The reclusive Raquel Welch was last seen in public in July 2022, roughly eight months before she passed away at age 82 following a “brief illness.” Though Raquel was an iconic sex symbol in the 1960s, her public sightings became less frequent in her latter years. In the wake of her death, Daily Mail published the last photos taken of Raquel, snapped in the summer of 2022 when she visited J$ J’s nail salon and beauty lounge in Beverly Hills, California. For the outing, Raquel wore large hoop earrings, a white top, black pants, and a wide-brimmed hat.
Raquel seemed very expressive as she got her nails done. She seemed to be in pain in a few shots obtained by Daily Mail, but she still managed to smile here and there as the nail technician worked on her. Of course, Raquel could have just been going through a range of emotions since getting your nails done can be quite the process. Raquel seemed pleased with the work at the end of the excursion, and she headed back home.
Her mani-pedi appointment was Raquel’s first sighting in a year. In 2021, she was photographed walking around a parking lot outside the Heritage Auctions building in Los Angeles. This was her first sighting in two years, and her outfit was nearly identical to the one she wore to the nail appointment: a white shirt, black pants, and a wide fedora. Raquel also sported a pair of glasses and a facemask. Her long brown hair was left to flow in the Southern California breeze.
“It is nice to be noticed… I think it is much better than not being noticed!” she told The Sunday Post in 2018. Raquel’s role in One Million Years B.C. established her as a sex symbol, thanks to her animal hide bikini. She told The Post that she still got “copies of the photo [of her in the bikini] sent to me for an autograph. I must have looked at that photo one million times.” She still seemed happy about the attention.
“My whole career has been about being noticed, just like any other actor or actress, so I am grateful that people are still interested,” she told The Post. In her later life, she withdrew from the public eye but still continued to act. The actress – who won a Golden Globe for her work in 1973’s The Three Musketeers – worked until 2017, when she appeared as Rosa in Date My Dad.
“I am very selective about what work I accept, but I am nowhere near calling an end to it all,” she said in 2018. “As long as people are still interested in me, then I’ll carry on working.”
Raquel died on Feb. 15 after a brief, unknown illness. She was married four times over her lifetime and left behind two kids: a son – Damon Welch – and a daughter – Tahnee Welch.