Olivia Hussey, the actor who starred as a teenage Juliet in the 1968 film Romeo and Juliet and in early slasher film Black Christmas, has died aged 73.
Hussey died on Friday, local time “peacefully at home surrounded by her loved ones”, according to a family statement posted to her Instagram account.
Hussey was 15 when director Franco Zeffirelli cast her in his adaptation of the William Shakespeare tragedy after spotting her onstage in the play The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which also starred Vanessa Redgrave.
Romeo and Juliet won two Oscars and Hussey won a Golden Globe for best new actress for her part as Juliet, opposite British actor Leonard Whiting, who was 16 at the time.
Decades later Hussey and Whiting brought a lawsuit against Paramount Pictures alleging sexual abuse, sexual harassment and fraud over nude scenes in the film.
Hussey (centre) with Romeo and Juliet director Franco Zeffirelli and Leonard Whiting. (AP: Eustache Cardenas/File)
They alleged that they were initially told they would wear flesh-coloured undergarments in a bedroom scene, but on the day of the shoot Zeffirelli told the pair they would wear only body makeup and that the camera would be positioned in a way that would not show nudity.
They alleged they were filmed in the nude without their knowledge.
The case was dismissed by a Los Angeles County judge in 2023, who found their depiction could not be considered child pornography and the pair filed their claim too late.
Whiting was among those paying tribute to Hussey on Saturday.
“Rest now my beautiful Juliet no injustices can hurt you now,” he wrote.
“And the world will remember your beauty inside and out forever.”
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Hussey also starred in Black Christmas, widely considered one of the first films in the slasher genre.
She starred as Jessica, a sorority sister whose house is haunted by an anonymous killer.
Hussey was born on April 17, 1951, in Bueno Aires, Argentina, and moved to London as a child.
Her other roles included Mary, the mother of Jesus, in the 1977 television series Jesus of Nazareth, as well as the 1978 adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile and Psycho IV: The Beginning.
She is survived by her husband, David Glen Eisley, her three children and a grandson.
AP/ABC
