Olivia Hussey, acclaimed for her role as Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 film adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, has passed away at the age of 73, her family announced on Friday.
According to the AFP, Olivia’s family described her as a remarkable person whose warmth, wisdom, and pure kindness touched the lives of all who knew her.
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Hussey was just 15 when she took on the iconic role of Juliet opposite Leonard Whiting in the Oscar-winning adaptation of William Shakespeare’s classic tragedy. Her performance earned her the Golden Globe for New Star of the Year.
In recent years, Hussey and Whiting filed a lawsuit against the studio over a controversial nude scene in the film, alleging misconduct. The lawsuit was dismissed in 2023. Reflecting on the scene in a 2018 interview with Variety, Hussey described it as being filmed with care. “Everyone assumes we were too young to understand what we were doing,” she said. “But we were aware. We came from drama schools and took our work seriously.”
Whiting, speaking about the experience in 2023, noted how the pair leaned on each other during the challenging shoot. “Olivia was very nervous and frightened, but we were fond of each other and helped each other through it,” he said.
Hussey, the daughter of an Argentine opera singer and a British legal secretary, moved to London at age seven. She studied at the Italia Conti drama school and began acting professionally as a teenager.
Beyond her role in Romeo and Juliet, Hussey appeared in other notable films, including the 1974 horror classic Black Christmas and the 1978 adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile.
Hussey is survived by her husband, David Eisley, their three children, and a grandchild.
