Actress and international sex symbol Raquel Welch has died after a brief illness according to her manager.

Welch a two-time Golden Globe nominee, winning the musical/comedy motion picture award in 1975 for her performance in “The Three Musketeers,” which starred Faye Dunaway and Charlton Heston.

Welch rose to fame in the 1966 sci-fi movie “Fantastic Voyage” where she portrayed a medical team member that worked to save an injured diplomat’s life and was named one of the “100 Sexiest Stars in Film History” by Empire magazine in 1995. Despite her sex symbol status, she viewed herself differently and was not afraid to take chances and was an ally of the gay community.

In 1970 Welch starred in Myra Breckinridge based on Gore Vidal‘s 1968 novel of the same name. The movie  the follows the exploits of Myra Breckinridge (née Myron), a transgender woman who has undergone a sex change operation. Claiming to be her own widow, she manipulates her uncle into giving her a position at his acting school, where she attempts to usurp Hollywood’s social order by introducing femdom into the curriculum.

The picture was controversial for its sexual explicitness, unlike the novel, received little to no critical praise and has been cited as one of the worst films ever made

Watch below as Raquel talks with Dick Cavett and Janis Joplin about Myra Breckinridge.