Career Highlights: The Big Sleep, The Burglar, The Time, the Place and the Girl
First Major Screen Credit: The Big Sleep (1946)
Biography
In films from 1942, model and cover girl Martha Vickers acted under her given name of MacVicar in her earliest screen assignments. She wasn't "Vickers" until her breakthrough film The Big Sleep (1946), in which she was cast as Carmen Sternwood, Lauren Bacalls debauched, thumb-sucking younger sister. The most famous of Vickers' three husbands was Mickey Rooney, to whom she was wed from 1949 to 1951; husband number two was publicist/producer A. C. Lyles Jr., while number three was polo player Manuel Rojas. Martha Vickers retired from films after appearing in Four Fast Guns (1960). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
She played minor roles in several films during the early 1940s, and by the end of the decade she had progressed to featured supporting roles, including the role of Carmen Sternwood, the nymphomaniac younger sister of Lauren Bacall's character in The Big Sleep (1946). During the 1950s, Vickers' film career stalled, however she continued to act in television until her final performance in 1960.
Personal life and death
Vickers was married three times; to A. C. Lyles (March 15, 1948–May 1949), Mickey Rooney (June 3, 1949–September 25, 1951) and actor Manuel Rojas (October 1, 1954– 1965). Each marriage ended in divorce. Vickers had one son with Mickey Rooney, and two daughters with Rojas.