Romeo and Juliet actress dies aged 73

Actress Olivia Hussey, who became internationally known as a teenager for her role in the acclaimed 1968 film version of Romeo and Juliet, has died aged 73.

The Argentine-born actress, who grew up in London, died on Friday surrounded by her loved ones, according to a statement on her Instagram.

Hussey won the best new actress Golden Globe for her role as Juliet, but decades later she sued Paramount Pictures for sexual misconduct when she was just 15 years old when she filmed the film’s nude scene.

Her other most notable film role was as Mary, the mother of Jesus, in the 1977 television miniseries Jesus of Nazareth.

“As we mourn this tremendous loss, we also celebrate Olivia’s lasting impact on our lives and the industry,” the statement said.

Hussey was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1951 before moving to London at the age of seven and studying at the Italia Conti Academy drama school.

She was 15 when Romeo and Juliet director Franco Zeffirelli discovered her on stage, playing opposite Vanessa Redgrave in the play The Prime of Miss Joan Brodie

Zeffirelli was looking for someone young enough to be a convincing Juliet in what he intended to be the definitive cinematic version of the Shakespeare play.

He cast Hussey alongside British 16-year-old Leonard Whiting as Romeo in the film.

The film was nominated for an Oscar for best film and director. Hussey herself missed out on an Oscar nomination in a strong year that saw Barbra Streisand win the top prize for Funny Girl.

But at that year’s Golden Globes, Hussey won Best New Star.

Decades later, she and Whiting sued Paramount Pictures, alleging that Zeffirelli — who died in 2019 — had encouraged them to film nude scenes despite previous assurances, they wouldn’t have to.

The couple sought damages of more than $500 million. (£417m), based on suffering they said they had experienced and the revenue the film has brought in since its release.

But last year a the judge dismissed the casefinding the scene was not “sufficiently sexually oriented”.

In 1977, Hussey reunited with Zeffirelli for Jesus of Nazareth to play the Virgin Mary before appearing in Death on the Nile a year later based on Agatha Christie’s novel.

Her roles in the early slasher film Black Christmas (1974) and the TV movie Psycho IV: The Beginning earned her recognition as a scream queen. In the latter, she played Norman Bates’ mother in a prequel story.

In recent years, she also took on work as a voice actress and often appeared in video games.

But she had one final reunion with her former Romeo – when she and Whiting appeared together in the 2015 British film Social Suicide, which was loosely based on Romeo and Juliet, albeit set in the social media era.