After mom Shelley Winters, still fuming on the cockblock daughter LOLITA pulled the night before, keeping her from the cha-cha with James Mason by showing up from Moma’s party early…
When mom says “Must you pamper your pimples?” after Lolita drowns her cereal in sugar, Sue Lyon gives a cute monster face to mom’s back as she brings breakfast up to her crush… who’s in lust with the daughter she’d wind up planning to send off to boarding school…
Susanne Gibbs as Mona in Lolita
Susanne Gibbs plays Mona, full name Mona Farlow, Sue Lyon’s best friend in Stanley Kubrick’s LOLITA…
Mona’s chunky but cute… The kind of girl that will blow up later on but it works in her youth, and LOLITA is about just that… youth and…
As we learn later on, Mona’s not the girl-next-door she makes herself out to be, or seems by her appearance…
And James Mason doesn’t want his young secret darling being around any bad influences: But little does he know that Mona… and her swinging, liberal-minded parents… are merely red-herrings in an immense sea of them… The proverbial devil in sheep’s clothing is right there on the dance floor, and is fully aware…
Sue Lyon after ditching the party.
Sue Lyon, James Mason and Shelley Winters in LOLITA, 1962
In one of many “famous scenes” in LOLITA, when Sue Lyon’s gorgeous teen, a befuddled and smitten James Mason and a very jealous suburban mother are at a movie, they’re watching Peter Cushing and, most importantly, Christopher Lee as the classic monster, The Monster, in THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, and fifteen years later, in 1977, the man who frightened Sue Lyon’s character warns her about THE END OF THE WORLD with Kirk Scott…
Chris Lee, Kirk Scott and Sue Lyon
Happy Birthday 69 to Sue Lyon
July 10th, 69 years old, Happy Birthday to the most beautiful actress of… in our opinion… all time, SUE LYON, our girl, our lady, our starlet… if you’re out there, somewhere, reading, we hope this blog makes an impact… your work, ranging from the 60’s to the 70’s on cinema and television, sure made our lives better. cooler, more awesome…
We shall return, victorious!
The Sue Lyon Cage needs your help… Spread the word and let’s get the numbers up… So much work involved getting photos and info about the gorgeous actress, centering on her work for two full decades… We have done a lot so far and won’t continue until reaching and surpassing 1,000 hits… Let’s get it going, for there is more and more and more to come… We just don’t want to entertain within a vacuum… You’re the audience… And we simple need more of you to continue… Till then check out the many posts here already…
Name on Screen
The Honeybees Reunite
Two more from Sue Lyon’s appearence on the first season of FANTASY ISLAND as one of four former cheerleaders reuniting and then being stalked by a mysterious menace. First is Sue’s credit and then a shot of all four starlets also including Hilary Thompson, horror icon Pamela Franklin and future KNOTS LANDING actress Michelle Lee.
Sue Lyon with Tommy Lee Jones
Sue Lyon as a biker chick, and Tommy Lee Jones as a rookie cop, appearing in one scene in the TV movie of the week, SMASH-UP ON INTERSTATE 5. Also stars Robert Conrad as Tommy’s boss. The year was 1976, when movies on television reigned supreme; before video stores were on every corner.
Michelle Lee & Sue Lyon on FANTASY ISLAND
Michelle Lee would soon be connected to a nighttime soap called KNOTS LANDING, a suburban spin-off from DALLAS, the latter which premiered the same year as this 1978 episode from the first season of FANTASY ISLAND in which Lee, Sue Lyon, Hilary Thompson & Pamela Franklin play former cheerleaders being stalked by a mysterious killer… Here we’re skipping ahead to the farewell shot showing two pretty actresses, one about to catapult a career and the other ready to end it…
Sue Lyon
He’s not doing what it looks like he’s doing
In one of the most obscure and impossible to locate television movies ever… or at least of the ones featuring Sue Lyon… TOWING, about barmaids trying to stop car thieves using tow trucks, is on top of that list… Thankfully we got a few captures of one promotional scene where the camera pans forward on Sue and her boyfriend rested on her lap, both listening to jazzy elevator music… Hopefully, in the future, we can find more captures, and the movie itself…
Sue Lyon plays Lynn in TOWING
Sue Lyon promotes LOLITA
Sue Lyon with James Mason
A pic taken from a French interview with Sue Lyon about LOLITA and another from the premiere night with co-star James Mason… The fact it looks like Sue has a suntan is the poor quality of the video… The pics being rare, we cleaned them up for the Cage as best we could…
Sue Lyon & Pamela Franklin on FANTASY ISLAND
By 1978, both Sue Lyon and Pamela Frankliln had careers that were nearing an end. A shame since the former teen starlets were still beautiful and talented, each having appeared in an eclectic mix of cult and mainstream flicks and TV shows since the 1960’s. Franklin, a British actress, made ground in projects ranging from FLIPPER to cinematic ventures such as NECROMANCY, LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE and FOOD OF THE GODS. While Lyon fed on even more genuinely obscure exploitation flicks in the disco era. And it’s nice seeing Pam and Sue playing former cheerleaders on FANTASY ISLAND from the first season… As a nightmarish stalker-threat mounts, for some reason, Franklin is all smiles, while Lyon’s character simply needs a drink… So here’s to both of you!
