Actress Yvette Vickers, whose mummified body was found in April, appeared in Playboy in 1959.

Yvette Vickers in 2007.

Heart failure killed a former Playboy beauty and actress whose mummified body was found in her home, the Los Angelescoroner's office said.

The body of Yvette Vickers, who starred in "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman," was found in her Benedict Canyon home in April. It is believed she died nearly a year ago, but her remains went undiscovered.

The model and actress, who is believed to have been 82 at the time of her death, died of natural causes "due to arterial sclerotic cardiovascular disease," or heart disease caused by a hardening of the arteries, an investigator with the Los Angeles Countycoroner's office told the Los Angeles Times.

Vickers was found by a neighbor on April 27 after she noticed the former big screen bombshell's mail had not been picked up in some time.

The coroner's office has not determined how long ago Vickers died.

The aging starlet, who appeared in several television shows over the decades including "Dragnet" and "My Three Sons," rarely acted since the 1970s and kept to herself in the last few years.

"Her lifestyle was such that she was not active in family affairs," Robert Vedder, a cousin of the actress, told the Los Angeles Times. "She chose her lifestyle and nobody interfered with that."

Vickers posed for Playboy in 1959, and had roles in several B movies, such as "Attack of the Giant Leeches."