with a starring role in the Italian romcom, Amarsi un po’… Other films she is known for include 1985’s Cocoon and its sequel, Cocoon: The Return, 1987’s Sleeping Beauty, and 1996’s I Shot Andy Warhol.
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