Sue Lyon - Stanley Kubrick’s 1962 film Lolita

Sue Lyon a former actress is back in the headlines this week, after her classic work aired on TMC, this Saturday. The talented artist exploded as Dolores “Lolita” Haze, in Stanley Kubrick’s 1962 film, ”Lolita”. She played a sexually charged teenager based on Vladimir Nabokov novel by the same name. Her performance was critically acclaimed, she won a ‘Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer’ – Female. Sue Lyon’s success did not last,she eventually left acting in 1980 at the age of 34.

About

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Sue Lyon (born July 10, 1946 in Davenport, Iowa) is a Golden Globe-winning American former actress.

Sue Lyon was born July 10, 1946, in Davenport, Iowa, the last of five children to Sue Karr Lyon. Her mother was 56 when her husband died and Sue was 10 months old. Her mother had to work as a hospital house mother to take care of her children and money was tight. Around this time, the Lyon family moved out to Los Angeles, hoping that Sue could help them out financially as a model. She got jobs modeling for JC Penny, and doing a commercial, which featured her dyed blonde hair. She also got small parts on "Dennis the Menace" (1959) and "Letter to Loretta" (1953). Director Stanley Kubrick saw Sue on the show and suggested to his partner that they should see her for the role of Lolita (1962). Sue had been signed by the Glenn Shaw agency, and Pat Holms, an agent, brought her down to Kubrick for audition. She duly won the part of Lolita.

In 1964 she married Hampton Fancher III but the marriage was a short one. She did other movies like 7 Women (1966), The Flim-Flam Man (1967) and Tony Rome (1967). She married Roland Harrison, a black photographer and football coach. The controversy over their marriage made them decide to move to Spain. She continued in movies like Evel Knievel (1971), Tarot (1973), and Una gota de sangre para morir amando (1973), but divorced Harrison, due to pressure over racism and other problems.

She met Gary "Cotton" Adamson at the Colorado State Penitentiary, where he was currently serving time for murder and robbery. She worked as a cocktail waitress and lived in an hotel in Denver nearby. She married him in 1973 and began working for prison reform and conjugal rights. Unfortunately this was another short-lived marriage as she divorced him after he committed yet another robbery. More films followed including Smash-Up on Interstate 5 (1976) (TV), Invisible Strangler (1976), Towing (1978), Crash! (1977), Don't Push, I'll Charge When I'm Ready (1977) (TV) and her final film, Alligator (1980). She married a radio engineer, Richard Rudman and they live together in Los Angeles. Sue has retired from acting and avoids interviews.


Film Career

Lolita
Sue Lyon was 14 years old when she was cast in the role of Dolores "Lolita" Haze, the sexually charged adolescent and the object of an older man's obsessions in Stanley Kubrick's 1962 film, Lolita. She was chosen for the role partly because her curvy figure suggested an older adolescent. Based on the Vladimir Nabokov novel of the same name, Kubrick's Lolita, though a toned-down version of the book (Lolita is only 12 at the beginning of the novel and 17 at the end), was nonetheless one of the most controversial films of its day. Lyon was 16 when the film premiered in September 1962. She became an instant celebrity and won a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer – Female. Despite her inexperience, she was praised for holding her own in scenes with the three top-billed stars of the film, James Mason, Shelley Winters and Peter Sellers.

Later films
In 1963, Lyon was again cast as a seductive teen in John Huston's The Night of the Iguana (1964), competing for the affections of Richard Burton's defrocked preacher against the likes of Deborah Kerr and Ava Gardner. Again, controversy surrounded her because of a provocative scene in the film in which Lyon is shown emerging from the water. In 1965, she played a mission worker in China in director John Ford's last feature film, 7 Women. Lyon played the female lead in the 1967 comedy The Flim-Flam Man and had a supporting role in 1967's Tony Rome which starred Frank Sinatra. She played the wife of daredevil Evel Knievel in the 1971 film Evel Knievel.

By the 1970s, she was relegated to mainly secondary roles. She continued to work in film and television until 1980.