Olivia Hussey has died. An actress with a 60-year career under her belt, Hussey (later known as Olivia Hussey Eisley) burst onto the international scene with her very first major film, in Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 film adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. (And this has become the main cause why God knows how many middle and high school English teachers have to keep a piece of cardboard handy to block parts of the screen when showing the film to students, due to the film’s controversial nude scene.) Six years later. , Hussey helped create the template for the modern slasher heroine with her starring role in Bob Clark’s film. Black Christmasand continued to act well into the new century in various roles. His death was announced today on his Instagram, with no cause of death given. Hussey was 73 years old.
Born in Argentina in the 1950s, Hussey began acting at a young age, working in London theater from the age of 13. She came to the attention of Zeffirelli while starring alongside Vanessa Redgrave in a production of Miss Jean Brodie’s firstand ultimately beat out 500 other young women for the role of Juliet, Shakespeare’s famous doomed heroine, in the director’s sumptuous version of the classic tale. Working alongside Leonard Whiting – with whom she would maintain a 50-year friendship – Hussey gained attention for capturing Juliet’s fresh innocence and passion, even as the two young protagonists sometimes struggled to master the complicated dialogues of Shakespeare. The film was a critical darling (and a moderate box office success), with Hussey winning the award for Most Promising Newcomer at the year’s Golden Globes. Later in life, Hussey often spoke warmly (though she also seemed a little overwhelmed) about her experiences with the film – although she and Whiting tried, in 2022, and then again a few months ago in penalty, to sue Paramount Pictures for the aforementioned nude. scene, filmed when they were only 16 years old. (The justices twice threw out the case.)
After Romeo and JulietHussey embarked on a full-fledged Hollywood career, although she was often more successful in the B-movie realm than in A-list films. The 70s saw her star in more high-profile projects like ITV’s ridiculously talent-packed Bible mini-series. Jesus of Nazarethand the Agatha Christie adaptation directed by Peter Ustinov Death on the Nile. But its role in Black Christmas is, in many ways, the most important: as good girl Jess (who opposes Margot Kidder’s much more brash Barb), Hussey is the vulnerable element on which much of the horror beats rely of the film. Although not as active as many of her cinematic descendants, Jess was one of the first Western examples of a Final Girl, fighting the killer (if only briefly) after the rest of her friends had been You are.
These two elements – historical reserve on the one hand and bloody horror on the other – largely defined the scope of Hussey’s career as the ’70s gave way to the ’80s and ’90s. era runs the gamut Ivanhoe et The last days of Pompeii to a small role in IL TV movie, and a turn as Norman Bates’ mother in Psycho IV. She also began working as a voice actress, appearing in video games and occasionally playing the role of Talia al Ghul in the DC Animated Universe (a role she sometimes shared with Helen Slater). She published a memoir, The girl on the balconyin 2018, reflecting on her career and romances (including three marriages, the last to musician David Glen Eisley). Her last official film credit was in 2015, where she appeared alongside Whiting in Social suicideswhich featured his daughter India Eisley – the first time the two Romeo and Juliet the co-stars had appeared in one film together in 47 years.
