| Activity | 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 twelve in the novel), was nonetheless one of the most controversial films of its day. She was 16 when the film premiered in September 1962. Lyon became an instant celebrity and won a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer – Female. Relatively inexperienced, 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.
When released, Lolita was Rated BBFC X by the British Board of Film Censors, meaning no one under 16 years of age was permitted in theaters.
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 doing mainly secondary roles. She continued to work in film and television until 1980.
Active: 1960-1980
Most Promising Newcomer - Female 1963 Lolita |