The cause of death of legendary sex symbol Raquel Welch has been revealed.
Welch, born Jo-Raquel Tejada in Chicago on September 5, 1940, died on February 15 of cardiac arrest after battling Alzheimer’s disease, her death certificate attests, according to TMZ. Her battle with Alzheimer’s had not been revealed at the time of her death.
Welch told then-Fox News host Bill O’Reilly in 2014 that she “was more on the conservative side,” adding, “I think it was my upbringing, to tell you the truth, Midwestern values. I just was raised in a certain way, ladies behave a certain way, your country is important, honor those people who do fight for our country.”
Welch accompanied famed comedian Bob Hope when he made his famous visits to entertain American soldiers stationed in Vietnam.
Welch skyrocketed to international fame when she appeared in the 1966 film “Fantastic Voyage” and in a deerskin bikini in “One Million Years BC.” “I was happy that I had got a break so I could have my career, but at the same time, it was like: ‘This isn’t me. But this is what I have to do because this is my ticket to ride,’” she wrote in her memoir, “Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage.”
Welch later recalled getting tonsillitis while filming “One Million Years BC.”
“I had already so much penicillin when I was wearing the fur bikini that I almost died,” Welch told Fox News. “I had to rush, turn my car around and head right back to the doctor’s office, just run upstairs, jump in the elevator, and all that.”
“And I barely got there. They had to shoot me with an antidote. Otherwise, I would have died,” she added. “It was [a] really rough shoot, man. Really rough. And then I came to London and everybody knew who I was.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP
In 2011, Welch was ranked No. 2 on Men’s Health’s list of the 100 Hottest Women of All Time, but long before that she had made herself known as a genuine actress, garnering a Golden Globe nomination for her work in “The Three Musketeers.”
“My first day on set, Faye Dunaway comes over to me all dolled up, and she was so cute,” Welch recalled in 2012. “She said, ‘Darling, I just want you to know, I’m a big fan of yours. But don’t you know, they’re all just waiting for us to tear each other’s eyes out. So let’s have fun with them.’”
“Everyone on set was going, ‘Uh-oh, here they come,’ standing there watching. And Faye gets out her fan and starts fanning herself, saying, ‘Darling, I adore your work.’ And I say, ‘Everything you do is genius!’ Everyone was so disappointed,” she added.
Ryan Saavedra contributed to this article.
Related: Actress Raquel Welch Dead At 82