The Black Vault

Officials Trying to Identify Yvette Vickers' Body
11:51 PM 5/3/2011 by THR staff

The actress and Playboy playmate, whose credits include "Attack of the 50-Foot Woman," is believed to have been dead for several months before her body was discovered.

Officials are working to determine definitively that the mummified body of a woman found last week in her Los Angeles home is that of B-movie actress Yvette Vickers.
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Vickers, whose credits include the 1950s films Attack of the 50-Foot Woman and Attack of the Giant Leeches, had not been seen for months. Last week, a neighbor, concerned about the cobwebs and yellowing envelopes in Vickers' mailbox, entered her Benedict Canyon home and found the badly decomposed body.

A space heater also was set to "on" nearby, a computer was on, and spiderwebs six to eight feet long were hanging from the ceiling. The neighbor had to crawl through the walls to get upstairs because there was trash and other items blocking a door.
When she found the body, "I just screamed," the neighbor told the Associated Press on Tuesday. "I got out of there right away."

Authorities say it could take a week to determine definitely that it was Vickers' body.

Based on the mummified state of her body, Vickers could have been dead anywhere from a few months to a year, Los Angeles County Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said.

Police don't suspect foul play, but the coroner's office will determine the official cause of death.

Vickers, 82, got her big break in the 1950s when she was cast as the "White Rain Girl" in commercials.

She made her film debut in 1957's Short Cut to Hell, James Cagney'sdirectorial debut, and was named Playboy's playmate of the month in July 1959.

Her other credits include the 1963 Paul Newman movie Hudand 1971's What's the Matter With Helen? with Debbie Reynolds, Shelley Winters andDennis Weaver.

Vickers' last acting credit was 1990's straight-to-DVD movie Evil Spirits.