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Yvette Vickers Profile
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Photo gallery |
| (Yvette Iola Vedder) |
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| 26 August 28 | is born in Kansas City, Missouri, daughter of jazz saxophonist Charles Nicholas Vedder and his wife Iola Maude Vedder |
| Late 40s | attends a Catholic high school in Los Angeles |
| 50 | billed as Yvette Vedder, she performs in local little theater productions as an actress and dancer |
| is discovered by director Billy Wilder, who casts her in a bit part in the classic Sunset Boulevard. She changes her professional name to Yvette Vickers. |
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| 51 | enters UCLA at age 16, eventually earning her B.A. in theater arts |
| 22 October 53 | marries bass player Donald G. "Don" Prell, a member of The Bud Shank Quartet, in Los Angeles. He's 24; she's 25. |
| 54 | is the White Rain girl in a nationally televised shampoo commercial |
| 55 | divorces Prell |
| 56 | begins to work a lot on episodic TV and dates actor Ben Cooper |
| 57 | is seen by James Cagney and Paramount executive A.C. Lyles while appearing on the Los angeles stage in Bus Stop and is given her first co-starring role in the Paramount film Short Cut to Hell |
| dates her Reform School Girl co-star Edd "Kookie" Byrnes |
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| 58 | flirts with Rory Calhoun, her co-star in the Universal-International Western, The Saga of Hemp Brown |
| also dates Steve Cochran, the star of I, Mobster, in which she has a bit part as a sexy junkie |
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| loses out on juicy roles in This Earth is Mine and Imitation of Life |
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| will become a top cult-movie queen via her co-starring role in the classic Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman |
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| 13 June 59 | marries writer Leonard S. Burns in Los Angeles. He's 36; she's 26. |
| ? | divorces Burns quickly |
| resumes dating several Hollywood actors, including Lee Marvin |
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| becomes a health food advocate and follows a beatnik lifestyle in Hollywood |
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| July 59 | is Playboy's "Playmate of the Month" in a sexy spread photographed by the renowned Russ Meyer. As a result of the favorable publicity her centerfold generates, she wins a co-starring role in a prestigious Broadway play, The Gang's All Here, a show that runs for one year. |
| 60 | meets actor Ralph Meeker, with whom she has an on-again off-again, bi-coastal relationship for the next five years |
| back on the West Coast, she guest stars on a host of television shows and continues to model for various glamour girl magazines |
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| 61 | has an affair with Cary Grant, which ends when he proposes marriage to actress Dyan Cannon. He and Yvette remain good friends until his death. |
| 63 | gets a juicy role in the acclaimed Paul Newman film, Hud, only to have most of her scenes cut when Newman's wife Joanne Woodward objects to the onscreen chemistry between her husband and Yvette |
| November 63 | gets rave reviews for her performance in the stage play Grand Guignol, at Los Angeles's New Club. Several other Hollywood stage plays follow. |
| 64 | meets actor Jim Hutton, with whom she falls in love. For the next 14 years, the two are virtually inseparable, but never marry. |
| 69 | following a spat with Hutton, she impulsively flies to Las Vegas and marries actor Thomas J. Howland. |
| April 69 | divorces Howland in Los Angeles |
| ? | she and Hutton reunite |
| 70s | goes into real estate sales and investments to make money for her retirement years and does quite well for herself. Continues to act sporadically in films, on stage, and in television. |
| June 79 | her often-tempestuous relationship with Hutton ends with his death from cancer |
| 80s | abandons her career to help care for her parents, who suffer from ill health |
| 89 | to her fans' delight, she records her first album of blues, jazz ,and classic pop ballads, "Yvette Vickers Sings!," which she distributes herself. She puts together a cabaret act and performs in various L.A. clubs. |
| 91 | attempts a film comeback with the horror entry Evil Spirits, but sees many of her scenes cut |
| Mid-90s | continues to polish her cabaret act and to successfully manage her real estate holdings |
| 00 | releases a jazz CD, "A Tribute to Charlie and Maria," in honor of her late parents |
| 02 | enjoys a resurgence in her career and plans two future recording projects, both scheduled for release in 2003 |
| 03 | begins work on her autobiography |
| October 07 | talks to Steve Rowland for the last time |
| 27 April 11 | her body is found inside her home. Susan Savage, her neighbor, had become concerned after noticing a large pile of yellowing mail in her mailbox as well as spider webs across her front door. Savage had to push her way through a mountain of uncollected fanmail and boxes to find the body; a small heater was still running next to it. A computer was on and at least one window was broken. Authorities indicate that the mummified state of her body suggest Vickers could have been dead for nearly a year. |
| Savage said Vickers kept to herself. "To the end she still got cards and letters from all over the world requesting photos and still wanting to be her friend. We've all been crying about this. Nobody should be left alone like that." |
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| 13 May 11 | an autopsy shows she died from heart disease. She was overweight and allegedly abused alcohol, so “heart disease was not a surprise.” County coroner's Assistant Chief Ed Winter, however, couldn't say when she had actually passed away. Winter said her brother was notified of her death |
| Author: | John O'Dowd |
| Sources: www.Ancestry.com | |
| Recommended Books: | |
| Links: Filmography Brian's Drive-In Theater: Yvette Vickers The Astounding B Monster Yvette Vickers at Spooky's Nightmare Mansion | |