Frasier (1952-1972), also known as Frasier the Sensuous Lion, was a captive male lion who became famous during his brief time at the Lion Country Safari franchise in Laguna Hills, California, a drive-through safari park, for his prodigious feats of siring lion cubs. After his death, a motion picture was made about him.
From circus to safari park
The lion was 18 or 19 years old, analogous to a human aged 80+, toothless and ill when he was bought by the safari park from a bankrupt Mexican circus in 1970.
Named "Frasier" by park employees, he “hobbled about on weakened legs, his once-lustrous coat was scruffy and his tongue sagged from a toothless mouth,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
LIFE Magazine said of Frasier, “He is underweight and splay-footed....His fur resembles an old moth-balled coat, and he sleeps 19 hours a day. The muscles in his tongue are so shot that it unreels from his mouth like a slobbery red carpet.”
The scrawny lion was put on a special diet and gained 100 pounds. He was expected to live out his days in retirement at Lion Country Safari, not become a world...
John Overholt
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