Sue Lyon | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Portrait of Lyon byStanley Kubrick in 1962 | |
| Born | Suellyn Lyon (1946-07-10)July 10, 1946 Davenport, Iowa, U.S. |
| Died | December 26, 2019(2019-12-26) (aged 73) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Los Angeles City College Santa Monica College |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1959–1980 |
| Spouses | |
| Children | Nona Harrison Gomes |
Suellyn Lyon (July 10, 1946 – December 26, 2019) was an American actress who is most famous today for playing the title role inStanley Kubrick's1962 film adaptation ofVladimir Nabokov's novelLolita, for which she was awarded aGolden Globe.[1]
Lyon's early career flourished with appearances in such high-profile films asJohn Huston'sThe Night of the Iguana (1964),John Ford's7 Women (1966), theFrank Sinatra detective filmTony Rome (1967), and theGeorge C. Scott comedyThe Flim Flam Man (1967), but her career dropped off in the 1970s and she retired from acting after makingAlligator, which was released in 1980.
In 1991, Lyon featured prominently in the artwork for Welsh rock bandManic Street Preachers' single "Stay Beautiful".
Suellyn Lyon, called Sue, was born on July 10, 1946, inDavenport, Iowa.[2] She was the youngest of five children of Sue (Karr) Lyon and her husband; her father died before her first birthday. Sue worked as a child model[3] in Dallas. Her mother soon took the family toLos Angeles, where she thought there would be more opportunity.[4]
With only two acting credits, at the age of 14, Lyon was cast in the role of Dolores "Lolita" Haze inStanley Kubrick's filmLolita (1962).[5] She was chosen for the role[6] from 800 teenagers. Lyon co-starred withJames Mason, then aged 53.[7] Nabokov, who wrote the novel and much of the screenplay, described her as the "perfect nymphet".[7]
Lyon got the role as the original choice, British actressJill Haworth, was unavailable. Haworth had co-starred inOtto Preminger's 1960film adaptation ofLeon Uris' novelExodus, and was under contract to him. Preminger refused to allow Haworth to play Lolita.[8] The role was then offered to child starHayley Mills, but her fatherJohn Mills refused permission for her to do it.[9] Hayley Mills was under contract to studio ownerWalt Disney, who not only refused his permission for her to appear in the film, but told the press that he did not want her to see the finished film.[10][11]Other young actresses considered for the role wereJoey Heatherton andSandra Dee.
The film trade magazineVariety reported on August 10, 1960, that James Mason was set for the part of Humbert Humbert and thatTuesday Weld was "likely" to be cast in the title role. On September 28, 1960, theLos Angeles Times reported the casting of Lyon.[10]
Although Vladimir Nabokov originally thought that Sue Lyon was the right selection to play Lolita, years later Nabokov said that the ideal Lolita would have beenCatherine Demongeot, a young French actress who had played the child Zazie inLouis Malle'sZazie in the Metro (1960). Thetomboyish Demongeot was four years younger than Lyon.[12]
In Nabokov's novel, the character Lolita is 12 years old.[13] Lyon was 14[3]–15[13] during most of production, and a month shy of her 16th birthday when the film premiered.[14][13][15] Although Kubrick raised the age of Lolita to dampen down the backlash from censors and pressure groups in a time when theProduction Code was still in force, hisLolita was still considered one of the most controversial films of the day because of the abusive relationship at its heart.[16]
In the opening paragraphs of the novel, Nabokov writes, "She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock." Theadolescent Lyon was 5 ft 3 in (160 cm) and had a developed bust, whereas the Lolita in the novel is a flat-chestedpubescent 12-year-old. Kubrick was counseled by people at theProduction Code Administration that he had to cast an actress with developed breasts or he would run afoul of theHays Code.
ProducerJames B. Harris explained that 14 year-old Lyon looked older than her age: "We knew we must make [Lolita] a sex object [...] where everyone in the audience could understand why everyone would want to jump on her." He also said, in a 2015Film Comment interview, "We made sure when we cast her that she was a definite sex object, not something that could be interpreted as being perverted."
