In 1971, actress Tippi Hedren and her husband, director Noel Marshall, returned from a trip to Africa with a bold and dangerous idea. They had seen lions in the wild and wanted to make a film about them. An animal trainer told them that if they truly wanted to understand lions, they needed to live with one. They took that advice literally. A fully grown, 400-pound male lion named Neil moved into their Los Angeles home.
Also living in that house was Hedren’s teenage daughter, Melanie Griffith. Neil was not kept in a cage or a yard. He was woven into every part of the family’s daily routine — the kitchen, the living room, the bedroom, and the backyard swimming pool. LIFE magazine sent photographers to document it all.
The photographs from that shoot are striking. In one image, Tippi Hedren sits at the edge of the family pool, dangling her feet in the water with Neil just inches away from her legs. The lion is stretched out beside her as if sunbathing. In another, Noel Marshall and Neil wrestle on the floor of the living room study, the lion’s massive jaws open wide near Marshall’s head.
Some of the most well-known images from the series were taken in Melanie Griffith’s bedroom. She was 14 years old at the time. In one photo, Neil is stretched across her bed while she rests her head against his body like he’s a pillow. In another shot from the same session, she grabs at his paws as he lies on top of her.
The kitchen was no different. Neil regularly climbed onto the counters and drank water straight from the faucet. The family treated him the way most people treat a house cat — just one that weighed as much as a small car.
The arrangement was not without its dangers. During a dinner party, Neil’s trainer and owner, Ron Oxley, was in the kitchen with the lion when Neil suddenly turned on him. The lion snarled and swiped at Oxley with his paws in a clear challenge for dominance. Oxley responded by raising his arms to make himself appear larger and more threatening. The standoff ended when Neil tossed his mane — a sign of submission — and made subdued noises before walking out of the house with Oxley.
That incident did little to slow the family down. Their time with Neil gave them a confidence — misplaced, as it turned out — that big cats could be safely managed in close quarters. When production began on their film, eventually titled Roar, they brought in more than 100 untrained big cats, including tigers and cougars.
The filming of Roar became one of the most dangerous productions in Hollywood history. Tippi Hedren fractured her leg. Noel Marshall was bitten so many times by the animals that he developed gangrene. Melanie Griffith was mauled by a lioness and needed 50 stitches to her face. Dozens of crew members were also injured throughout production.
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