Raquel Welch still time-haltingly beautiful at 71

Famous actress Raquel Welch is still time-haltingly beautiful forty-six years after she emerged from the sea in mankind’s first bikini.

Raquel Welch, 71, attended the Vanity Fair Montblanc party on Tuesday night in L.A, wearing a gold metallic dress that showed off her iconic curves.

Hailed by Playboy as The Most Desired Woman of the ’70s, Raquel Welch became a sex symbol after she emerged from the sea in a furry bikini as Loana in the 1966 film Hammer film One Million Years B.C.

Raquel Welch went on to star as lust in Bedazzled with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.

The actress also took part in the first interracial sex scene – with Jim Brown in the 1969 film 100 Rifles – and stared as a transsexual heroine in Myra Breckenridge.

In 1974, Raquel Welch won a Golden Globe for her role in The Three Musketeers.

Ten years later in 1984, Raquel Welch’ star hadn’t dimmed but she became more of a style icon as she published her Total Beauty and Fitness Program.

In 2007, MAC Cosmetics made Raquel Welch’s the face of its Beauty Icon series and, since June 2010, she has appeared in TV ads for Foster Grant sunglasses.

“I have pictures of me at 23 or 24, and I think: <<Oh my God, I was really once that size!>>”, said Raquel Welch said in 2008.

“But actually I think my face looks better now.”

Raquel Welch has claimed she is happy to age with grace.

She once joked: “Every time I have a birthday, every disc jockey in Hollywood starts yahooing it all over the place.

“But if you can’t have fun as an ageing sex symbol when you hit 60, I don’t know what will become of you.”

Raquel Welch has been married four times and has a son, Damon, 51, and daughter, Tahnee, 49.

Raquel Welch has said: “I am playing grandmothers in movies now. I’d like to be one for real, but my kids are not co-operating with me.”