by:se/nz

Gerbils, hamsters, goldfish, dogs, cats, lions… there’s an odd one out here, in terms of family pets.

But not for actress Melanie Griffith, who grew up with a massive lion called Neil roaming her childhood home in Los Angeles.

Pictures of the bizarre domestic scene from 1971 have now emerged, with Neil very much a part of the family.

Griffiths’ mother, Hitchcock muse Tippi Hedren, who clearly didn’t fancy a rabbit hutch in the garden, had come to own Neil following a rather strange twist of fate.

She had adopted him from Anton Lavey, the occultist, author and former lion tamer who was the founder of the Church of Satan, after the authorities told him he could no longer keep the creature – at the time called Togar – in his San Francisco apartment.

Animal lover Hedren took the lion in, and he lived with her, Melanie and her husband at the time, Hollywood agent Noel Marshall, at their home in Sherman Oaks.

The amazing pictures – which show Neil playfully grabbing at the 14-year-old Griffith – were first published in LIFE magazine.

Such was Neil’s charisma, Marshall and Hedren were inspired to make the movie ‘Roar’, in which all the family starred – including Marshall’s sons John and Jerry.

It was released in 1981, but sadly it was a disaster, having been in production for 11 years and costing $17 million. It only made back $2 million at the box office.bild quelle yahoo/uk