Ironically, today the astonishing images evoke only extreme embarrassment and regret in Tippi Hedren.
"I cringe when I see those pictures now," she said. "We were stupid beyond belief. We should never have taken those risks.
"These animals are so fast, and if they decide to go after you, nothing but a bullet to the brain will stop them."
She also revealed that their experience with Neil lulled them into a false sense of security which was to have disastrous consequences.
Today Hedren, 84, runs a big cat sanctuary in California. But how did Hollywood royalty come to be sharing a sofa - and a swimming pool and bedroom - with the king of the jungle? The answer is pure Tinseltown.
Hedren had been filming in Africa in 1969 when she and husband Noel Marshall - a Hollywood agent who later produced The Exorcist - stumbled across an abandoned game warden's house in Mozambique. It had been taken over by a pride of 30 lions.
Melanie Griffith spits at pet lion Neil while swimming in the pool at their home in California in 1971. Photo / Getty Images
The encounter gave the two animal-lovers an idea for a feature film about a family who share their house with scores of lions, tigers and panthers and film the results. Nobody had attempted this before, with good reason, animal experts said, as big cats will instinctively fight unless they know each other well.
Sensibly, Ron Oxley, who ran a business training and renting animals to film studios in LA, advised the couple that if they really hoped to understand these deeply individualistic creatures, they must first live with one.
Oxley insisted he had just the sweet-natured lion for them, which had been trained to interact with humans. Born in Africa, his name was Neil and he'd been brought to the US as a young adult.
Oxley had put a huge effort into bonding with him.
"Ron told us exactly what we could do and what we couldn't do. And we listened very carefully to him," explains Hedren.
Griffith and Neil share a bed. Photo / Getty Images
Neil proved such a delight that, within a few months, Hedren and Marshall decided to adopt their own four-month-old cub. By 1980, they had 71 lions, 20 tigers, 10 cougars, nine black panthers, four leopards, two jaguars and a tigon (a lion-tiger cross-breed).
Many of the beasts (although not Neil) starred in Roar, the 1981 film the couple dreamed of making. Featuring the whole family, including Griffith and Marshall's two sons from a previous marriage, it involved a flimsy story about them getting chased around their house by the big cats.
Roar cost a walloping US$17 million and took five years to make, largely because the animals were so unpredictable as actors.
It was a flop and the stress of making it finished off the couple's marriage. It also convinced Hedren that treating big cats like pets had been a mistake.
"There were seven big incidents and two people were almost killed making the film," she says.
A maid steps over Neil. Photo / Getty Images
The director of photography, Jan de Bont, had his scalp sewn back on after being attacked. Everyone in Hedren's family was injured: she was bitten on the head, while Melanie had plastic surgery after a lion clawed her face.
If only Neil hadn't been such a pussycat, Hedren admits they might never have been tempted to make the film.
But the pictures with him don't tell anything like the whole story, she says.
"The breeders will tell you lions are wonderful pets - and it's an absolute lie."
