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Thread: Yvette Vickers, former Playboy Playmate

  1. #1

    Yvette Vickers, former Playboy Playmate

    Mummified body of former Playboy playmate Yvette Vickers found in her Benedict Canyon Home.





    By Andrew Blankstein4:21 p.m. CDT, May 2, 2011
    Chicago Tribune




    Yvette Vickers, an early Playboy playmate whose credits as a B-movie actress included such cult films as "Attack of the 50-Foot Woman" and "Attack of the Giant Leeches," was found dead last week at her Benedict Canyon home. Her body appears to have gone undiscovered for months, police said.

    Vickers, 82, had not been seen for a long time. A neighbor discovered her body in an upstairs room of her Westwanda Street home on April 27. Its mummified state suggests she could have been dead for close to a year, police said.

    The official cause of death will by determined by the Los Angeles county coroner's office, but police said they saw no sign of foul play.

    Vickers had lived in the 1920s-era stone and wood home for decades, and it served as the background for some of her famous modeling pictures. But over time it had become dilapidated, exposed in some places to the elements.


    Susan Savage, an actress, went to check on Vickers after noticing old letters and cobwebs in her elderly neighbor's mailbox.

    "The letters seemed untouched and were starting to yellow," Savage said. "I just had a bad feeling." After pushing open a barricaded front gate and scaling a hillside, Savage peered through a broken window with another piece of glass taped over the hole. She decided to enter the house after seeing a shock of blond hair, which turned out to be a wig.

    The inside of the home was in disrepair and it was hard to move through the rooms because boxes containing what appeared to be clothes, junk mail and letters formed barriers, Savage said. Eventually, she made her way upstairs and found a room with a small space heater still on.

    She was looking at a cordless phone that appeared to have been knocked off its cradle when she first saw the body on the floor, she said. Savage had known Vickers but the remains were unrecognizable, she said.

    She remembered her neighbor as an elegant women in a broad straw hat, dressed in white, with flowing blond hair and "a warm smile."

    "She kept to herself, had friends and seemed like a very independent spirit," Savage said. "To the end she still got cards and letter from all over the world requesting photos and still wanting to be her friend."

    Savage said the neighbors felt terrible.

    "We've all been crying about this," she said. "Nobody should be left alone like that."

  2. #2
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    Wow. How does your mail pile up for a year without anyone noticing? And bills weren't being paid, the space heater on for that long without causing a fire, etc... glad someone finally found her. Sounds like it was quite an ordeal to get in the house though.


  3. #3
    DonnaMc Guest
    How does your space heater stay on if you haven't paid the light bill? Poor woman. Was there no family that wondered about her after a year? RIP.

  4. #4
    Plano Mark Guest
    Terrible postman! I hate to hear the way she died, not a good way to go.

    She was great in Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman. She played a great "Honey." What a beauty.

  5. #5
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    Perhaps Vickers had a "paperless payment" arrangement where the electric company withdrew from her checking account every month?

  6. #6
    Forever-27 Guest
    what issue Playboy was she in ?

  7. #7
    jeca Guest
    Wow, what a horrible way to go. I can't believe it went unnoticed that long. Very weird.

  8. #8
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    I don't know what's worse--- to have a family that ends up not caring for you in old age, hiring a caretaker who might abuse and rip you off while you lie there helpless before dying, or just be alone and drop dead when the time comes.

  9. #9
    sablegsd Guest

    Mummified Body of Former Playmate/Actress Found


  10. #10
    james1977 Guest
    Awful, if we live alone and don't have the one touch thing, or we just die in our sleep. We will stink up the whole block with our stench if we are not with anyone. Many people live alone and since this society worships the young and takes craps all over the old people. Many old people live alone and are just forgotten. The family doesn't give a shit. I'm 38 and I would go to my Thanksgiving Dinner with my family members and the young people, 19 to 25 didn't give a piece of their crap about me. I was just an old fart to them, and they just ignored me. Only 14 years older than them. And what do you think the elderly are treated like ? - C-R-A-P. This society needs some sort of a government welfare check-up service where they check up on everyone and make sure they are okay. It was a peaceful death she didn't suffer. Why does everyone get so god damned worrisome.? She died alone, poor thing. Stop that crap. She didn't suffer. Peaceful for her. But what isn't peaceful is a society who ignores old people and treats them like crap. That is never peaceful. This society has a lot of work to do. R.I.P. Yvette

  11. #11
    slw Guest
    Up to a year?

    Sad.

  12. #12
    Shannon Guest
    Just read about Yvette Vickers and looked here, sure enough my fellow death hags had it covered. I would like to see pics of the house, they said is in bad shape. It said she lived there for several decades, so I'm thinking it may look much like it did way back when.
    It seems however I don't know the layout of the place, living in SoCa with a space heater on the whole time wouldn't someone smell her rotting?

