Martha Vickers
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; 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" (1943). She played minor roles in several films during the early 1940s, working first at Universal  Studios and then at RKO Pictures. She next went to Warner Bros., 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's character in "The Big Sleep" (1946). She also starred 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. Television. Vickers's TV appearances included the 1959 "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 (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 at Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Los Angeles on November 2, 1971. She is buried in Valhalla Memorial  Park Cemetery in North Hollywood, California.