The US actress, who was credited with paving the way for modern day action heroines in Hollywood films, was said to have passed away peacefully after a brief illness.

An international sex symbol after playing a bikini-clad cavewoman in the 1966 film ‘One Million Years BC’, her big break came in 1964, when she scored cameos in A House Is Not A Home, and Roustabout, a musical starring Elvis Presley.

 

Born Jo Raquel Tejada in 1940, Welch grew up in California, where she won teen beauty pageants and later became a local weather forecaster, she then shot to prominence with her back-to-back roles in the sci-fi film Fantastic Voyage.

In a career spanning over five decades, Welch appeared in more than 30 movies and 50 television shows - including playing the love interest of Frank Sinatra's character in 1968's Lady in Cement; the titular transgender heroine in 1970's Myra Breckenridge; and a Golden Globe-nominated performance in the 1987 TV drama Right to Die.

Never totally comfortable with the representation of her body, she would often state that she was not brought up to be a sex symbol - nor is it ever in her nature to be one, as she was stated as saying: "The fact that I became a sex symbol is probably the loveliest, most glamorous and fortunate misunderstanding." After the glamour of Hollywood, she released her own signature line of wigs, a jewellery and skincare collection, and a Mac Cosmetics makeup line.

Survived by her son, Damon and daughter, Latanne, she was 82.