LONDON (AP) — Olivia Hussey, the actress 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.
Hussey died Friday, “peacefully at home, surrounded by her loved ones,” said a statement posted on her Instagram account.
Hussey was 15 when director Franco Zeffirelli cast her in his adaptation of William Shakespeare’s tragedy after spotting her on stage in the play “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,” which also starred Vanessa Redgrave.
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“Romeo and Juliet” won two Academy Awards, and Hussey won the Golden Globe for best new actress for her role as Juliet, alongside British actor Leonard Whiting, then 16.
Decades later, Hussey and Whiting filed 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 underwear in a bedroom scene, but on the day of filming, Zeffirelli told them they would only wear body makeup and that the camera would be positioned so as not to show. nudity. They claimed to have been filmed naked without their knowledge.
The case was thrown out by a Los Angeles County judge in 2023, who ruled that their depiction could not be considered child pornography and that the two men filed their lawsuit too late.
Hussey was born on April 17, 1951 in Bueno Aires, Argentina, and moved to London as a child.
She also played the role of Mary, mother of Jesus, in the 1977 television series “Jesus of Nazareth” and in the 1978 adaptation of Agatha Christie’s “Death on the Nile.”
She is survived by her husband, David Glen Eisley, her three children and a grandson.
