INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

Raquel Welch Named Best Bikini Body Of All Time: What The ‘60s Screen Siren Really Thinks About Her Famous Fur Bikini

By Victoria Miller
Published on: 01:00 PST, Jul 6, 2016

Raquel Welch has been named the best bikini body of all time in Swimwear365’s survey in honor of the 75th anniversary of the bikini. Raquel Welch trumped dozens of modern day starlets to land the coveted top spot in a survey of 2,000 women who were asked whose bikini body they aspired to have.

Raquel Welch and fellow ’60s sirens Ursula Andress and Marilyn Monroe nabbed the top three spots on the survey, which was conducted as part of the swimsuit company’s celebration of National Bikini Day on July 5. Raquel Welch’s claim to bikini fame is the iconic animal-skin bikini she wore in the 1966 movie One Million Years BC.

The 75-year-old actress became an icon after wearing the prehistoric fur two-piece in the 1966 cult classic, and it’s clear that her famous beach look has not gone out of style more than 50 years later. According to the Daily Mail, a Swimwear365 spokesperson said Raquel Welch still epitomizes the ultimate bikini body and that her look is timeless.

“What we’ve found is that the iconic bikini bodies of yesteryear are as popular today as they ever were,” the rep said. “No matter where you are in the world, whether on the beach abroad or at home in the U.K., it’s important to feel confident in yourself and what you’re wearing – just like Raquel Welch or Marilyn Monroe.”

Raquel Welch beat out everyone from Kate Upton to Kim Kardashian in the new survey, but that doesn’t mean she loves the bikini–or the movie–that made her famous. In fact, Raquel once said she was hesitant to take on the role that made her a household name, telling Men’s Health she thought the film would bomb.

“I figured, it’s going to be swept under the carpet, nobody will ever see it,” Welch said of the adventure/fantasy classic. “I even complained to the studio. I was like, ‘Please, please don’t make me do the dinosaur movie.’ They were like ‘No, Raquel, you don’t understand. It’s a classic. It’ll live on forever. Turns out they were right.”

Raquel Welch also revealed that she still gets asked about the fur two-piece suit that her character, Loana, wore.

“Every day, every day,” Raquel said. “I have people that handle my fan mail, and every day tons of photos come in, with requests for autographs. The fur bikini is the perennial one…I’ve been told it’s in mothballs waiting to be hung in the Smithsonian museum. That’s what they told me, and I suspect it was said in jest, but the idea of putting it in the Smithsonian has been tossed around.”

Still, Raquel Welch credits her famous fur bikini photo for catapulting her to sex symbol status, despite the fact that she was a single mom of two small children at the time.

“The first part that I played under my contract at 20th Century Fox was Fantastic Voyage where I played a scientist!” Welch told GQ in 2012. “But that particular costume that I wore in One Million Years B.C.[the fur bikini], that image of me was circulated all over the world even before Fantastic Voyage really hit the screen.”

While Raquel Welch landed the number one spot on the 2016 bikini bod survey, there wasn’t a “modern day” actress on the list until the No. 6 slot with ’90s blonde bombshell Pamela Anderson making the cut in the Top 10. The Baywatch babe became famous for her red one-piece from the hit 1990s show about L.A. lifeguards.

Take a look at the video below to see Raquel Welch rocking her famous skin suit in One Million Years BC.

[Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images]

Share this article: Raquel Welch Named Best Bikini Body Of All Time: What The ‘60s Screen Siren Really Thinks About Her Famous Fur Bikini
More from Inquisitr