Olivia Hussey, the celebrated actress who portrayed Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, has died at the age of 73. Her family shared the news on her Instagram account, describing her as a person of “warmth, wisdom, and pure kindness.”
Born in Buenos Aires to an Argentine opera singer and a British legal secretary, Hussey moved to London at the age of seven. She attended the Italia Conti drama school and began acting professionally as a teenager. At just 15, she was cast alongside Leonard Whiting in Zeffirelli’s Oscar-winning adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragic love story, a performance that earned her a Golden Globe for New Star of the Year.
In 2023, Hussey and Whiting made headlines when they filed a lawsuit against the studio behind Romeo and Juliet, alleging child abuse over a controversial nude scene filmed while they were minors. A judge later dismissed the case, but Hussey had previously defended the scene, describing it as “tastefully shot” in a 2018 interview with Variety.
Her career spanned decades, with notable roles in the 1974 cult classic Black Christmas and the 1978 adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile.
Hussey is survived by her husband, musician David Eisley, their three children, and a grandchild. Her remarkable contributions to cinema and her enduring legacy as a global star continue to inspire generations.
