Olivia Hussey, who dazzled moviegoers as the feminine lead in Franco Zeffirelli‘s noteworthy 1968 adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, died Friday. She was 73.
The Argentina-born actress died “at residence surrounded by her family members,” in keeping with an announcement on her official Instagram account. “Olivia was a exceptional individual whose heat, knowledge, and pure kindness touched the lives of all who knew her,” the submit reads.
She was first identified with breast most cancers in 2008.
Hussey was simply 15 when she starred reverse British actor Leonard Whiting, 16, as Romeo in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Each have been unknowns. The Paramount-distributed movie, co-written by Zeffirelli, was nominated for the most effective image Oscar and three different Academy Awards, and he or she obtained a David di Donatello prize and a Golden Globe for her efforts.
Hussey additionally labored with the Italian filmmaker with a flip as Mary within the worldwide and epic 1977 miniseries Jesus of Nazareth, and he or she was angelic once more because the lead in Mom Teresa of Calcutta (2003).
She was memorable as Jess Bradford, terrorized in her sorority home, in Black Christmas (1974), the cult Canadian slasher film directed by Bob Clark, and was the sulky Rosalie Otterbourne, the daughter of Angela Lansbury‘s character, in Agatha Christie’s Demise on the Nile (1978), directed by John Guillermin.
Olivia Hussey in 1974’s ‘Black Christmas.’
Everett Assortment
Olivia Osuna was born on April 17, 1951, in Buenos Aires. Her father was an Argentine opera singer who glided by the stage title Osvaldo Ribó, and her mom, Pleasure, was an English-born authorized secretary.
When she was 7, her mother took her and her youthful brother to London, and he or she attended the Italia Conti Academy drama faculty for 5 years. She acted within the theater for the primary time when she was 13, taking her mom’s maiden title as her stage title.
Her efficiency in a 1966 West Finish manufacturing of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie reverse Vanessa Redgrave led her to Zeffirelli.
Romeo and Juliet, shot in Italy and that includes narration from an uncredited Laurence Olivier, launched a brand new technology to Shakespearean tragedy, created notoriety on the time for exhibiting Hussey topless and was an enormous hit for Paramount, which was in bother on the time.
After the resounding success of the movie, Hollywood producer Hal B. Wallis supplied her the title function in Anne of the Thousand Days (1969) and a co-starring gig alongside John Wayne in True Grit (1969), however an offhand comment that she made — she mentioned “couldn’t see herself with Wayne” — led Wallis to look elsewhere.
As a substitute, she adopted with roles within the British romantic drama All of the Proper Noises (1970), the Italian crime movie The Summertime Killer (1972) and a remake of Misplaced Horizon (1973).
Hussey appeared in The Man With Bogart’s Face (1980), the Japanese sci-fi movie Virus (1980), a remake of Ivanhoe (1982) and the Australian horror movie Turkey Shoot (1982) and performed the mom of Norman Bates (a returning Anthony Perkins) in Psycho IV: The Starting (1990).
Additionally in 1990, she portrayed Audra, spouse of Richard Thomas’ Invoice Denbrough, within the Stephen King miniseries It for ABC.
She labored as a voice actress in Star Wars, Batman and Superman video video games earlier than reuniting with Whiting for the 2015 movie Social Suicide, a contemporary tackle Romeo and Juliet, to painting the Capulet dad and mom. It could be her last onscreen credit score. (Her daughter, India Eisley, performed their daughter, Julia Coulson, within the film).
Her memoir, The Woman on the Balcony: Olivia Hussey Finds Life After Romeo and Juliet, was printed in 2018.
In 2023, Hussey and Whiting sued Paramount over accusations of kid abuse whereas filming Romeo and Juliet. The actors mentioned Zeffirelli pressured them into doing a bed room scene within the nude regardless of initially being advised they might put on flesh-colored physique fits. Whiting’s buttocks and Hussey’s naked breasts are seen.
The lawsuit was in the end dismissed, with the decide discovering claims that the film depicts sexual acts as a “gross mischaracterization.” A second lawsuit was dismissed in October as properly.
Along with her daughter, survivors embrace her husband of 35 years, David Glen Eisley, son of actor Anthony Eisley (Hawaiian Eye); her sons, Alexander and Max; and her grandson, Greyson.
Hussey additionally was married to Dean Paul Martin, the son of actor-singer Dean Martin, from 1971 till their 1978 divorce, and to Japanese actor-writer-singer Akira Fuse from 1980 till their 1989 divorce.