Actress Olivia Hussey, who played teenage Juliet in the 1968 film “Romeo and Juliet,” has died, her family announced on social media.
London — Actress Olivia Hussey, who played teenage Juliet in the 1968 film “Romeo and Juliet,” has died, her family announced on social media Saturday. She was 73 years old.
He died “peacefully at home with his loved ones by his side,” said a statement posted to his Instagram account on Friday.
Hussey was 15 years old when director Franco Zeffirelli cast her in his adaptation of the William Shakespeare tragedy after she appeared on stage in the play “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,” starring Vanessa Redgrave.
“Romeo and Juliet” won two Oscars and Hershey won a Golden Globe for Best New Actress for her role as Juliet, opposite then-16-year-old British actor Leonard Whiting.
Decades later, Hussey and Whiting filed a lawsuit against Paramount Pictures, alleging sexual abuse, harassment, and fraud over the film’s nude scenes.
They were initially told that they would wear flesh-colored underwear in the bedroom scenes, but on the day of filming, Zeffirelli told the pair that they would only wear body makeup and that the camera would be positioned in a way that would not reveal anything. nudity. They claimed that they were filmed naked without their knowledge.
The case was dismissed by a Los Angeles County judge in 2023, who ruled that their depictions could not be considered child pornography and that the pair filed the lawsuit too late.
Hussey was born in Bueno Aires, Argentina, on April 17, 1951, and moved to London as a child.
She also appeared as Mary, the mother of Jesus, in the 1977 TV series “Jesus of Nazareth” and the 1978 adaptation of Agatha Christie’s “Death on the Nile.”
She is survived by her husband, David Glen Eisley, three children and grandchildren.