Harris said that he and Kubrick, through casting the older Lyon, changed Nabokov's book as "we wanted it to come off as a love story and to feel very sympathetic with Humbert."[17]
Lyon was cast so that the relationship of the onscreen Humbert Humbert and Lolita would not look sexually perverse. Ironically, months afterLolita was released, the Hays Code was amended in October 1962 to allow "sex aberrations" on screen.[10]
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Stanley Kubrick'sLolita had its world premiere on June 13, 1962, at Loew's State Theatre inNew York City, two days after its press screening.[18][19]Lolita was released inWest Germany on June 21 and had itsLondon premiere on September 6. It was released inFrance on November 5.[20]
West Side Story wasnumber one at the box office that week, and would be succeeded by theCary Grant-Doris Day comedyThat Touch of Mink the week of June 27. In an article published inThe New York Times on June 24, a fortnight after he had reviewedLolita,Bosley Crowther compared it toThat Touch of Mink, arguing that both films emphasized cruelty towards men.
In Crowther's originalNew York Times review, he noted that the screenplay of film changed the tenor of the story, and Lyon was not the child of the book. It became a more conventional tale of an older man and younger woman. He wrote, "She looks to be a good 17 years old, possessed of a striking figure and a devilishly haughty teenage air." He went on, "The distinction is fine, we will grant you, but she is definitely not a 'nymphet.'"[14]
Dwight McDonald, in a review in the September 1962 issue ofEsquire Magazine, called the film disappointing.[21]
Pauline Kael defended the casting of Sue Lyon in the part, noting that American girls in the early 1960s often looked much more physically mature for their age than did girls of comparable age in the past. A fan of Kubrick's adaptation, Kael wrote, "The surprise ofLolita is how enjoyable it is; it's the first new American comedy since those great days in the 40's whenPreston Sturges recreated comedy with verbal slapstick.... At times it's so far out that you gasp as you laugh.[22]
A contemporary review inVariety was dismissive of the production in its opening lines, "Vladimir Nabokov's witty, grotesque novel is, in its film version, like a bee from which the stinger has been removed. It still buzzes with a sort of promising irreverence, but it lacks the power to shock and, eventually, makes very little point either as comedy or satire."[23]
TheVariety staff review ended with an appraisal of Lyon:
"Sue Lyon makes an auspicious film debut as the deceitful child-woman who'd just as soon go to a film as romp in the hay. It's a difficult assignment and if she never quite registers as either wanton or pathetic it may be due as much to the compromises of the script as to her inexperience."
In 1962,MGM Records released a7" vinyl single recorded by Lyon, singing the lyrics "Ya ya" inNelson Riddle's "Lolita Ya Ya", a send up ofyé-yé singers. The B-side had her singing "Turn off The Moon".[24] Both songs were co-written by producer James B. Harris' brother,J. Robert Harris. Neither song charted.
Sue Lyon attended the35th Academy Awards. The picture's sole nomination was Vladimir Nabokov forOscar for Best Screenplay Adapted From Another Medium, but he lost toHorton Foote, who adaptedTo Kill a Mockingbirdfor the screen.
Sue Lyon was 15 when the film premiered in June 1962,[14] too young to watch the film in a theater.[7] She became an instant celebrity and won aGolden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer—Female.[25]
Though Lyon rarely entered the public realm after the end of her film career in the 1980s, in 1996 she made an appearance. During this she said, "My destruction as a person dates from that film.Lolita exposed me to temptations no girl of that age should undergo.[26] I defy any pretty girl who is rocketed to stardom at 14 in a sex nymphet role to stay on a level path thereafter."[26][27][28]
According to her daughter Nona Harrison, Sue Lyon suffered frombipolar disorder.[29]
In 1960, Lyon was bound to a seven-year professional services contract to Kubrick,Lolita producerJames B. Harris and production companySeven Arts Productions, when she accepted the part inLolita.[30][31]
The Night of the Iguana (1964), in which she appeared oppositeRichard Burton andAva Gardner, was a Seven Arts picture. Lyon was featured on the theatrical release poster, embracing Burton. The film was released byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which Seven Arts had a deal with, as was7 Women (1967), in which Lyon co-starred withfirst-billedOscar-winnerAnne Bancroft, to whom Lyon received second-billing. Lyon also was second-billed to George C. Scott inThe Flim-Flam Man (1967) and Frank Sinatra inTony Rome (1967).
