A quick story in tribute to Raquel Welch, who passed away today at age 82.
In 2010 I did an interview with actor Eric Breaden. Best known for the role of Victor Newman in the soap opera “The Young and the Restless,” Eric Braeden is a favorite actor of mine due to playing the “villain of the week” in nearly every TV show, as well as a number of iconic films, in the 1970’s. One of the first actors I could identify as a child based on the fact that he scared the hell out of me via my mother watching Y&R, I adore the man. During our interview I found Eric to be friendly, very giving with his answers and intellectually brilliant.
But out of all the things we could talk about there was one very niche thing I wanted to ask him. I was obsessed at the time with an obscure horror scream queen named Solidad Miranda. A Spanish actress who was killed at age 27, very few of her movies were ever shown in America, and the likelihood of me ever talking to anyone who ever worked with her was slim. However, Eric Braeden did a film with her! Solidad was in the western “100 Rifles” where, in the opening scenes, she plays a prostitute who gives over fugitive Burt Reynolds to Eric Braeden.
So I asked Eric if he had any memory of her, and I quickly realized that he had not. Eric thought and I could hear him making noises as he tried to travel back in his minds eye. But eventually he gave up and he answered “I’m sorry. I don’t remember her. But how could I ever notice a woman when the two most beautiful women in the world were on the set at the same time – Raquel Welch and my wife.”
Well played Mr. Braeden. Well played.