Sue Lyon on THE LORETTA YOUNG SHOW
One more in our barrage of face pics of Sue Lyon in her very first appearance to audiences in 1959 on THE LORETTA YOUNG SHOW, where Sue plays a high school girl named Laurie who accuses a friendly foreign teacher of making wrongful advances after class… Which is never shown… These pictures dispay a range of expressions while Laurie is being politely interrogated by the faculty, who all have a feeling of the teacher’s innocence…
Joseph Kearns with Sue Lyon
Sue Lyon on DENNIS THE MENACE
Sue Lyon circa 1960
A year after our last post centering on THE LORETTA YOUNG SHOW, we have Sue Lyon’s second television role before breaking out on the big screen in Stanley Kubrick’s LOLITA… On DENNIS THE MENACE, the episode titled Miss Cathcart’s Sunsuit, Sue’s character, Tina, is one of many kids who are, for some reason, desperately seeking a Valentine’s Day Card from the chagrined Mr. Wilson…
Sue Lyon on THE LORETTA YOUNG SHOW
Second photo of SUE LYON from 1959, three years before LOLITA made her a star on an episode of THE LORETTA YOUNG SHOW where Lynn’s flirtatious schoolgirl lies about a middle-age teacher making advances after class… On the episode, we only see before and after: Lyon’s Laurie during class, and then being questioned at a private hearing, the scene where all these pics are taken…
Sue Lyon on THE LORETTA YOUNG SHOW
Circa 1959
The first of two television roles before her breakthrough as the titular slarlet in Stanley Kubrick’s LOLITA circa 1962 provides a clue on why Sue Lyon was chosen… In 1959, on THE LORETTA YOUNG SHOW, in an episode titled ALLEN LOVE, Lyon’s schoolgirl Laurie flirts with a middle-aged teacher who is later blamed for making advances after class, which isn’t true.
Michelle Lee, Sue Lyon & Hilary Thompson on FANTASY ISLAND
A real fantasy indeed on FANTASY ISLAND has four lovely actresses reuniting from their days as cheerleaders circa 1968… The episode is titled Anniversary/Reunion from 1978’s first season of the way-out special guest star ensemble series, a sort of stoned LOVE BOAT, and here, the first of several FANTASY ISLAND posts, Sue Lyon is with Michelle Lee and Hilary Thompson as they’re looking at an unseen Pamela Franklin…
Sue Lyon in SMASHUP ON INTERSTATE 5
Circa 1976
Two great pics of Sue Lyon, playing Burnsey the Biker chick in the TV movie of the week, SMASH-UP ON INTERSTATE 5, holding a can of the King of Beers…
Sue Lyon in THE ASTRAL FACTOR circa 1978
Sue Lyon plays starlet Darlene DeLong in the low budget exploitation THE ASTRAL FACTOR, in which her character provides the initial Janet Leigh demise only in a bathtub by the malicious hands of an invisible serial killer… Before this though she does a show (shown during the opening credits) and here’s her dressing down for a bath; her last…
Sue Lyon with Greyson Hall
in NIGHT OF THE IGUANA
Grayson Hall won a best supporting Oscar for her performance as the uptight Judith Fellowes in THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA…. She has a constant tight eye on the SUE LYON character, Charlotte Goodall, attempting to keep her safe and sound from the boozing Richard Burton’s Rev. Dr. T. Lawrence Shannon… Here Judith leads the busload of elderly church ladies who are all taking a trip to Mexico with the Reverend as their guide, in singing “Happy Days Are Here Again,” which, if you look at Charlotte’s expression, is not the case…
Sue Lyon in THE FLIM-FLAM MAN
In THE FLIM-FLAM MAN circa 1967, directed by Irvin Kershner, George C. Scott plays traveling con artist Mordecai Jones, teaching young Michael Sarrazin the ropes and winds up in a nice big house where a gorgeous daughter is introduced… And Sue Lyon’s Bonnie Lee Packard is, as usual, an ingenue to remember, if not for first impressions alone…
Michael Sarrazin & Sue Lyon
“Don’t worry. It’s not James Mason.”
George C. Scott, Alice Ghostly, Michael Sarrazin & Sue Lyon
“I don’t know, sir. You don’t seem like a four-star General.”
From THE FLIM-FLIM MAN (1967)
Movies That Make A Scene... Scenes That Make A Movie
Characters Studied in Film
Lovely, lyrical, lilting
The Beauties You Might Have Missed
The Sue Lyon Cage 