Sue Casey

While other actresses would have long given up a stalled career out of pure frustration after decades of mostly uncredited extrabit 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 drivein 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 LucyDesi Comedy Hour 1957 The Baileys of Balboa 1964 The Dick Van Dyke Show 1961 The Farmers Daughter 1963 The Beverly Hillbillies 1962 and Family Affair 1966 among others As for the big screen nothing changed Obscure bitextra parts continued with Bells Are Ringing 1960 The Ladies Man 1961 Breakfast at Tiffanys 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 films 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 nonexistent 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 characters 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 costarring roles in unmemorable campy films followed She played a hillbilly mom in the fugitive drama Swamp Country 1966 which starred pearlytoothed preCarol 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 higherscaled movie musicals as a lady attendant to Vanessa Redgraves Queen Guinevere in Camelot 1967 and as one of John Mitchums 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 Caseys welltodo character a house