Romeo and Juliet actress dies at 73

Actress Olivia Hussey, who rose to international fame as a teenager for her role in the acclaimed 1968 film version of Romeo and Juliet, has died aged 73.

The actress of Argentine origin, who grew up in London, died on Friday surrounded by her loved ones, according to a statement published on her Instagram.

Hussey won the Golden Globe for Best New Actress for her role as Juliet, but decades later she sued Paramount Pictures for sexual abuse when she was just 15 years old when she filmed the film’s nude scene.

Her other most notable film role was as Mary, mother of Jesus, in the 1977 television miniseries Jesus of Nazareth.

“As we mourn this immense loss, we also celebrate Olivia’s lasting impact on our lives and the industry,” the statement said.

Hussey was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1951, before moving to London at the age of seven and studying at the Academia Italia Conti drama school.

She was 15 when Romeo and Juliet director Franco Zeffirelli discovered her on stage, acting opposite Vanessa Redgrave in the play The Prime of Miss Joan Brodie.

Zeffirelli was looking for someone who was young enough to be a convincing Juliet in what was intended to be the definitive film version of Shakespeare’s play.

He cast Hussey alongside 16-year-old Briton Leonard Whiting as Romeo in the film.

The film was nominated for an Oscar for best film and director. Hussey missed out on an Oscar nomination in a strong year in which Barbra Streisand won the top prize for Funny Girl.

But at the Golden Globes that year, Hussey won the award for best new star.

Decades later, she and Whiting sued Paramount Pictures alleging that Zeffirelli, who died in 2019, had He encouraged them to film nude scenes. despite having previously assured them that they would not have to do so.

The couple sought compensation of more than $500 million (£417 million), based on the suffering they said they had experienced and the income generated by the film since its release.

But last year a judge dismissed the casefinding the scene was not “sexually suggestive enough.”

In 1977, Hussey had met with Zeffirelli to cast Jesus of Nazareth as the Virgin Mary, before appearing in Death on the Nile a year later, based on the novel by Agatha Christie.

Her roles in the early horror films Black Christmas (1974) and the television movie Psycho IV: The Beginning earned her recognition as a scream queen. In the latter, she played Norman Bates’ mother in a prequel story.

In later years she also worked as a voice actress, frequently appearing in video games.

But she had one last reunion with her old Romeo, as she and Whiting appeared together in the 2015 British film Social Suicide, which was loosely based on Romeo and Juliet, although set in the age of social media.