Acting

Sue Casey

Born 8 April 1926 · Los Angeles, California, USA · Died 21 February 2019 at 92

While other actresses would have long given up a stalled career out of pure frustration after decades of mostly uncredited extra/bit parts and little reward, perennial starlet Sue Casey somehow found the stamina to maintain for six decades! In films from 1946, the voluptuous brunette, at most, became a campy vixen in a few 1960s "drive-in" bombs, yet has always held a remarkably appreciative outlook as to how things turned out. Successfully establishing herself as a wholesome commercial actress, she pitched everything from cereal to automobiles in over 200 assignments. Light TV guest parts also came her way in episodes of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (1957), The Baileys of Balboa (1964), The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961), The Farmer's Daughter (1963), The Beverly Hillbillies (1962) and Family Affair (1966), among others. As for the big screen, nothing changed. Obscure bit/extra parts continued with Bells Are Ringing (1960), The Ladies Man (1961), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), Two Weeks in Another Town (1962), A New Kind of Love (1963) and The Carpetbaggers (1964). Finally, after nearly two decades of pursuing her dream in Hollywood, Casey nabbed a leading role! As bad girl "Vicky Lindsay" in what is arguably one of film's biggest "turkeys" of all time, The Beach Girls and the Monster (1965), she attained a notoriety that led to minor cult status. The film had a non-existent budget and was received poorly in every way, shape and form upon its initial release. Casey even had to do her own hair and makeup and was forced to pick out her vixen character's clothes from her own closet. The actors were never paid until the movie was sold years later to TV (retitled as "Monster from the Surf") and that was a mere pittance. Over the years, however, the movie has reportedly gained a cult following. Two other easily dismissed co-starring roles in unmemorable campy films followed. She played a hillbilly mom in the fugitive drama Swamp Country (1966) (which starred pearly-toothed pre-Carol Burnett hunk Lyle Waggoner) and a manipulative mom and art forger in Catalina Caper (1967) (which starred former Disney star Tommy Kirk after his fall from studio grace, and (again) Lyle Waggoner). In later years, she developed a successful real estate business. She found acting work (often without an agent) intermittently on film and TV. Featured in a couple of higher-scaled movie musicals -- as a lady attendant to Vanessa Redgrave's Queen Guinevere in Camelot (1967) and as one of John Mitchum's two wives in Paint Your Wagon (1969) -- her final film resume would add such films as The Main Event (1979), Evilspeak (1981), Whitesnake: Live... in the Still of the Night (2005) and A Very Brady Sequel (1996). In American Beauty (1999), an Oscar winner for "Best Picture" and "Best Actor", lead actress Annette Bening (a Best Actress nominee for the role), plays a desperate realtor trying to sell Casey's well-to-do character a house.