  13. #13
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    How was her electric bills paid??

  14. #14
    radiojane Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Aries65 View Post
    How was her electric bills paid??

    More than likely she had an accountant or a business manager paying things, or even just online banking. If she was financially well off, nothing would seem amiss.

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Shannon View Post
    ...I would like to see pics of the house, they said is in bad shape. It said she lived there for several decades, so I'm thinking it may look much like it did way back when...
    Pictures here:

    http://starcasm.net/archives/98179

    I also saw one (can't find the link now) of the patio/porch/deck area. It was badly overgrown with a tarp over the side of the house.

    Very sad.

    VCNJ~

  16. #16
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    Additional information (see especially posts by Tom Weaver)

    http://monsterkidclassichorrorforum....s-shocking-end

    VCNJ~

  17. #17
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    A 50 foot corpse has got to put out the funk. How did no one notice?

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    To clarify, Ms Vickers was not the title character in Aot50FW. She was Honey Parker, the shanty tramp with whom Harry, the 50 Foot Woman's husband, was steppin' out with.

    I believe it was Ms Vickers in the famous "Harry...I want my husband Harry!" scene when the giant hand comes into the roadhouse and grabs Harry.

    VCNJ~

  19. #19
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    Additional information from the comment section for the LA Times obituary for Ms Vickers - here is a comment from the neighbor - Susan Savage - who found Ms Vickers. (Jeff & Suzette refers to cousin/niece/nephews who also posted comments:

    Jeff & Suzette, please contact Andrew Blankstein directly @ the LA Times. I have been searching for Yvette's next of kin since I found her last Wed., and I'd like to talk to you both. I so sorry for your loss.
    For those of you, who have raised questions about circumstances of Yvette's death, I will do my best to answer them. Why was the power still on? I had the same question. I've since learned that when you get to a certain age (Yvette was 82), the DWP doesn't automatically shut off the power even when you haven't paid your bill in months. The power has been on all this time including the space heater that I shut off; it's amazing it didn't burn the house down. For the record, the lights are STILL on...perhaps, leading those neighbors closest to her to believe that she was ok.
    Re: the mail. Apparently, Yvette had gone on vacation back East sometime the previous April, and filed a stop mail/vacation notice with the post office. No one is certain when she returned, but she never contacted the post office to resume her mail. Hence, her mail box was NOT overflowing with mail as it should have been. If it had been, I've no doubt her immediate neighbors or any neighbor (like myself) who occasionally passed by her house would certainly have noticed this a lot sooner. Her mail box was only about half full. Apparently, a few pieces of mail did occasionally get through when our regular mail carrier had a day off. Our usual mail carrier wrote Yvette several notes and attempted to contact her several times. Even going as so far to knock repeated on Yvette's gate door & on the doors of other neighbors asking if anyone had seen her. One neighbor said Yvette regularly went to Las Vegas, which I assume must have assuaged our mail carrier's concerns.
    I was not aware that of the vacation hold, but then, I wasn't close with her either. But still, the yellowing envelopes did begin to bother me. Also, when we had new phone books delivered several weeks back, I noticed that Yvette's were outside of her garage for sometime but then they disappeared. So I assumed that Yvette had taken them inside. However, last Wednesday, when I saw there were cobwebs forming on the inside of the mail box, I just knew something was wrong. So I knocked on her gate for long time; it was impossible to open. It was bolted twice, nailed shut, and then, braced at the base with a 2x4. Trust me, it was NOT easily accessible from the street. If it was, our mail carrier might have been able to make contact sooner. I ended up scaling her steeply graded hillside, stepping over high metal barricades and bloodying myself in the process, till I finally got onto her property. All the doors and windows were locked and reinforced from within. I knocked on every door/window, calling her name the whole time. I could see that the lights were on, but there was no response. I went down to the front door of the house, and saw the broken window pane which is how I ultimately got in. I think you'll all pretty clear what happened after that.
    Even though Yvette kept to herself and was extremely reclusive, there were some neighbors who would buy groceries for her, bring her to neighborhood watch meetings, trim her hedges at the back of her house and even fix her sprinklers in the process. When Yvette left town, no one seemed to know that she was gone because it appears she didn't share information with any of her neighbors. I know this because they were several notes in her mail box asking for her to give them a call. Her absence did not go unnoticed.
    This is a tragedy in any neighborhood. If there had been better communication on all sides, in the end, I feel certain Yvette wouldn't have been alone.
    Suzette, Jeff and all of Yvette's family, please accept my heartfelt condolences. I just wish I would have found her sooner.

