Celebrity Biographies
Sue lyon
He shot under the orders of great directors such as John Ford and John Huston, but he never removed the label of having starred in “Lolita” under the orders of Stanley Kubrick. Sue Lyon she passed away on December 26, 2019, at age 73, in Los Angeles. She was described by Vladimir Nabokov, author of the novel that adapted the film, as “the perfect nymph.” She, however, never managed to accept having played a character in a film with a strong erotic charge when she was very young, which caused her psychological consequences.
Born in Davenport (Iowa), on July 10, 1946, Suellyn Lyon –her full name– was the youngest of five children. After her father passed away, when she was still a young age, she began her journey as a child model. She soon became an actress, after debuting with the series Letter to Loretta , followed by a chapter of Daniel the Naughty . Stanley Kubrick discovered her in an installment of the television program The Loretta Young Show , where Sue Lyon appeared in a bikini, so the director thought she was perfect to play the provocative teenager in Lolita ., which she filmed in 1962. For her role as the protagonist, Dolores Haze, who put the mature Humbert Humbert ( James Mason ) to sleep, the actress received the Golden Globe, and became an icon, despite the fact that there was no been able to attend the premiere because he was a minor (he was fourteen when the tape was shot).
John Huston offered her a very similar role – another young seductress – in The Night of the Iguana , while another of the greats, John Ford , redeemed her by offering her the role of Emma, the youngest and most enthusiastic of the missionaries on the border between China and Mongolia, of 7 women . After titles such as Gordon Douglas ‘s Underworld, her career began to decline in the 1970s, when she was relegated to supporting roles and B-movies. That decade she spent in Spain, where she filmed Tarot , by José María Forqué , and Una gota de blood to die loving , by Eloy de la Iglesia .
His personal life was not a bed of roses. Sue Lyon married Hampton Fancher in 1964 , actor and screenwriter of titles such as Blade Runner, but the union was a disaster, since it did not last even a year. After suffering a severe depression due to the death of her older brother, she suffered a traffic accident that left her confined to a wheelchair for three years. She later caused a great controversy for pairing up with the photographer Roland Harrison, because he was black, which at that time was not well seen. With him she had Nona, her only daughter. Right after she was with Gary Cotton Adamson, a Colorado prison inmate she met while visiting an incarcerated friend, but separated from her after he was re-convicted of another robbery. She also had Edward Weathers and Richard Rudman as a partner, who was the most stable man of all, since he was by her side between 1985 and 2002.
After the unspeakable Alligator: The beast under the asphalt , from 1980, Sue Lyon decided that she had hit rock bottom, so she retired from show business. In interviews, she always disowned Lolita . “I’m horrified by the idea that they want to resurrect the film that destroyed me as a person,” she said when it was revealed that Adrian Lyne was set to direct the remake.