After the Kubrick-Harris-Seven Arts contract expired, she did not again appear inA-list motion pictures. She appeared in the 1969 low-budgetspaghetti westernFour Rode Out, top-billed over formerBonanza starPernell Roberts, whose career was in eclipse. In 1969, she also appeared in a TV version ofArsenic and Old Lace that starredBob Crane ofHogan's Heroes andHelen Hayes. She also made the first of her two appearances on the TV comedyLove American Style that year.
In the 1970s, her career likely was negatively impacted by an interracial marriage to African Americanfootball player Roland Harrison in 1971 and a subsequent marriage to imprisoned murderer Cotton Adamson in 1973.Racial intermarriage betweenwhite people andblack people was rare in 1971, the year she co-starred withGeorge Hamilton inEvel Knievel, a higher endB-film. State laws banning interracial marriage were not declared unconstitutional in the United States until theSupreme Court's 1967Loving v. Virginia decision.
Lyon and Harrison had a daughter, Nona Merrill Harrison, who was born in Los Angeles in 1972.[32][33]
A minor hit at the box office, taking in US$4 million in rentals[34][35] (equivalent to approximately $31,056,697 in 2024[36]) against a $450,000 budget,[37]Evel Knievel was the last significant motion picture Lyon starred in. After her marriages to Harrison and Adamson, Lyon worked in supporting roles in B-films,television films and guest spots onTV series.
Towards the end of the 1970s, she began appearing inZ films, including two produced byCharles Band. In her first film for Band,Crash! (1977),Oscar-winnerJose Ferrer played her husband, who is trying to kill her. She retaliates by using her occult powers to manipulate objects to kill him.
In her second film for Band, Lyon played the wife ofChristopher Lee's astrophysicist character in thesci-fi filmEnd of the World, which received poor reviews after it was released in 1977 as part of a double-bill with another low budget sci-fi flick.[38] Lee later lamented his participation in the film, claiming he was misled as to the quality of the picture by producer Band.[39]
Lyon followed this up with a part inThe Astral Factor, which was also known asThe Astral Fiend on its initial release in 1978. Yet another low budget sci-fi flick, theAstral film went through three directors. She then gracedTowing, a low-budgetcomedy film based onnewspaper columnistMike Royko's expose of unethicalvehicle towing companies. Also known asWho Stole My Wheels? andGarage Girls, theChicago-based film featuring one of the first appearances of actorDennis Franz got one and one-half stars from criticRoger Ebert.[40]
She ceased working in the entertainment industry after abit part in the 1980 B-filmAlligator. In 1984, a recut version ofThe Astral Factor re-titledInvisible Strangler was released, making it the last time Sue Lyon appeared in a motion picture.
In California, Lyon was friends with Michelle Gilliam, who was two years older. Gilliam would achieve fame asMichelle Phillips, after marryingJohn Phillips and becoming part of thepop music quartetThe Mamas and the Papas. According to Phillips, she shared the controversial novelLolita with Lyon in 1960, the year before she auditioned for the part.[41] (In a 1962 interview with German TV as part of the film's promotion, Lyon said she and her mother had read it and discussed the novel after she was cast in the part.)