    Yours Sincerely, Susan Savage





  20. #20
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    Very sad and tragic.
    Cindy

  21. #21
    Shannon Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by VeuveClicquotNJ View Post
    Pictures here:

    http://starcasm.net/archives/98179

    I also saw one (can't find the link now) of the patio/porch/deck area. It was badly overgrown with a tarp over the side of the house.

    Very sad.

    VCNJ~

    Thanks for posting the link! The last three photos of her posing look to me anyway like they could have been taken at the same house.

  22. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by Shannon View Post
    Thanks for posting the link! The last three photos of her posing look to me anyway like they could have been taken at the same house.
    Shannon:

    I believe I read that they were taken on the same site, so she's lived there quite a while. Property records show assessment from 1980; she may have refinanced or something at that point, but I believe she's lived there much longer than that.

    VCNJ~

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    Deleted

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    Last edited by Ludigan; 05-03-2011 at 11:03 AM.

  24. #24
    Tebssis Guest
    So sad to hear that she came to such a lonely end. Definitely a trail blazer with her work in Playboy and classic B movies. Thanks VCNJ for the great link, Toms and the others posts were fantastic reading.
    RIP Ms. Vickers.

  25. #25
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    I'm surprised the space heater didn't burn out after being on for a year straight.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

    "I will be buried in a spring loaded casket filled with confetti, and a future archaeologist will have one awesome day at work."

  26. #26
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    Found this article , with good pic of deck

    http://tinyurl.com/3ep76t6

  27. #27
    Shannon Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Pegasus View Post
    Found this article , with good pic of deck

    http://tinyurl.com/3ep76t6
    Great pics!
    It would be cool if Scott could go there and get some good shots and "stuff" before they most likely rip the place down.

  28. #28
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    I am in absolute shock, I heard the news on a program called "The Love Doctors" on WZZR.com. When I heard who it was.........just unbelieveable. I am so sorry to hear about this.

  29. #29
    DonnaMc Guest
    It's just so sad that she laid there for a year and no one found her. Her neighbors must not have been all that "neighborly."

  30. #30
    JudyAnn Guest
    What a sad story. This woman certainly was well-known and achieved a nice degree of stardom back in the day, not to mention a legion of fans. What gets to me is that apparently, there was no one in her life - a close girlfriend, a distant relative, a former co-worker - no one who noticed her missing or even attempted to check on her in person.

    She died all alone and was there for a year and no one did anything, nor cared. I understand that the mailman made a cursory attempt, neighbors presumed she was Las Vegas, etc. - but no one noted her absence in life.

    I had a great uncle who lived as a recluse BUT he did have a nice lady in his neighborhood who would come around and just knock on his door and visit with him every few days. When he got really sick, this lady called my mom (his niece) and got him help; for a while, we arranged through a city service that he'd get a daily "welfare check" phone call, as well. If he did not answer, a volunteer would drive over to check on him. It was a huge relief for us.

    Wonder if Yvette was mentally ill or had suffered from Alzheimers - perhaps made her paranoid of other people and/or unable/unwilling to get out of her house.

    Wonder what her life was like in her last years?

  31. #31
    Plano Mark Guest
    She was a hottie in her day. She had small but important parts in the two sci-fi movies that she is famous for, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, and Attack of the Giant Leeches. I remember seeing those movies, and even as young pre-teen, she had the "effect" on me.

    From what I read in cult magazines a few years ago, she was popular on the sci-fi convention circuit.

  32. #32
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    Quote Originally Posted by VeuveClicquotNJ View Post


    To clarify, Ms Vickers was not the title character in Aot50FW. She was Honey Parker, the shanty tramp with whom Harry, the 50 Foot Woman's husband, was steppin' out with.

    I believe it was Ms Vickers in the famous "Harry...I want my husband Harry!" scene when the giant hand comes into the roadhouse and grabs Harry.

    VCNJ~
    I for remember the awesome special effects for that giant hand.

  33. #33
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    JudyAnn:

    From what I've read, there were a few things at play:

    1. she was fiercely independent

    2. she traveled frequently and maintained more than 1 home.

    3. her neighbors *did* interact with her and assist her when she was home; I think they can all be forgiven if they thought she was traveling or at another home.

    4. her family - the same.

    5. there was mention made of a serious black mold problem; perhaps this contributed to some sort of mental confusion or physical illness - hard to say.

    VCNJ~

    Quote Originally Posted by JudyAnn View Post
    What a sad story. This woman certainly was well-known and achieved a nice degree of stardom back in the day, not to mention a legion of fans. What gets to me is that apparently, there was no one in her life - a close girlfriend, a distant relative, a former co-worker - no one who noticed her missing or even attempted to check on her in person.

