Olivia Hussey, star of the 1968 film “Romeo and Juliet,” has died at the age of 73

LONDON – Olivia Hussey, the actress who starred as teenage Juliet in the 1968 film “Romeo and Juliet,” has died, her family said on social media Saturday. She was 73.

Hussey died “peacefully at home surrounded by her loved ones” on Friday, according to a statement posted on her Instagram account. A cause of death was not given.

Hussey was 15 when director Franco Zeffirelli cast her in his adaptation of the Shakespeare tragedy after seeing her on stage in the play “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,” which also starred Vanessa Redgrave.

“Romeo and Juliet” won two Oscars and Hussey won a New Actress Golden Globe for her role as Juliet opposite then-16-year-old British actor Leonard Whiting.

Decades later, Hussey and Whiting filed a lawsuit against Paramount Pictures for sexual abuse, sexual harassment and fraud over nude scenes in the film.

They said they were originally told they would be wearing flesh-colored underwear in a bedroom scene, but on the day of filming, Zeffirelli told the couple that they would only be wearing body makeup and that the camera would be positioned that this does not show nudity. They claimed they were filmed naked without their knowledge.

The case was dismissed in 2023 by a Los Angeles County judge, who found that her depiction could not be considered child pornography and that the couple filed their lawsuit too late.

Whiting was among those who paid tribute to Hussey on Saturday. “Peace now, my beautiful Julia, no injustice can harm you now. And the world will forever remember your inner and outer beauty,” he wrote.

Hussey was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina on April 17, 1951 and moved to London as a child. She studied at the Italia Conti Academy acting school.

She also played the role of Mary, mother of Jesus, in the 1977 television series Jesus of Nazareth, as well as in the 1978 adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile and in the horror films Black Christmas and Psycho IV: The”. Beginning.”

She is survived by her husband, David Glen Eisley, their three children and one grandchild.

Hui writes for the Associated Press.