Original ‘Lolita’ Actress Sue Lyon Dies Thursday At 73

LOS ANGELES, CA. (THECOUNT) — Sue Lyon, who stared in the Stanley Kubrick 1962 adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov‘s “Lolita,” has passed away. She was 73.

The HollywoodReporter is reporting, Lyon died on Thursday in Los Angeles. A friend, Phil Syracopoulos, told the publication that she had been in “declining health” for a while.

Born in 1946 in Davenport, Iowa, Lyon was a model with two acting credits to her name when she beat out a reported 800 other actors for the part of Dolores Haze in Kubrick’s Lolita, a project that was controversial from the start. Seven years old at the time of its film adaptation release, Lolita divided critics over its depiction of a pedophile’s relationship with a 12-year-old girl. After its initial publication in 1955 in France, officials in the U.K. and France banned sales of the book, which was finally published in the U.S. in 1958. In the face of naysayers, Lolita nevertheless became a bestseller and cultural sensation.

A cause of death was not provided.

Geo quick facts: Los Angeles is a sprawling Southern California city and the center of the nation’s film and television industry. Near its iconic Hollywood sign, studios such as Paramount Pictures, Universal and Warner Brothers offer behind-the-scenes tours. On Hollywood Boulevard, TCL Chinese Theatre displays celebrities’ hand- and footprints, the Walk of Fame honors thousands of luminaries and vendors sell maps to stars’ homes – wikipedia.