February may be the month of love and sweethearts but this year it has been particularly harsh with two of my early crushes: Raquel Welch and Stella Stevens, both of whom passed away on this month.
RAQUEL WELCH
(September 5, 1940 - February 15, 2023)
Welch first won attention for her role in Fantastic Voyage (1966), after which she won a contract with 20th Century Fox. They lent her contract to the British studio Hammer Film Productions, for whom she made One Million Years B.C. (1966). Although Welch had only three lines of dialogue in the film, images of her in the doe-skin bikini became best selling posters that turned her into an international sex symbol. She later starred in Bedazzled (1967), Bandolero! (1968), 100 Rifles (1969), Myra Breckinridge (1970), and Hannie Caulder (1971). She made several television variety specials. WIKIPEDIA
STELLA STEVENS
(October 1, 1938 – February 17, 2023)
Stevens began her acting career in 1959 in the film Say One for Me produced by and starring Bing Crosby and appeared in several TV series such as the anthology series Alfred Hitchcock Presents, General Electric Theatre and Bonanza in 1960. She won the 1960 Golden Globe Award for "New Star of the Year".
That year she appeared in three Playboy Pictorials and was named Playmate of the Month for January 1960. She starred in films such as Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962), The Nutty Professor (1963), The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1963), The Silencers (1966), Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows (1968), The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970), and The Poseidon Adventure (1972). Stevens subsequently focused more on TV roles, miniseries, and movies including roles in The Love Boat (1977, 1983), Hart to Hart (1979), Newhart (1983), Murder, She Wrote (1985), Magnum, P.I. (1986), Highlander: The Series (1995), and Twenty Good Years (2006). WIKIPEDIA
(Happily, Brigitte Bardot, Sophia Loren,Joan Collins, Elke Sommer, Ann-Margret, Ursula Andress, Angie Dickinson, Jacqueline Bisset, Catherine Deneuve, Linda Evans and Mamie Van Doren are still with us!)
The news comes from the Twitter feed of Tom Heintjes, dedicated to Eisner Award winner Hogan's Alley. "I'm very sad to report that the great Al Jaffee has died," the tweet reads. "He had celebrated his 102nd birthday just last month. An incredible legend. RIP to a giant of cartooning." Along with being known for Mad Magazine, Al Jaffee also contributed to Timely Comics and Atlas Comics, which would eventually become the publishing juggernaut Marvel Comics. His longest-running Mad Magazine feature was the Fold-In, which featured a piece of artwork that had to be folded vertically and inward to reveal a new image. 
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