Lolita With only two acting credits, at the age of 14, Lyon was cast in the role of Dolores "Lolita" Haze in
Stanley Kubrick's film
Lolita (1962). She was chosen for the role from 800 teenagers. Lyon co-starred with
James Mason, then aged 53. Nabokov, who wrote the novel and much of the screenplay, described her as the "perfect nymphet". The role was then offered to child star
Hayley Mills, then under contract to
Walt Disney, but the studio vetoed the casting. On September 28, 1960, the
Los Angeles Times reported the casting of Lyon.
Lolita had its world premiere on June 13, 1962, at Loew's State Theatre in
New York City, two days after its press screening.
Lolita was released in
West Germany on June 21 and had its
London premiere on September 6. It was released in
France on November 5. Lyon gained critical acclaim for her performance, becoming an instant celebrity and winning a
Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer—Female.
Variety wrote, "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." However,
Bosley Crowther of
The New York Times was less enthusiastic: "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.'" Lyon was 15 when it premiered, too young to watch the film in a theater. Both songs were co-written by producer James B. Harris' brother,
J. Robert Harris. Neither song charted. 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 been
Catherine Demongeot, a young French actress who had played the child Zazie in
Louis Malle's
Zazie in the Metro (1960). The
tomboyish Demongeot was four years younger than Lyon.
Post-Lolita career '' (1967) In 1960, Lyon was bound to a seven-year professional services contract to Kubrick,
Lolita producer
James B. Harris and production company
Seven Arts Productions, when she accepted the part in
Lolita.
The Night of the Iguana (1964), in which she appeared opposite
Richard Burton and
Ava Gardner, was a Seven Arts picture. Lyon was featured on the theatrical release poster, embracing Burton. The film was released by
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which Seven Arts had a deal with, as was
7 Women (1967), in which Lyon co-starred with
first-billed Oscar-winner Anne Bancroft, to whom Lyon received second-billing. Lyon also was second-billed to George C. Scott in
The Flim-Flam Man (1967) and Frank Sinatra in
Tony Rome (1967). After the Kubrick-Harris-Seven Arts contract expired, she did not again appear in
A-list motion pictures. She appeared in the 1969 low-budget
spaghetti western Four Rode Out, top-billed over former
Bonanza star
Pernell Roberts, whose career was in eclipse. In 1969, she also appeared in a TV version of
Arsenic and Old Lace that starred
Bob Crane of ''
Hogan's Heroes and Helen Hayes. She also made the first of her two appearances on the TV comedy Love American Style'' that year. In the 1970s, her career likely was negatively impacted by an interracial marriage to African American
football player Roland Harrison in 1971 and a subsequent marriage to imprisoned murderer Cotton Adamson in 1973.
Racial intermarriage between
white people and
black people was rare in 1971, the year she co-starred with
George Hamilton in
Evel Knievel, a higher end
B-film. State laws banning interracial marriage were not declared unconstitutional in the United States until the
Supreme Court's 1967
Loving v. Virginia decision. Lyon and Harrison had a daughter, Nona Merrill Harrison, who was born in Los Angeles in 1972. A minor hit at the box office, taking in US$4 million in rentals (equivalent to approximately $ in ) against a $450,000 budget,
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 on
TV series.
Grade Z film star Towards the end of the 1970s, she began appearing in
Z films, including two produced by
Charles Band. In her first film for Band,
Crash! (1977),
Oscar-winner
Jose 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 of Kirk Scott's astrophysicist character in the
sci-fi film End 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. The film starred
Christopher Lee, and he later lamented his participation in the film, claiming he was misled as to the quality of the picture by producer Band. Lyon followed this up with a part in
The Astral Factor, which was also known as
The Astral Fiend on its initial release in 1978. Yet another low budget sci-fi flick, the
Astral film went through three directors. She then graced
Towing, a low-budget
comedy film based on
newspaper columnist Mike Royko's expose of unethical
vehicle towing companies. Also known as
Who Stole My Wheels? and
Garage Girls, the
Chicago-based film featuring one of the first appearances of actor
Dennis Franz got one and one-half stars from critic
Roger Ebert. Lyon ceased working in the entertainment industry after a
bit part in the 1980 B-film
Alligator. In 1984, a recut version of
The Astral Factor re-titled
Invisible Strangler was released, making it the last time Sue Lyon appeared in a motion picture. ==Personal life==