Who is Carol Lynley? Bio, Spouse, Kids, Parents, Where is She Now?

Quick Facts

Carol Lynley may not have won an Academy Award but she had a powerful on-screen appearance that caught the attention of most moviegoers of her time. From the mid-1950s when she started her professional career, Carol was a major inspiration to many starlets struggling to find their feet in the industry. She was a huge name, a true legend who was notable for her performance in a slew of critically-acclaimed projects such as Bunny, Lake is Missing, The Cardinal, Return to Peyton Place, and The Pleasure Seekers, The Poseidon Adventure.

Did we mention that Lynley was already a household name when the 1950s began? Yes, she was a child model who debuted under the moniker Carolyn Lee and subsequently adopted Lynley after she discovered someone had already registered the name.

Bio – Who is Carol Lynley? 

She is Golden Globe Award nominee, a former child model, a performer with a background in television, film, and theatre. Even though she is professionally known as Carol Lynley, her birth name was Carol Ann Jones and she was born on the 13th of February 1943. The actress was born on American soil, precisely in Manhattan, a city in New York. Her ancestry is a unique blend of Irish (on her father’s side) and German, Scottish, English, and Welsh (on her mom’s side).

Although Carol invested much of her time on the screen than on Broadway, she played a teenage character in the 1959 controversial drama, Blue Denim, wherein she co-starred with Brooklyn-born theatre actor Brandon deWilde. She also sang the song, “The Morning After” in the 1972 disaster film, The Poseidon Adventure. The track, which was exclusively written by Joel Hirschhorn and Al Kasha for the movie, later won the 1972 Academy Award at the 45th Academy Awards for Best Original Song in the month of March 1973.

Other Hollywood productions she has been linked to include The Prince of Darkness Affair, Hawaii Five-O, It Takes a Thief, Charlie’s Angels, The Invaders, The Big Valley, Hart to Hart, Night Gallery, Kojak, Mannix, and many others.

In her active years, Carol Lynley worked with many award-winning stars such as renowned actor , St. Louis, Missouri-born actress Miss Winters (born Shelley Winters), Jack Albertson (born Harold Albertson), Golden Globe award winner Gene Hackman and Oscar award winner Red Buttons, to name a few. Her last credit role was in the short drama, Vic, which was directed and co-written by ‘s son, Sage Stallone who died in Studio City, California, on 13th July 2012.

Carol’s career recorded a huge success in the year 1959 when she got nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer-Female. She also posed nude for Playboy magazine at the age of 22 for the magazine’s March 1965 edition.

Family: Parents, Spouse, and Kids

Carol Lynley was raised by an Irish father Cyril Jones and American mother Frances Jones, who was born in New England, as mentioned earlier. Further information about the actress parents, family background, and professional life is unavailable at the time of writing. Similarly, it is not known if Carol is the only child of her parents or not.

The actress is a divorcee as well as a mother of one. It was in 1960 that Carol walked down the aisle with her man for the first time. Sadly, the couple filed for divorce and subsequently went their separate ways four years later (1964). However, Lynley’s marital relationship with publicist Michael Selsman gave birth to an offspring, a daughter named Jill Victoria Selsman. She was born in Los Angeles, California, on the 2nd day of March 1962.

Lynley is also said to have had an 18-year on-and-off relationship with David Frost, which eventually didn’t lead to marriage. David was an English writer, comedian, and broadcaster.

Where is She Now?

Several decades after she stormed the industry, Carol Lynley is still influential and commands attention and respect within the movie industry and beyond. As mentioned earlier, she had her last film role in Vic in 2006 and since then, she hasn’t received any acting credit, indicating she might have pulled back from acting due to old age. While we can’t really tell exactly where she is now, what she’s been up to lately, and how she’s been coping with life, we believe she is living a quiet life somewhere and maybe taking delight in the fruit of her hard work as a veteran actress.

Also Read: Top 10 Richest People in the world with full biography and details.