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

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 Drive 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."

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-- Andrew Blankstein

Photo: Undated handout photo of Yvette Vickers.

Comments

[Jc]

The first thing you would think is she had to be completely alone no friends or anything. That is truly a sad thing to see, it does sound weird because regardless of who mails you the bills and everything else will begin to stack up...and again no one on the face of this earth has absolutely no one checking on them at one point in time throughout a years time especially with neighbors. Even if she did keep to herself not noticing their car being moved for that long period of time come on now.

[Debbie]

@Jeff Lockhart...what is your point other than he got the age wrong? What you're saying is that she has plenty of family members who never cared enough to check on her? Sad.

[Jeff Lockhart]

@ Peter T - Thank you for the condolences. Many attempts had been made to contact Yvette with no luck. I live in another state and as you can tell by the article about Yvette, she was a very independent private woman, even her neighbors did not know.

[John]

No one ever dies alone, no matter what, you will see God and will not be able to stop it. So be prepared and know that Jesus died for you!!

[Barry G Wick]

Why must people have others around all the time? It seems she was comfortable with her world....with her life. If she died...well, people die. But all death doesn't have to be a movie-industry created everybody-around kind of death....maybe she was happy the way her life was. If that was the case, then rejoice in her happiness and be grateful she lived the way she wanted.

[craig roberts]

Find out who was cashing the social security checks and/or had access to banking accounts and mystery of "how could have happened?" will be solved. cr

[Defender90]

For film buffs, she was also in Martin Ritt's "Hud" with Paul Newman and she has a small part in the background of "Sunset Boulevard". A scene at Schwab's Drugstore with William Holden and Nancy Olson - she is the laughing girl between them at the party... very memorable face.

[Jeff Lockhart]

@ Peter T - Thank you for the condolences. Many attempts had been made to contact Yvette with no luck. I live in another state and as you can tell by the article about Yvette, she was a very independent private woman, even her neighbors did not know.

[Suzette]

So many memories flooded my mind when I saw the artical in the LA Times of my cousins passing. Good times that like all other families slip away because of the fast pace of our society. I was drawn out to K.C. and then to the Phoenix area. Yvette stayed in California. .
When her mother Iola, Grandma and her dad Chuck passed, Yvette slowly slipped away from the rest of of us. We were very close, but Yvette was truely a free spirit and her fans were very important to her to the point of leaving her family behind.
To Peter T Dude where did you get the idea that Yvette was in any time of need? For all we know she passed quickly ( which I hope) without any pain. Do you have some inside knowledge of my cousins death?

[Missourimule]

Everyone's a detective.

[Gina V]

Very, very bazaar.

[Jo]

Is everyone on drugs here? has anyone ever heard of auto-paying your utilities? This kind of stuff happens all the time. I remember hearing about a mummified woman they found sitting in her recliner with the TV still blaring and they determined she had been dead for 2 years.

[Jeff Lockhart]

Sorry for the double post here. I posted the first one at 7:57 the next at 8:13. I didn't think it was going to post. My bad.

[Richard]

That says a lot about Los Angeles. How can an 82 year old woman's body go undetected in her home for months? Although it is named the City of Angels, I've always thought Los Angeles was a city without any soul. This reinforces that view.

[SLR Camera]

The city or state government should not be held responsible for this. Her neighbors should have kept a better eye on her. I can understand not seeing a neighbor for a week or so, but when you don't see her for months, it becomes a sad commentary on how we treat each other. As we depend more the government to solve our problems, we rely less on each other for assistance. My heart goes out to her that she was left alone and forgot for so long

[JeanCocteau]

I'll bet she smoked... I heard smoking can cause death.

It's time for you all to get used to the idea that everyone dies, and everyone dies alone.

People want to imagine how respectable they'll feel if their corpse is properly venerated, but really you wont feel anything, veneration is for the living to work through their bereavement. She didn't seem to have anyone grieving over the loss of her presence, so why the pity?

We are all on express train hurtling toward death, and their is no emergency lever, even for those of us that used to be hawt.

Even if their were an afterlife, none of us would deserve a good one. In our innermost desires we are filled with greed, hate, malice, and envy. We smile at our neighbors and wish them misfortunes. We seethe with jealousy at the schadenfreude idiots and their great masses of undeserved fame and fortune. We hate those we don't understand, and revile anyone we can justify holding in contempt.

Look at those wretched nasty disease-ridden whores and cruel, murderous, and merciless thugs. How smug we feel in pronouncing judgement on them. How we revel in comparing our own good behavior and well-behaved children with theirs. With pride and satisfaction we coo and preen, waving our self-righteousness like an imperial flag. Look at how low they are compared to me.

Surely WE deserve more than a mahogany tomb to keep the worms at bay while our flesh turns to soup. But, sadly, when we are all alone the facade falls away and we are self-condemned as we recognize the evil brimming with in us. We deserve more than a dark casket, we deserver eternal darkness. More than worms, we deserve worms that never die, flames that never consume, wailing and the gnashing of teeth forever more.

But there is hope, yet. For something strange has happened. God has become man and conquered sin AND death forever, ransoming us from the wrath we justly deserve. Anyone who confesses their sin and turns from the wrath to come to forgiveness of sin and mercy won by Him on a Roman crucifix, will be raised to new life on the last day. Even though our bodies are buried in shame, we shall be raised in glory, unstained by the wickedness that flows from within us.

And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."(Mark2)

[Danglingjohnson]

As a young kid I used to fantasize what I would do with a 50' bombshell of a woman. She did scare me a little though. What a way to go.

[Sean Bagley]

The neighbors (who knew of this woman) SHOULD feel terrible. They should be absolutley ashamed of themselves, as should the regular mail carrier. That person should be fired. The extent to which we ignore the elderly in this country is a national disgrace. As our population of non-reproducers increases, we should implement programs to engage seniors or at least check on them to attempt to prevent sad situations such as this. If she indeed has family/heirs, they shouldn't get a damn penny.

[mismulkey]

Maybe a strange question, but according to the report, a space heater was still on. If she was dead almost a year, how was the power paid and kept on? No power company I know of will let you go that length of time without paying the bill.

[ceeteebee]

I wouldn't blame her family. The key may lie in the report that the house was in disrepair and filled with junk. That sounds like a hoarding situation. Hoarders have a mental illness that results in alienation from family, friends and neighbors.
Very sad.

[frankie4]

that's Calif you can be dead for a year and no one notices.it funny how after the fact every body is your friend and sorry,may she rest in peace God bless her.

[ann]

if not seeing your neighbor for a few months is a bad thing, I have a lot of snooping to do around my neighborhood. I better check on the 75% of my neighbors I haven't seen in months. They might be dead or dying. Unless of course it's just because our schedules do not provide for running into each other on a regular basis? Some people jump to such silly conclusions.

[gary]

one question: Didnt the person from the USPS notice untouched mail? After one year he/she didnt mention it to anyone?

[Damon Ross]

What a beauty. And what a loss. I hate to hear of this. She will be missed.

[Right is Right]

Where were her relatives? No one even check on her. So sad she had to pass alone.