Yvette Vickers

The daughter of musicians, this sultry femme fatale of late-'50s horror flicks had been the "White Rain" girl in television commercials before entering films in James Cagney's Short Cut to Hell (1957). (Prior to that she had reportedly been an extra in Sunset Blvd. (1950) while attending U.C.L.A.) Trained as a singer, Yvette Vickers (born Van Vedder) drifted into B-movies when the Cagney film flopped and is today best remembered for the horror movies she did for Roger Corman: Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958), as Allison Hayes' slatternly rival, and Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959). In the latter, playing Bruno Ve Sota's sluttish young wife, she is dragged into an underwater cage by the title creatures despite always professing a deep fear of drowning, her visible terror apparently quite real. Vickers, who did her fair share of television and stage appearances, was at the time better known for her extracurricular activities -- including a 15-year relationship with actor Jim Hutton and an on-again/off-again affair with Cary Grant -- and for a couple of important film roles that somehow slipped away: Lana Turner's daughter in Imitation of Life (1959) and the Carroll Baker part in The Carpetbaggers (1964). In later years, she concentrated on her singing career and made frequent personal appearances to discuss her work for Corman.

~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide