Martha Vickers (born Martha MacVicar; May 28, 1925 – November 2, 1971) was an American model and actress.

Early life

Vickers was born Martha MacVicar in

Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County, Michigan, Washtenaw County. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851. It is the principal city of the Ann Arbor ...

; her father was an automobile dealer. She began her career as a model and cover girl. Her family moved to Hollywood when her father assumed control of an agency in Burbank, California. Vickers was 15 at that time.

Film

Vickers' first film role was a small uncredited part in ''

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man ''Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man'' is a 1943 American horror film directed by Roy William Neill and starring Lon Chaney Jr. as the Wolf Man and Bela Lugosi as Frankenstein's monster. This was the first of a series of later called "monster rallie ...

'' (1943). She played minor roles in several films during the early 1940s, working first at

Universal Studios Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

and then at

RKO Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orphe ...

. She next went to

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

, where "they gave her the star push, rearranging her surname to 'Vickers.'" Her work there included the role of Carmen Sternwood, the promiscuous, drug-addicted younger sister of

Lauren Bacall Lauren Bacall (; born Betty Joan Perske; September 16, 1924 – August 12, 2014) was an American actress. She was named the 20th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute and received an Academy Honorary Aw ...

's character in ''

The Big Sleep ''The Big Sleep'' (1939) is a hardboiled crime novel by American-British writer Raymond Chandler, the first to feature the detective Philip Marlowe. It has been adapted for film twice, The Big Sleep (1946 film), in 1946 and again The Big Sleep ...

'' (1946). She also featured in a musical, '' The Time, the Place and the Girl'' (also 1946), followed by two Warner Bros. comedies, '' Love and Learn'' and '' That Way with Women'' (both 1947). During the 1950s, however, Vickers' film career stalled.^{specify

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Background
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Television

Vickers's TV appearances included the 1959 ''Perry Mason (1957 TV series), Perry Mason'' episode, "The Case of the Jaded Joker", in which she played Sheila Hayes. Her final two performances, in 1960, were on '' The Rebel'', starring Nick Adams.

Personal life

Vickers was married three times, to A.C. Lyles (March 15, 1948 – September 28, 1948),

Mickey Rooney Mickey Rooney (born Joseph Yule Jr.; other pseudonym Mickey Maguire; September 23, 1920 – April 6, 2014) was an American actor. In a career spanning nine decades, he appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last surviving stars of the ...

(June 3, 1949 – September 25, 1951), and actor Manuel Rojas (September 1, 1954 – May 5, 1965). Each marriage ended in divorce. Vickers had one son with Mickey Rooney, and two daughters with Rojas.

Death

Vickers died, aged 46, of

esophageal cancer Esophageal cancer is cancer arising from the esophagus—the food pipe that runs between the throat and the stomach. Symptoms often include difficulty in swallowing and weight loss. Other symptoms may include pain when swallowing, a hoarse voice ...

Valley Presbyterian Hospital Valley Presbyterian Hospital is a 350-bed hospital in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1958, architect William Pereira designed the original building. The facility specializes in maternal and child health, cardiac care, orthopedics, a ...

in Los Angeles on November 2, 1971. She is buried in

Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery is located at 10621 Victory Boulevard in North Hollywood and Burbank, California. The cemetery has an entrance called the Portal of the Folded Wings Shrine to Aviation that is the final resting place for aviation ...

in North Hollywood, California.

Filmography

References

External links

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Martha Vickers
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* 1925 births 1971 deaths Actresses from Michigan American television actresses Burials at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery Deaths from cancer in California Deaths from esophageal cancer Actors from Ann Arbor, Michigan 20th-century American actresses {{US-tv-actor-1920s-stub