Raquel Welch: US actress and model dead at 82

Hollywood star Raquel Welch, who became an international sex symbol in the 1960s, has died aged 82.

Welch died on Wednesday morning after a brief illness, according to her manager.

She won a Golden Globe Award for her performance in 1974's The Three Musketeers and was nominated again in 1987 for the film Right to Die.

The American is often credited with breaking the mould for modern day action heroines in Hollywood films.

She rose to fame with back-to-back roles in the 1966 films Fantastic Voyage and One Million Years BC.

Welch only had a few lines in the latter, but promotional stills of her wearing a skimpy two-piece deer-skin bikini turned her into a leading pin-up girl of the era.

Welch addressed her image in her book, Raquel: Beyond the cleavage, in which she opened up about her childhood, her early career woes as a single mother in Hollywood, and why she would never lie about her age.

She leaves behind two children.

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