Olivia Hussey, Franco Zeffirelli’s eternal ‘Juliet’, dies

The statement does not provide information on the place or cause of her death, although it is known that the actress had been diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008. She died “at home surrounded by her loved ones.” He added: “Olivia was a remarkable person whose warmth, wisdom and pure kindness touched the lives of all who knew her. “He lived a life full of passion, love and dedication to the arts, spirituality and kindness towards animals.”

Hussey was only 15 years old when she rose to fame by starring, alongside British actor Leonard Whiting, a year older than her, in William Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Zeffirelli’s adaptation won two Oscars, for best photography and best costume design, and a Golden Globe, which Hussey won as a breakout star. A role for which she is still remembered today, almost sixty years later.

Just a year ago, both actors returned to the news because they filed a lawsuit against Paramount Pictures for child abuse, related precisely to a brief nude scene in said film, according to their lawyer’s statement on Tuesday. The actors denounced that the bed scene where buttocks and breasts are visible in the 1968 adaptation constituted sexual exploitation by the famous studio, which they accuse of distributing nude images of adolescents.

The demand

The lawsuit claimed that director Zeffirelli, who died in 2019, tricked them into performing the scene on the grounds that without it “the film would fail,” although at the beginning of filming he insisted that there would be no actual nudity. “Defendants were dishonest and secretly filmed the nudity or partial nudity of minors without their knowledge, violating federal and state laws,” the lawsuit stated.

The document demanded damages of 500 million dollars (480 million euros) and also argued that the two artists had suffered mental and emotional anguish since the film was released five and a half decades ago. The lawsuit was dismissed in May 2023, due to the statute of limitations of the crime. The performers, however, filed a new lawsuit in February of this year, arguing that the re-release of the film in 2023, with a digital restoration, triggered a new statute of limitations. But the judge again dismissed their requests in October.

Olivia Osuna was born on April 17, 1951 in Buenos Aires. His father was an Argentine opera singer who used the stage name Osvaldo Ribó, and his mother, Joy, was an English-born secretary. When she was 7, her mother took her and her younger brother to London, and she attended the Italia Conti Academy drama school for five years. He first performed in theater at age 13, taking his mother’s maiden name, Hussey, as his stage name.

Other papal

The actress also worked with Zeffirelli in the role of Mary in the 1977 epic international miniseries ‘Jesus of Nazareth’, and returned to play a religious character as the protagonist in ‘Mother Teresa of Calcutta’ (2003). She also had memorable roles in the classic horror film ‘Black Christmas’ (1974), a cult Canadian film directed by Bob Clark, and was the moody Rosalie Otterbourne, the daughter of Angela Lansbury’s character, in ‘Death on the Nile’ ( 1978), adaptation of Agatha Christie directed by John Guillermin.

In addition, she played Norman Bates’ mother in one of the sequels to the Psycho saga, she appeared in the miniseries It (1990) and in series such as A Murder Wrote or The Last Days of Pompeii, and thanks to her voice she worked in animated series and video games from the Star Wars universe.

“Olivia leaves behind a loving family: her children Alex, Max and India, her husband of 35 years David Glen Eisley, her grandson Greyson and a legacy of love that will always be treasured in our hearts.”