Martha Vickers

Biography

Martha Vickers (May 28, 1925 – November 2, 1971) was an American television and film actress. Born Martha MacVicar in Ann Arbor, Michigan, she began her career as a model and cover girl. Her film debut was an uncredited role in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1941). Throughout the early 1940s, Vickers appeared in various films, culminating in a notable performance as Carmen Sternwood in The Big Sleep (1946). While her film career declined in the 1950s, she remained active in television, with roles including Sheila Hayes in the Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Jaded Joker" (1959). Vickers was married three times, including to actor Mickey Rooney, with whom she had one son, and to Manuel Rojas, with whom she had two daughters. She passed away from esophageal cancer at the age of 46 and is interred at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood, California.