Olivia Hussey, star of the film ‘Romeo and Juliet’ from 1968, dies aged 73.

LONDON (AP) – Olivia Hussey, the actress who played the lead role of teenage Juliet in the 1968 film “Romeo and Juliet,” has died, her family said on social media Saturday. She was 73.

Hussey died on Friday, “peacefully at home surrounded by loved ones,” a statement on her Instagram account said.

Hussey was 15 when director Franco Zeffirelli cast her in his film adaptation of the William Shakespeare tragedy after seeing her on stage in the play “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,” which also starred Vanessa Redgrave.

“Romeo and Juliet” won two Oscars, and Hussey won a Golden Globe for Best New Actress for her role as Juliet, opposite British actor Leonard Whiting, who was 16 at the time.

Decades later Hussey and Whiting filed a lawsuit against Paramount Pictures alleging sexual abuse, sexual harassment and fraud over nude scenes in the film.

They claimed that they were initially told that they would wear flesh-colored underwear in a bedroom scene, but on the day of filming, Zeffirelli told the couple that they would only wear body makeup and that the camera would be positioned in a way that would not could be seen. nudity. They claimed they were filmed naked without their knowledge.

The the case was dismissed by a Los Angeles County judge in 2023, who found that their depiction could not be considered child pornography, and the couple filed their claim too late.

Hussey was born on 17 April 1951 in Bueno Aires, Argentina and moved to London as a child.

She also starred as Mary, the mother of Jesus, in the 1977 TV series “Jesus of Nazareth” and in the 1978 adaptation of Agatha Christie’s “Death on the Nile”.

She is survived by her husband, David Glen Eisley, her three children and a grandson.