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

Actress Olivia Hussey, best known for her role in Italian director Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 version of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, died on Friday, December 27, at the age of 73.

Her death was confirmed to the Chronicle by filmmaker Marc Huestis. The cause is said to be cancer.

“I just heard some sad, sad news,” Huestis said. “I loved her. She had so much love and was the most beautiful Julia ever. On screen and in real life, she radiated love and life.”

The Argentine-born British actor had a six-decade career on the screen. But it was the hit film about lovers, which mixed the romance and tragedy of the Bard with the youth and sexuality of the burgeoning counterculture of the 1960s, that cemented their reputation in popular culture. The film is considered one of the definitive adaptations of the Shakespeare play and was shown in classrooms around the world for years.

Hussey was celebrated for her work in the film alongside Leonard Whiting, who were 16 and 17 years old respectively. Film critic Roger Ebert wrote in 2000 that Hussey and Whiting “not only saw their roles, they embodied them with the freshness of their personalities, and although neither was a trained actor, for them they were entirely equal to Shakespeare’s dialogue.”

While the film brought both actors worldwide recognition, neither of them ever reached the heights of their early success.

In 2023, Hussey and Whiting filed a $500 million lawsuit against film distributor Paramount Pictures for sexual abuse, sexual harassment and fraud. The lawsuit also alleged that the film’s famous nude scene, which featured Hussey’s bare breasts and Whiting’s buttocks, was filmed without her knowledge.

The actors claimed in the lawsuit that their nudity in the film caused decades of emotional damage and mental anguish.

The lawsuit was dismissed in May 2023, with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Alison Mackenzie stating that the case did not meet the requirements for suspending the statute of limitations in child sexual abuse cases.

A second lawsuit was dismissed in October 2024.

Reacting to the decision, longtime San Francisco Chronicle film critic Mick LaSalle wrote at the time: “Whiting and Hussey are essentially sacrificing their artistic identities and desecrating one of the finest films of a generation on the altar of today’s neo-Puritanism and in that.” Pursuit of money – lots of money.”

In a 2018 interview to promote her memoir “The Girl on the Balcony” — named after the famous scene in “Romeo and Juliet” — Hussey defended the nude scene.

“Nobody my age had ever done that before,” she said, also noting that the scene “was necessary for the movie.” Everyone thinks they were so young that they didn’t know what they were doing. But we were very aware of it. We both come from drama schools and when you work you take your work very seriously.”

Hussey was born on April 17, 1951 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Argentine opera singer Andrés Osuna, who performed under the stage name Osvaldo Ribó, and Joy Hussey, a legal secretary from England.

At the age of seven, the family moved to London, where Hussey studied at the Italia Conti Academy acting school. At 13, she was already performing professionally and took her mother’s maiden name.

Hussey was 15 when Zeffirelli discovered her on stage as Jenny in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie opposite Vanessa Redgrave.

According to her memoir, her career stalled after Romeo and Juliet due to her immaturity and poor decisions. She said she lost out on roles in hit films like “True Grit” and “Anne of a Thousand Days.”

Later notable film work included the 1972 musical Lost Horizon and the 1978 adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile. She also starred in 2003’s Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

Aside from Julia, her most famous role was undoubtedly Jess Bradford in the 1974 Canadian slasher film Black Christmas, which has become a cult classic.

Hussey reunited with Zeffirelli in 1977 for the television miniseries “The Big Event – ​​Jesus of Nazareth,” in which she played the Virgin Mary. In 1987, she made a cameo appearance in the Michael Jackson music video “Liberian Girl.”

In 1990, she returned to horror, playing Norma Bates, the mother of murderer Norman Bates, in Psycho IV: The Beginning and appeared in Stephen King’s miniseries It.

Hussey was also a prolific voice actress and worked frequently in video games.

Huestis, a longtime Castro Theater event producer, hosted an evening with Hussey at the San Francisco venue in 2008, which included a screening of “Romeo and Juliet.” The two stayed in touch and became friends. They noted on Facebook that “of all my Castro guests, she was the most popular.”

Hussey is survived by her daughter India Eisley and her husband David Eisley; her sons Alexander Gunther Martin with her first husband Dean Paul Martin (son of Rat Pack singer Dean Martin); and Maximillian Hussey Fuse, whom she had with her second husband, Japanese singer Akira Fuse.

Reach Tony Bravo: [email protected]