Raquel Welch’s ‘One Million Years BC’ role, which launched her into sex symbol status, almost didn’t happen

Raquel Welch almost rejected the role that turned her into an international sex symbol.

The actress, who died at the age of 82 on Wednesday following a brief illness, initially had no interest in playing the doeskin bikini-clad cavewoman “Loana the Fair One” in the 1966 fantasy adventure movie “One Million Years B.C.”

The film, a remake of the 1940 movie of the same name, is set in a fictional prehistoric time period in which cavemen lived alongside dinosaurs. The then 26-year-old actress had a contract with 20th Century Fox, which wanted to loan her to U.K.-based Hammer Studios for the project.

“I told (Fox’s studio head) Dick Zanuck I didn’t think I was going to do it because it was a dinosaur movie and I didn’t want to be caught dead in a dinosaur movie,” Welch told Fox News Digital in 2017.

Raquel Welch almost turned down the role that catapulted her to international sex symbol status. (Getty)

She continued, “And he was not sympathetic to that.”

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“He said, ‘No, you’re going to do it Raquel. And listen Raqui, you’re going to become a huge star!’ I said, ‘What? What am I even going to wear? What happened in dinosaur time?… He said, ‘Don’t worry, they’ll figure something out.’ And they sure did.”

Welch’s only costume was a skimpy “prehistoric” fur and doeskin bikini that was created by renown theater costume designer Carl Toms. Once Hammer Studios released a promotional still of Welch in the bikini, she became an international sensation and overnight pin-up girl. Images of the Chicago native in the furry two-piece were made into best-selling posters.

During her interview with Fox News Digital, Welch recalled how she reluctantly agreed to take on the role and traveled to film on location in the volcanic Canary Islands.

“We were so far from civilization,” she remembered. “I mean, there was a hotel at the bottom of the volcano near the sea. And I was at the top. And it was snowing!”

She may have only had a line or two, but Raquel Welch stole the show in her fur bikini in the film “One Million Years BC.” (Hammer Film Productions)

The legendary bombshell said that donning the bikini throughout the entire production, which took place in the winter of 1965, almost killed her.

Welch, who was filmed wearing the skimpy costume during severe weather conditions, developed tonsillitis on-set that she insisted became worse with time.

“I had already so much penicillin when I was wearing the fur bikini that I almost died,” she claimed. “… 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. It was really rough shoot, man. Really rough. And then I came to London and everybody knew who I was.”

Welch was shocked by the newfound fame after starring in “One Million Years B.C.” It would become one of her most iconic roles, even though she only had three lines of dialogue.

“I don’t do much in this movie except run around in this outfit!” she told Fox News Digital.

In 2017, Welch shared her thoughts on the public’s enduring interest in the famous costume.

“I’m often asked if I get sick of talking about that bikini,” she told the Scottish Sunday Post. “But the truth is, I don’t. It was a major event in my life so why not talk about it?

“Almost every day I get copies of the photo sent to me for an autograph,” Welch said. “I must have looked at that photo one million times.”

She also remembered some advice that she was given by another Hollywood legend. 

“I remember James Stewart telling me a long time ago never to avoid your fans or the things that your fans like about you,” she said. “It was good advice.”

Images of Welch in the bikini were made into best-selling posters. (LMPC via Getty Images)

In her interview with Fox News Digital, the “Legally Blonde” star revealed that she still had the bikini.

“We had several doubles of it because when it got wet you couldn’t wear it the right way again,” she said. “Nothing really happened to it. I have the ones that were left over, the backups.”

Though Welch became one of Hollywood’s most famous sex symbols, she said it was not a role that came naturally to her.

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The “Fantastic Voyage” actress was also a divorced mother when she first rose to fame. In her autobiography “Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage,” she wrote, “The irony of it all is that even though people thought of me as a sex symbol, in reality I was a single mother of two small children!” 

Despite being designated a sex symbol, Welch refused to ever pose nude or appear nude in any of her films. Over the years, she resisted pressure from producers and publishers on many occasions.

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner expressed his admiration for Welch in his 2006 book “Playboy: The Celebrities.”

“Raquel Welch, one of the last of the classic sex symbols, came from the era when you could be considered the sexiest woman in the world without taking your clothes off,” he wrote.

“She declined to do complete nudity, and I yielded gracefully,” Hefner added. “The pictures prove her point.”

John Richardson starred alongside Welch in the 1966 fantasy adventure movie. (Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)

In a 2017 interview with The Associated Press, Welch recalled pushing back against producers who tried to pressure her to take her clothes off early in her career.

“I just didn’t do it,” she said. “It’s an old-fashioned idea. I thought, when you do something, you’re an actress, you know, you’re not giving away body and soul. You’re doing a performance. There’s no need to, you know, get so personal with it.”

She also explained that she grew up with an Italian father who was very strict and wouldn’t allow her to wear certain clothes, colors or hairstyles. 

“I’m my father’s daughter,” Welch said.  “It’s a little disturbing, to tell you the truth, because when so many people start doing that, it becomes the standard.”

“And that will never be my standard because I was raised differently.” she added. “I’m not putting those people down. But I also feel like there’s just something between a man and a woman that has to be built in a different way than that.”

In 1981, Welch recalled her surprise that “One Million Years B.C.” turned out to be her star-making role.

“I just thought it was a goofy dinosaur epic we’d be able to sweep under the carpet one day,” she told The Associated Press. 

She continued, “Wrong. It turned out that I was the Bo Derek of the season, the lady in the loin cloth about whom everyone said, ‘My God, what a bod’ and they expected to disappear overnight.”

In 2017, Welch told Fox News Digital that she had the famous bikini. (Getty)

However, Welch defied stereotypes and went on to establish a successful career. She starred in over 30 films and 50 television series and appearances over five decades.

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She earned a Golden Globe for best actress in a comedy after starring in 1973’s “The Three Musketeers.” In her interview with Fox News Digital, she shared that it was one of her proudest moments from her career.

“Every single [film] contributed to my [transition],” she explained. “I played a lot of action figures, like in Westerns… I carried a gun, I was a very formidable woman who could handle herself, who could ride and shoot… I also showed myself in a lot of different periods of time… I worked in Spain for a lot of the Westerns, which is where most American Westerns were filmed.”

The actress reflected on her career, telling Fox News Digital that she had “no real regrets” and was not a “bitter person.”

“I enjoy doing what I do,” Welch said. “I chose it because I had always wanted to do it from the time I was a very young girl.

“When I was about 7, I made up my mind I was going to be a performer, I was going to be in the movies, I was going to sing, and I was going to dance. I was going to do all those things and I did.”

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Fox News Digital’s Stephanie Nolasco contributed to this report.

Ashley Hume is an entertainment writer for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to ashley.hume@fox.com and on Twitter: @ashleyhume