Written By: Ken HulseySource: NBC LA
I said today was about the strange and this story is very strange ..... and actually very sad when you think about it.
By now you have probably already heard about this, but in case you haven't, the mummified remains of Actress and Playboy model Yvette Vickers were removed from her dilapidated Beverly Hills home on Monday.
Yes .... I said mummified .... that's not a typo.
The police were called to Vickers home after neighbors, finally, thought it was strange that they hadn't seen the actress in quite some time and that the house was falling apart. Upon entering the home the authorities discovered Vickers remains and estimated that she had been dead at least a year.
That's the sad part, she was an elderly 82-year-old woman, and her neighbors didn't realize that hadn't seen her in over a year?
Ug! Anyway Vickers was most noted for her roles in the classic B monster movies "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman" and "Attack of the Giant Leeches" and her modeling for Playboy magazine in the 1960s.
We really need to start paying more attention to the elderly. Here is a tragic story of a beloved actress that people just simply forgot about. Out of the spotlight out of mind. I'm sorry to report that this sort of thing has happened way too many times for my soul to remain silent about.
People shouldn't be pushed aside when their looks fade and they stop entertaining us in films and on TV.
THINK ABOUT IT PEOPLE!
Here is a video tribute to Yvette:
Attack of the Giant Leeches is a low-budget 1959 science fiction film from American International Pictures. It was directed by Bernard L. Kowalski, produced by Gene Corman, and the screenplay was written by Leo Gordon. The film is in black and white, and runs for 62 minutes. It was one of a spate of monster movies produced during the 1950s in response to cold war fears; in the film a character speculates that the leeches have been mutated to giant size by atomic radiation from nearby Cape Canaveral.
Nancy Archer (Allison Hayes) had something funny happen to her on the way home from the insane asylum. She saw a UFO. Only trouble is no one will believe her. Go figure.
Her husband couldn't be happier though. If Nancy is still insane than he can continue his affair with the curvy Honey Parker (Yvette Vickers). Her constant ramblings give him all the ammo he needs to have her shipped right back to the Nut House.
Nancy knows what she saw and is convinced that she is no longer the crazy person she once was so she flees her adulterous husband and returns to the dessert to find evidence to prove her story. She finds the UFO but its alien pilot uses a strange ray on her and she soon grows to an enormous size.
See Also: Attack Of The 50ft Woman (1958)
