Olivia Hussey, star of the 1968 film Romeo and Juliet, dies at 73 | Hollywood News
Olivia Hussey, the actor who starred as a teenage Juliet in the 1968 film Romeo and Juliet, has died, her family said on social media Saturday. She was 73.
Hussey died on Friday, “peacefully at home surrounded her loved ones,” a statement posted to her Instagram account said.
Olivia Hussey was 15 when director Franco Zeffirelli cast her in his adaptation of the William Shakespeare tragedy after spotting her onstage in the play The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which also starred Vanessa Redgrave.
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Romeo and Juliet won two Oscars and Hussey won a Golden Globe for best new actress for her part as Juliet, opposite British actor Leonard Whiting, who was 16 at the time.
Decades later Hussey and Whiting brought a lawsuit against Paramount Pictures alleging sexual abuse, sexual harassment and fraud over nude scenes in the film. They alleged that they were initially told they would wear flesh-colored undergarments in a bedroom scene, but on the day of the shoot Zeffirelli told the pair they would wear only body makeup and that the camera would be positioned in a way that would not show nudity. They alleged they were filmed in the nude without their knowledge.
The case was dismissed a Los Angeles County judge in 2023, who found their depiction could not be considered child pornography and the pair filed their claim too late.
Leonard Whiting was among those paying tribute to Olivia Hussey on Saturday. “Rest now my beautiful Juliet no injustices can hurt you now. And the world will remember your beauty inside and out forever,” he wrote.
Olivia Hussey was born on April 17, 1951, in Bueno Aires, Argentina, and moved to London as a child. She studied at the Italia Conti Academy drama school.Story continues below this ad
She also starred as Mary, the mother of Jesus, in the 1977 television series Jesus of Nazareth, as well as the 1978 adaptation of Agatha Chrie’s Death on the Nile and horror movies Black Chrmas and Psycho IV: The Beginning.
She is survived her husband, David Glen Eisley, her three children and a grandson.
