Yvette Vickers: The B-movie actress really was 82. Here's how we figured it out.
When I first started writing about Yvette Vickers, who died a sad death alone in her Benedict Canyon home, I thought she was 74, based on at least five references that agreed on the year she was born: 1936.
My colleague Andrew Blankstein, who spoke with police and neighbors about the unusual circumstances of her death, posted a blog item that gave her age as 82. His sources: Police and a neighbor, he told me, “who said she talked to the husband, who said 82.”
Except there wasn’t a husband when Vickers, a B-movie actress, died some time in the last year.
Actresses, more than anyone I write about, “prevaricate” about their age. Running down the real birth year can be elusive, but I’ve successfully turned to passenger logs from long-ago ship voyages and the 1930 census to nail down a date.
In Vickers’ case, Times librarian Kent Coloma came through, the second time around. Earlier in the day he said voter registration records listed 1939 as her birth year. That didn’t agree with any research, but it was a clue that Vickers may have treated her age as an elastic number.
Coloma took another crack at it, and, through the “Historical Person Locator,” a vast database of public records, came back with “8/1928,” which means she was 82. That date was given added credence when Vickers’ first husband, Don Prell, returned my call and said with certainty that she was born in 1928.
But Prell couldn’t clear up another fuzzy figure -- the precise number of times Vickers had been married and divorced. “At least twice,” he said.
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Yvette Vickers dies at 82; former actress and Playboy playmate
Body of former Playboy playmate Yvette Vickers found in her Benedict Canyon home
-- Valerie J. Nelson
Photo: Yvette Vickers, who was best known for appearing in the B-movies "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman" and "Attack of the Giant Leeches," was found dead April 27. Credit: Los Angeles Times file
Yvette,s father and mine were brothers. When I saw her, she was nice.
I think all of us cousins would have liked to have had contact with her.
The last time I saw her was at our grandmothers funeral, she wanted to keep to herself. Today I drove a long way to give a DNA swab for confirmation of
her. I wish it could have been a nice visit .
Rest in peace Yvette
Posted by: Rosalee Clark | 05/03/2011 at 03:23 PM
Who cares? This is what you waste your time on? Millions of taxpayers dollars being wasted and this is investigative journalism? We care about her age why? Jeez.
Posted by: ihatelatimes | 05/03/2011 at 04:32 PM
What a shame, dead one year and nobody noticed.
Posted by: randay | 05/03/2011 at 05:54 PM
So when she appeared in "Attack of the 50 foot woman" in 1958, she was actually 30 instead of 23.
It's common for actresses to fib their age since they have such short span to be marketable in their profession.
Posted by: RV | 05/03/2011 at 06:16 PM
So she was 31 when she posed for Playboy, not 23? She was in terrific shape!
Posted by: Christopher "Sampo" Cornell | 05/04/2011 at 04:19 AM
Speaking of how you "figured it out," you obviously slipped up at the last moment and still got the date wrong. She was 81, not 82.
Her birthday was in August, which is practically the fall. Yet her friends and neighbors testified that she had never been seen since the summer of last year, which would be June or July.
Meaning that when Vickers died in June or July of 2010, she was still only 81. It's not when you later find 'em dead, it's when they originally died that matters, kid.
You're welcome.
Posted by: Ed Gauthier | 05/04/2011 at 10:13 AM
Mr. Gauthier is correct: the procedure of ascribing a death date and age is based on when one died, not when the death was discovered. This is possibly a protocol that developed several centuries ago for insurance and legal principles.
Jim...in New Mexico
Posted by: Jim Macey | 05/04/2011 at 01:15 PM
In the 1980's Kansas City, I worked with a man who knew her as a young family friend.....a crusty aged WWII vet who would mist up at the mention of this woman. He mostly worried about her as a family friend because of this...."how alone can you be" he asked one time regarding her wellbeing. He was so right. She was respected and my sympathy to Rosalee and her other kin. I suspect she did what she wanted...what more can be done in this world or the next?
Posted by: B.W.Welling | 05/05/2011 at 05:01 PM
Why so snarky and mean? The poor lady died alone, and no one noticed (or bothered to check up on her) until months after she passed! I hope that doesn't happen to you!
Posted by: Lisa | 05/05/2011 at 06:21 PM
Who cares about the internal Times procedures? There's nothing to this after the headline. You "figured it out" by talking to people and doing your job. Is it possible anymore for the Times staffers to keep themselves out of the reporting?
I read this because I thought there would be something unusual in the story of how a mummified Hollywood actress hid or revealed her age. Instead, her odd, sad, story has now been supplemented by your mundane use of the telephone and reading internet postings. What's next? Will you tell us the story of how your desk got moved away from the window, or you had to get a petty cash advance?
Posted by: Mark | 05/06/2011 at 07:32 AM
Yvette was my second cousin whom I probably hadn't seen since I was a young child and my Mothers first cousin. One thing I have learned from all of this is to not be judgemental of people, you do not know the whole story with Yvette or her family. She was a recluse and family members did try to reach out to her with no success. It's horrible and disturbing the way she was found. I'm very thankful for Susan Savage having the courage to go in her house to check on her and very sorry that she had to find her that way. Thank you Susan for doing what you did. If all of you think this was disturbing to hear about and read about, how do you think the family is feeling right now? Walk a mile in our shoes... If this was one of your family members you would be as hurt and disturbed as I am to read all of the negative comments. It's bad enough what happened to her and her family did love and care about her!
Posted by: Marlene Trujillo | 05/06/2011 at 08:37 AM
How sad and tragic that she have died so completely alone, not even with any pets. I find it amazing that none of her neighbors did not bother her or that she socialized with them. I hope when she was living that she enjoyed her career and went to many parties and had a great life because it was a sad ending for her to be completely forgotten.
Posted by: kindlady1 | 05/06/2011 at 01:42 PM
Wow, what a tragic ending to a "full life" as Hugh Hefner said. The last two years she deteriorated I guess without much help from anyone. What I don't understand is if she were nearly dead a year, why was her telephone and electricity still operating. Did she have some type of automatic pay withdrawl, or did someone take care of her estate and its bills. These are questions the police need to address. Also does she have children or any close relatives left ?No close friends evidently. Any will? Who will inherit the property?
Posted by: don | 05/10/2011 at 09:20 PM
Everything happens for a reason, and the fact that she is being talked about at such length denotes that at one time, she lived a full life. The way she chose to live by herself and then transitioned this world is not of import, as we are all constantly being guarded by angels, and they were there to make her exit easy, I'm sure. She is now with God, has wings, is full of love and light, and has no worries or negative thoughts about her earthly voyage.
Posted by: Realistgirl | 05/12/2011 at 10:56 AM