Actress Raquel Welch died on Wednesday following a brief illness, her rep confirmed. Welch, who rose to international fame in the 1960s, was 82.

A statement confirming her demise read: “Raquel Welch, the legendary bombshell actress of film, television and stage, passed away peacefully early this morning after a brief illness. The 82-year-old actress burst into Hollywood in her initial roles in “One Million, B.C” and “Fantastic Voyage”. Her career spanned over 50 years starring in over 30 films and 50 television series and appearances. The Golden Globe winner, in more recent years, was involved in a very successful line of wigs. Raquel leaves behind her two children, son Damon Welch and her daughter, Tahnee Welch.”

READ MORE: Raquel Welch, Actress And Pin-up Icon, Dead At 82

The actress featured in several small roles before she was cast as Cora Peterson in sci-fi film “Fantastic Vaoyage” which put her on the map. However, “One Million Years B.C.” turned Raquel Welch into an icon — a shift in her career that she did not anticipate.

Welch originally wanted to turn down her role in the 1966 cult classic.

“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 in an interview in 2017. “And he was not sympathetic to that.

“He said, ‘No, you’re going to do it, Raquel. And listen Raqui, you’re going to become a huge star!’”

But Welch was not convinced. “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.”

Life on the film’s volcanic Canary Islands set did little to assuage Welch’s concerns. “We were so far from civilization,” Welch said at that time. “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!”

And all Welch had to protect her from the elements was a prehistoric doeskin bikini.

“I had already so much penicillin when I was wearing the fur bikini that I almost died,” she had said. “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.”

The “dinosaur movie” almost left Welch extinct. “I barely got there. They had to shoot me with an antidote. Otherwise, I would have died,” she said. “It was a really rough shoot, man. Really rough. And then I came to London and everybody knew who I was.”

As predicted by Zanuck, the movie was indeed a launching pad for her career. “I don’t do much in this movie except run around in this outfit!” she said of the surprising fame it brought her.

Determined not to be typecast, Welch insisted on meatier roles moving forward.

“I was trying very hard to open up my possibilities as an actress, rather than just a kind of sex symbol,” said Welch. “I was trying really hard to do that and it was really difficult. It was very difficult to make that transition. But eventually, I did.”

The actress went on to star in the films “Bedazzled”, “Myra Breckenridge” and more throughout the ’60s and ’70s.

In 1974, she won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for her performance in “The Three Musketeers”, and in 1987, she was nominated again for Best Actress in a Television Film for “Right to Die”.

Empire magazine named Welch one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in Film History in their 1995 issue.

RIP