U.S. actress Raquel Welch, credited with pioneering the action heroine role in the Hollywood industry, is dead. 

She was 82. 

According to her manager, Welch passed away peacefully on Wednesday morning after a brief illness.  

She was born Jo-Raquel Tejada in 1940 and grew up in California, where she started her career by winning teen beauty pageants. 

She emerged as the leading sex symbol of the sixties after her role in the 1966 film ‘One Million Years BC’.

Raquel won a Golden Globe award in 1975 for her role in the ‘Three Musketeers’. She was also named one of the 100 sexiest stars in film history by empire magazine in 1995. 

In her career, which lasted for five decades, she appeared in more than 30 movies and 50 television shows. 

Her budding career paved the way for modern-day action heroine roles in Hollywood films. 

Actress Reese Witherspoon while paying her tribute, wrote on Twitter how she loved working with Raquel in a movie titled ‘Legally Blonde’.

“She was elegant, professional, and glamorous beyond belief,” said Witherspoon. “Simply stunning.”

She is survived by a son Damon Welch and a daughter Latanne ‘Tahnee’ Welch, who is also an actress.