    She died all alone and was there for a year and no one did anything, nor cared. I understand that the mailman made a cursory attempt, neighbors presumed she was Las Vegas, etc. - but no one noted her absence in life.

    I had a great uncle who lived as a recluse BUT he did have a nice lady in his neighborhood who would come around and just knock on his door and visit with him every few days. When he got really sick, this lady called my mom (his niece) and got him help; for a while, we arranged through a city service that he'd get a daily "welfare check" phone call, as well. If he did not answer, a volunteer would drive over to check on him. It was a huge relief for us.

    Wonder if Yvette was mentally ill or had suffered from Alzheimers - perhaps made her paranoid of other people and/or unable/unwilling to get out of her house.

    Wonder what her life was like in her last years?

  34. #34
    Shannon Guest
    JudyAnn
    It is very sad how many older people get, you could be right about loss of memory. Another thing about women celebs pertic if they were once sex pots, they sometimes don't want people to see them in their old age. That could be another reason she was so reclusive. Sad thing is the lady who found her is trying to reach a few people, I don't know who they are just said next of kin. But if they were her children or something, shame on them. Even if she was not close with them, she was old and they should have made an atempt to check on her well being.
    PS forgive my spelling, on this iPod I can't seem to get my spellcheck to work, only on words I know I have spelled right:/

  35. #35
    Quote Originally Posted by Forever-27 View Post
    what issue Playboy was she in ?
    July, 1959

  36. #36
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    I feel for this poor woman. This is why I have told my friends and family (I live alone) if they don't hear from me for over 5 days to call the police and break my door down. Oh this poor woman.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] "I just know I'm not the greatest power on this earth. I didn't create myself, because I would have done a hell of a better job." -Layne Staley

  37. #37
    Seagorath Guest
    My God...she was as hot as homemade sin back in the day. WOW!!!

  38. #38
    majcm Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Seagorath View Post
    My God...she was as hot as homemade sin back in the day. WOW!!!

    LOL, Seagorath! I haven't heard that term in a long time, but when I did it was always "UGLY as homemade sin!"

    Very sad story. I have sometimes thought of starting a business where I contact daily the elderly or anyone alone and afraid of being hurt/sick with no one knowing. Kind of like someone above mentioned the Soc.Services does. Then going to their house if they don't answer. Would be a job where I'd really feel good about myself, helping older people (animals & the elderly are my soft spots!)

  39. #39
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    Rest In Peace

    Yvette Vickers dies at 82; former actress and Playboy playmate



    Vickers?? body was found by a neighbor in a mummified state that suggests she may have been dead for close to a year, police say. She appeared in 1950s B-movies such as ??Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.??

    By Valerie J. Nelson

    Los Angeles Times

    May 3, 2011


    Yvette Vickers, an actress best known as the femme fatale in two late 1950s cult horror films, ??Attack of the 50 Foot Woman? and ??Attack of the Giant Leeches,? was found dead Wednesday at her Benedict Canyon home. She was 82.

  40. #40
    Seagorath Guest
    There is another thread for this. She was hotter than homemade sin in her day. Have I said that before?

  41. #41
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    So she didn't have any friends or family that cared. But I bet if they turn up some $$$ sitting in a bank account they will pop up with crocodile tears about how much she meant to them.

  42. #42
    Snudgie Guest
    This really depressed me when I read how this poor lady was found....what a beauty she was back in the day...RIP xx

  43. #43
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    'has anyone seen my husband....???????' love that movie attack of the fifty foot woman rip fifty foot woman!
    pull the string!

  44. #44
    davidbrown Guest
    I guess the price of being a recluse and fiercely independent is that you can push caring people away. Then at some point, they stop. It's a sad ending to such a woman.

  45. #45
    Shannon Guest
    Now they are actually talking about it on our local news and CNN. They showed the letters and notes in the mail box and looked like post it's on the door, not sure cus it flashed by fast.

  46. #46
    Elizabeth Guest
    I just saw "Attack Of The Giant Leeches" a couple weeks ago.....not exactly Oscar worthy, and her acting left a lot to be desired, but she was very pretty....

    What a lonely way to die.....hope her death was quick and painless.....

  47. #47
    orionova Guest
    There are actually three threads on her. I believe this one was the first.

  48. #48
    JudyAnn Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Seagorath View Post
    My God...she was as hot as homemade sin back in the day. WOW!!!
    ...and my grandfather would say, "ugly as homemade soap!"

  49. #49
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    Very sorry to hear about this death. It is the way a lot of people who live alone are afraid of dying. Very sad

  50. #50
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    Rest In Peace, Ms. Vickers. I do hope next-of-kin is found soon so that you may be given a proper burial.

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