Yvette Vickers

Yvette Vickers, born Yvette Iola Vedder on August 26, 1928, in Kansas City, Missouri, was an American actress, singer, and pin-up model. The daughter of jazz musician Charles Vedder, she spent her youth traveling with her parents to their various performances. She later enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles, initially studying journalism before switching her major to drama after discovering an interest in acting through a class she took while there. She subsequently relocated to New York City to model for White Rain shampoo advertisements before returning to California to pursue a film and television career.

Vickers made an early, uncredited film appearance under her birth name, Yvette Vedder, in Sunset Boulevard in 1950. Her first credited screen appearance under the Vickers name came in Short Cut to Hell in 1957, a film directed by James Cagney. That same year she starred in American International Pictures' Reform School Girl, and her image alongside Gloria Castillo was featured on the film's theatrical poster, which became a collector's item. In 1958, she appeared in Attack of the 50 Foot Woman as Honey Parker, a character engaged in an affair with the married Harry Archer, played by William Hudson. The following year she played Liz Walker in Attack of the Giant Leeches. During this period she also made television appearances, including an episode of One Step Beyond titled "The Aerialist," which aired April 28, 1959, and an episode of Bat Masterson titled "Double Trouble in Trinidad," which aired January 7, 1959, in which she played Jessie Simmons.

In July 1959, Vickers appeared as Playboy's Playmate of the Month, with her centerfold photographed by Russ Meyer. She also appeared in several other men's magazines during this period. That same year, she appeared on Broadway in the drama The Gang's All Here. Her film roles diminished around this time, though she continued to take smaller parts, including a role in the 1963 film Hud. Her final screen credit was in the horror film Evil Spirits in 1991.

As a singer, Vickers released a jazz tribute to her parents in the 1990s on CD, titled A Tribute to Charlie and Maria. In 2005, she traveled to Canada for the first time to appear at the Toronto Classic Movie Festival, and in 2007 she participated in the audio commentary track of the DVD release of Attack of the 50 Foot Woman alongside interviewer Tom Weaver. She had been working on an autobiography at the time of her death.

Vickers was married three times. Her first marriage, to Don Prell, lasted from 1953 to 1957. She married Leonard Burns in 1959, and that marriage ended in 1961. Her third marriage, to Tom Howland, ran from 1967 to 1969. She had no children. She maintained a long-term relationship with actor Jim Hutton and a recurring relationship with actor Cary Grant during the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Vickers was last seen alive in 2010. On April 27, 2011, actress and neighbor Susan Savage discovered her mummified remains at her home at 10021 Westwanda Drive in Beverly Hills. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner determined her cause of death to be heart failure resulting from coronary artery disease, with forensic scientists concluding she may have been dead for as long as a year before her body was found. There were no signs of foul play. Her remains were cremated, and her half-brother Perry Palmer retained her ashes.