Sue Lyon: Pronounced Lo-Lee-Ta

Sue Lyon’s acting’s career began in a manner as controversial as one could imagine. As the underage object of affection and title character in Stanley Kubrick’s 1962 adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita. Both a widely-respected and scandalous work of literature, the filmed version would have been hard to adapt at any time (see Adrian Lyne’s undeservedly panned version from 1997 for further context). But during the early ’60s, prior to the current MPAA ratings system when censorship based on the perceived morals of society was still in effect, it was all but inconceivable.

That Kubrick made as much of Lolita as he did under such constraints is remarkable. The tale of Humbert Humbert, a British professor of French literature, and his infatuation and eventual seduction of the 12-year-old “nymphet” whose mother was his landlord, was doomed to be compromised by the times. To that end, Kubrick changed Lolita’s age from 12 to 15. Still creepy, but less so to the audience of the day, I suppose. Even so, there was much that simply could not be shown (even in adult relationships depicted onscreen) during that time, so much of what happened physically between Humbert and Lolita was left offscreen.

Oddly, this made Kubrick’s Lolita somehow more perverse. Probably because the human imagination is often greater than what is shown. Kubrick’s use of double-entendre and particularly a scene where Humbert (the great James Mason) paints Lolita’s toes are particularly squirm-inducing.

While the film starred such esteemed actors as Mason, Peter Sellers (as the even more objectionable Claire Quilty), and Shelly Winters (Lolita’s mother), the most difficult role was that of Lolita herself. Who could possibly carry off this part? The character of Lolita is both victim and an eventual manipulator as portrayed in Nabokov’s book. While Humbert’s transgressions are made plain, it soon becomes clear that Humbert feels that Lolita has wrested control from him, the “adult.”

Kubrick saw more than 800 actors for the role of Lolita before choosing the then 14-year-old model. It would become the role that defined her onscreen career – for both bad and good.

When the film debuted on June 13 of 1962, it was met with decidedly mixed reviews. Some critics struggled with the film’s numerous necessary modifications made to get it past the production code. Others dismissed its very right to exist. There were genuine raves too, and the film has aged well over the last half century.

Despite the controversy, Kubrick, Mason, Sellers, and Winters came out unscathed. All four went on to do great work after Lolita.

The same cannot be said for Sue Lyon – who was truly remarkable in a near impossible role. To play both the innocence, and the burgeoning sexuality, and then to evolve into a character capable of her own manipulations would be a huge ask of even the most skilled of child actors. This was Lyon’s first acting job ever. It should also be noted she recorded two songs for the film as well, “Lolita Ya Ya” and “Turn Off The Moon.” Much was asked of her and much was given.

While some critics took issue with her lack of polish, that was exactly what the role required. Her awkward, colt-like performance epitomized that step between adolescence and adulthood. For her work Lyon was awarded a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer in 1963.

Lyon did score another role in a plum project the next year in John Huston’s adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ The Night Of The Iguana, starring Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, and Deborah Kerr. It’s a strong film and Lyon is good in it, but in playing another underage temptress on film, she wasn’t exactly allowed to stretch.

She followed Iguana with a role in John Ford’s final film, the largely forgotten Seven Women. Then came the Frank Sinatra film noir, Tony Rome in 1967, where she played a “damsel in distress.” Neither film furthered her career.

The Flim-Flam Man starring George C. Scott and Michael Sarrazin arrived in ’67 too, and it’s pretty damn good. Well-set and well-shot in my native Kentucky (don’t hold it against me), Lyon is terrific as the woman who comes between two con-artists when Sarrazin falls for her. The film has an authentic feel to it and Lyon is truly given a chance to show her talent. It’s a film ripe for rediscovery.

It’s a shame then that the rest of Lyon’s career was so modest. A succession of single episode parts on TV and roles (mostly quite small) in forgettable films followed. Lyon’s final credit is in the B-movie Alligator from 1980, where she was inauspiciously billed as “NBC Newswoman.”

That being said, if you are only going to be largely recalled for a single film role, it might as well be one that people will never forget.

She was a Lolita. In the astonishing opening lines of Nabokov’s book, he wrote,

“Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap at three, in the teeth.”

Kubrick had to find someone to embody that passage of Humbert Humbert’s lascivious consciousness. So, he did. Her name was Sue Lyon.

Sue Lyon died a day after Christmas. She was 73 years old.