BSS
  28 Dec 2024, 10:34

'Romeo and Juliet' star Olivia Hussey dies aged 73

LOS ANGELES, United States, Dec 28, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Olivia Hussey, who
starred as a teenage Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 film "Romeo and
Juliet," garnering her a Golden Globe, died Friday at age 73, her family
announced.

"Olivia was a remarkable person whose warmth, wisdom, and pure kindness
touched the lives of all who knew her," her family said in a statement posted
to her Instagram account.

Buenos Aires-born Hussey was 15 when she and her co-lead Leonard Whiting
starred in the Oscar-winning adaptation of William Shakespeare's tragedy.

In 2023, the two actors filed a lawsuit against the studio alleging child
abuse over a controversial nude scene featuring the pair, who were minors at
the time.

A judge dismissed the lawsuit later that year.

Hussey, who received a "New Star of the Year" Golden Globe for her
performance, would later star in the 1974 slasher film "Black Christmas" and
the 1978 adaptation of Agatha Christie's "Death on the Nile," among other
projects.

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