Jo Raquel Welch (née Tejada; September 5, 1940 – February 15, 2023) was an American actress. Welch first gained attention for her role in Fantastic Voyage (1966), after which she signed a long-term contract with 20th Century Fox. They lent her contract to the British studio Hammer Film Productions, for whom she made One Million Years B.C. (1966). Although Welch had only three lines of dialogue in the film, images of her in the doe-skin bikini became bestselling posters that turned her into an international sex symbol. She later starred in Bedazzled (1967), Bandolero! (1968), 100 Rifles (1969), Myra Breckinridge (1970), Hannie Caulder (1971), Kansas City Bomber (1972), The Last of Sheila (1973), The Three Musketeers (1973), The Wild Party (1975), and Mother, Jugs & Speed (1976). She made several television variety specials.

Through her portrayal of strong female characters, helping her break the mold of the traditional sex symbol, Welch developed a unique film persona that made her an icon of the 1960s and 1970s. Her rise to stardom in the mid-1960s was partly credited with ending Hollywood's vigorous promotion of the blonde bombshell. Her love scene with Jim Brown in 100 Rifles also made cinematic history with their portrayal of interracial intimacy. She won a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Musical or Comedy in 1974 for her performance as Constance Bonacieux in The Three Musketeers and reprised the role in its sequel the following year. She was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in Television Film for her performance in Right to Die (1987). Her final film was How to Be a Latin Lover (2017). In 1995, Welch was chosen by Empire magazine as one of the "100 Sexiest Stars in Film History". Playboy ranked Welch No. 3 on their "100 Sexiest Stars of the Twentieth Century" list.

Welch was born Jo Raquel Tejada on September 5, 1940, in Chicago, Illinois, and moved to San Diego, California, at age two with her family. She was the first child of Josephine Sarah Hall and Armando Carlos Tejada Urquizo. Her mother was of English descent with ancestors tracing back to the Mayflower; she was the daughter of Clara Louise Adams and architect Emery Stanford Hall. Her father was an aeronautical engineer from La Paz, Bolivia, of Spanish descent; he was the son of Raquel Urquizo and Agustin Tejada. Her cousin, Bolivian politician Lidia Gueiler Tejada, became the first female president of Bolivia and the second female non-royal head of state in the Americas. Welch had a younger brother, James ("Jim"), and a younger sister, Gayle.

Welch was raised in the Presbyterian religion and attended Pacific Beach Presbyterian Church every Sunday with her family. As a young girl, Welch had the desire to be a performer and entertainer. She began studying ballet at age seven, but after ten years of study, she left the art at seventeen when her instructor told her she did not have the right body type for professional ballet companies. At age 14, she won beauty titles as Miss Photogenic and Miss Contour. While attending La Jolla High School she won the title of Miss La Jolla and the title of Miss San Diego – the Fairest of the Fair – at the San Diego County Fair. This long line of beauty contests eventually led to the state title of Maid of California. Her parents divorced when she finished school.

Welch graduated with honors from high school in 1958. Seeking an acting career, she entered San Diego State College on a theater arts scholarship, and the following year she married her high school sweetheart, James Welch, with whom she had two children. She assumed his last name and kept it throughout her life. She won several parts in local theater productions.

In 1960, Welch got a job as a weather presenter at KFMB, a local San Diego television station. Because her family life and television duties were so demanding, she decided to give up her drama classes. She separated from James Welch, and moved with her two children to Dallas, Texas, where she made a "precarious living" as a model for Neiman Marcus and as a cocktail waitress.

Welch originally intended to move to New York City from Dallas, but moved back to Los Angeles in 1963 and started applying for roles with film studios. During this period she met one-time child actor and Hollywood agent Patrick Curtis, who became her personal and business manager. They developed a plan to turn Welch into a sex symbol. To avoid typecasting as a Latina, he convinced her to use her ex-husband's surname. She was cast in small roles in two films, A House Is Not a Home (1964) and the Elvis Presley musical Roustabout (1964). She also had small roles on the television series Bewitched, McHale's Navy and The Virginian, and appeared on the weekly variety series The Hollywood Palace as a billboard girl and presenter. She was one of many actresses who auditioned for the role of Mary Ann Summers on the television series Gilligan's Island.

Welch's first featured role was in the beach film A Swingin' Summer (1965). She won the Deb Star that year, while her photo in a Life magazine layout called "The End of the Great Girl Drought!" created a buzz around 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, which signed her to a seven-year non-exclusive contract covering five pictures over the next five years and two floaters. Studio executives considered changing her name to "Debbie", thought easier to pronounce than "Raquel"; she refused, wanting her real name "Raquel Welch". After screen testing for Saul David's Our Man Flint, she was cast in a leading role in David's sci-fi film Fantastic Voyage (1966), in which she portrayed a member of a medical team that is miniaturized and injected into the body of an injured scientist with the mission to save his life. The film was a hit and made her a star.