Actress Olivia Hussey, who played the role of Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 version of “Romeo and Juliet,” died Friday at the age of 73.
This is stated by her family according to the AFP news agency.
The British actress was 15 years old when she and her co-star Leonard Whiting starred in the Oscar-winning adaptation of William Shakespeare’s tragedy.
– Olivia was a unique person whose warmth, wisdom and pure kindness touched the lives of everyone who knew her, her family writes in a statement that has been shared on the actor’s profile on the social media Instagram.
At the Oscars in 1969, the film was nominated in seven categories and received a total of four statuettes: Best Film, Best Director, Best Photography and Best Costumes.
Olivia Hussey also received a Golden Globe in the Best New Female Star category for her performance in the film.
“Romeo and Juliet” has since been re-recorded several times. Among other things in 1996, when Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes were the film’s main actors, while Baz Luhrmann was the director.
Husey has had an active career as an actor until 2015.
Among other things, she was on the cast list in the horror film “Black Christmas” (A murderer in your house, ed.) in 1974, just as she starred in the film adaptation of Agatha Christie’s “Death on the Nile” (Death on the Nile, ed.) from 1978.
She has also made a name for herself as a voice actor in a number of video games from the Star Wars universe.
In 2023, Hussey, along with his “Romeo and Juliet” co-star Leonard Whiting, filed a lawsuit against the film studio behind the film.
They did so claiming that child abuse had occurred in connection with a controversial nude scene between the two, which was filmed while they were both minors.
A judge later that year dismissed the lawsuit.
Olivia Hussey is survived by her husband David Eisley, who is an American musician and singer. The couple have three children together.
/ritzau/
Source: www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk
