Olivia Hussey, the actor who starred as a teenage Juliet in the 1968 film Romeo and Juliet, has died, her family said on social media Saturday. She was 73. Hussey died on Friday, "peacefully at home surrounded by her loved ones," a statement posted to her Instagram account said, per the AP. 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. They alleged that they were initially told they would wear flesh-colored undergarments in a bedroom scene, but on the day of the shoot, Zeffirelli told the pair they'd wear only body makeup and that the camera would be positioned in a way that wouldn't 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 couldn't be considered child pornography and that the pair had filed their claim too late. Hussey was born on April 17, 1951, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and moved to London as a child. She also starred as 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's survived by her husband, David Glen Eisley; her three children; and a grandson.
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