Early in her career, starting in 1965, Lyon had a relationship with Scottish singer-songwriterDonovan.[42]
Lyon was married five times: briefly toHampton Fancher, actor and filmmaker;[43][33][44]photographer and football coach Roland Harrison, with whom she had a daughter;[45] Gary D. "Cotton" Adamson, a convicted murderer;[46][47][45] and Edward Weathers. She married Richard Rudman, an engineer, in 1985. Their marriage ended in divorce in 2002.[7]
Her third marriage, in 1973, to Adamson, took place in a Colorado state prison, where he was incarcerated.[48] He had been convicted of robbery[49] and second-degree murder. The union was contentious and ended in 1974.[45] She said at the time that people in the film industry had told her he had a negative effect on her career.[45]
Discussing her divorce from Adamson, Lyon said, "I've been told by people in the film business, specifically producers and film distributors, that I can't get a job because I'm married to Cotton. Therefore, right now we can't be married."[50]
In 2020,Michelle Phillips told journalist Sarah Weinman that producerJames B. Harris became emotionally involved with Sue Lyon during her stay in England to shootLolita and that Harris had become her first lover when she was 14 years old.[28] When contacted by Weinman, the 92-year-old Harris refused to respond to the allegation with an affirmation or denial. At the time Stanley Kubrick'sLolita was in production, theage of consent in the UK was 16 years old and 18 in Lyon's home state of California.[51] Harris was nearly 18 years older than Lyon, and a married man.
Lyon died in West Hollywood on the morning of December 26, 2019, at the age of 73.[52] While no specific cause of death was given, she was reported to have been in poor health "for some time".[4]
"To be pretty and to stay pretty are two different things. You can't take anything for granted, and it's foolish to think you can. You have to think ahead of how to build health and happiness. You have to learn to avoid what is going to hurt you or someone else." — Sue Lyon, 1967[52][33]
| Year[53] | Title | Role | Notes[54] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1962 | Lolita | Dolores "Lolita" Haze | Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer |
| 1964 | The Night of the Iguana | Charlotte Goodall | |
| 1966 | 7 Women | Emma Clark | |
| 1967 | The Flim-Flam Man | Bonnie Lee Packard | |
| Tony Rome | Diana Pines | ||
| 1969 | Arsenic and Old Lace | Elaine Dodd | TV film |
| Four Rode Out | Myra Polsen | ||
| 1970 | But I Don't Want to Get Married! | Laura | TV film |
| 1971 | Evel Knievel | Linda | |
| 1973 | Murder in a Blue World | Ana Vernia | |
| Tarot | Angela | ||
| 1976 | Smash-Up on Interstate 5 | Burnsey | TV film |
| Crash! | Kim Denne | ||
| 1977 | End of the World | Sylvia Boran | |
| Don't Push, I'll Charge When I'm Ready | Wendy Sutherland | TV film, made in 1969 | |
| 1978 | The Astral Factor | Darlene DeLong | Re-released in 1984 asThe Invisible Strangler |
| Towing | Lynn | ||
| 1980 | Alligator | NBC Newswoman | (Final film role) |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1959 | Letter to Loretta | Laurie | 1 episode ("Alien Love"[55]) as Suellyn Lyon |
| 1960 | Dennis the Menace | Blonde with Valentine Card (uncredited) | 1 episode ("Miss Cathcart's Sunsuit")[56] |
| 1969–1974 | Love, American Style | Barbara Eric Julie | 2 episodes ("Love and the Extra Job/Love and the Flying Finletters/Love and the Golden Worm/Love and the Itchy Condition/Love and the Patrolperson", "Love and the Medium/Love and the Bed[57]/Love and the High School Flop-Out") |
| 1970 | The Virginian | Belinda Ballard | 1 episode ("Experiment at New Life") |
| 1971 | Men at Law | Bunny Phillips | 1 episode ("Marathon") |
| Night Gallery | Betsy | 1 episode ("The Boy Who Predicted Earthquakes/Miss Lovecraft Sent Me/The Hand of Borgus Weems/Phantom of What Opera?") | |
| 1978 | Police Story | Caroline | 1 episode ("River of Promises") |
| Fantasy Island | Jill Nolan | 1 episode ("Reunion/Anniversary") |
Actress Sue Lyon, who married Colorado State Penitentiary inmate Gary (Cotton) Adamson in Nov '73, says she is divorcing him because people ...
