Olivia Husseywho played the role of teenage Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 Golden Globe-winning film ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ has died at the age of 73. His family announced it. “Olivia was an extraordinary person whose warmth, wisdom and pure kindness touched the lives of everyone who knew her,” members of the actress’ family said in a statement posted on Instagram. Death occurred following a serious illness.
Family announcement
“Olivia was an extraordinary person whose warmth, wisdom and pure kindness touched the lives of all who knew her. She lived a life full of passion, love and dedication to the arts, spirituality. She leaves behind a loving family – her children, Alex, Max and India, her husband David Glen Eisley and her grandson Greyson – and a legacy of love that will forever be in our hearts. As we mourn this immense loss, we also celebrate Olivia’s lasting impact on our lives. We thank you for your thoughts and prayers at this difficult time and ask that you respect our privacy as we mourn the loss of a truly special soul.
The career
Born in Buenos Aires, Hussey was 15 when she and co-star Leonard Whiting starred in the Academy Award-winning adaptation of William Shakespeare’s tragedy. Last year, the two actors filed a lawsuit against the studio, accusing it of child abuse over a controversial nude scene in which they both appeared as minors. The lawsuit was dismissed by a judge. Hussey, who received a Golden Globe as ‘New Star of the Year’ for her portrayal of Juliette, went on to star in, among others, the 1974 slasher film ‘Black Christmas’ and the 1978 adaptation of ‘Death on the Nile’ by Agatha Christie. She leaves behind her husband David Eisley, their three children and a grandson.
The trial for the Zeffirelli film
Olivia Hussey, along with Leonard Whiting who was the Romeo of this film, filed a lawsuit in 2023 against Paramount Pictures for an unauthorized nude scene. According to the quote, Italian director Franco Zeffirelli, who died in 2019, had insisted heavily that they shoot the scene or the film would be “a failure”, even though they were initially supposed to perform in flesh-colored underwear. Those responsible for the film are accused of “filming scenes of nude or semi-nude minors without their consent, in violation of the laws.”
At the scene of no
At the time, it was 1968, the film was a huge worldwide success, grossing almost $40 million in the United States alone, but upon its release it was embroiled in controversies in because of the nude scene between the two protagonists and their young age. In the United States, the film was rated A, for adults, while in Italy, Zeffirelli had to obtain special permission from the censors to be able to release it in theaters. The same protagonist was forbidden to see the scene that she had performed, and the actress commented on the possibility that she could not see something that she “sees in the mirror every day”.
The career
Hussey worked again with the great Italian director, playing the role of Mary in the international miniseries “Jesus of Nazareth” broadcast by dozens of televisions in 1977, with a colossal cast including six Academy Award-winning actors (Anne Bancroft, Ernest Borgnine, Laurence Olivier, Anthony Quinn, Rod Steiger and Peter Ustinov), while six other actors were nominated. Hussey played the role of the mother of Jesus, played by the English actor Robert Powell, who achieved recognition among the general public. The actress was again an angelic face as the protagonist of the television miniseries “Mother Teresa” (2003), directed by Fabrizio Costa, which tells the life of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the founder of the Missionaries of Charity . Olivia Hussey was memorable as Jess Bradford, terrified in her fraternity house, in Bob Clark’s “Black Christmas” (1974), a cult film considered one of work of the horror genre and the precursor of the slasher subgenre. She also played the sulky Rosalie Otterbourne, the daughter of Angela Lansbury’s character (Salomé Otterbourne) in “Death on the Nile” (1978), based on the detective novel of the same name by Agatha Christie and directed by John Guillermin.
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