Being a sex symbol was rather like being a convict.

She was described as "wearing mankind's first bikini" and the fur bikini was described as a "definitive look of the 1960s". As a young girl Raquel Welch wanted to be a performer. She reported the weather at KFMB a local San Diego television station.

Welch came to attention as a new star on the 20th Century Fox lot in the mid-1960s. She made several television variety specials and today Welch is a noticeable face in commercials for Foster Grant sunglasses and reading glasses.