Olivia Hussey, the actress who rose to fame as Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 film adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, has died at 73, filmmaker and event organizer Marc Huestis confirmed to Vulture. (Huestis, who interviewed Hussey for a Romeo and Juliet tribute that he hosted at the Castro Theatre in 2008, said he was directly informed of her death by Lynn Whiting, the wife of Hussey’s Romeo and Juliet co-star Leonard Whiting.) The news was also confirmed to Vulture by a representative for Hussey and shared in a statement on Hussey’s Instagram page. “It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Olivia Hussey Eisley, who went peacefully at home surrounded by her loved ones on December 27th,” the statement said. “Olivia was a remarkable person whose warmth, wisdom, and pure kindness touched the lives of all who knew her.”
Born in Argentina in 1951, Hussey moved as a child to England, where she attended the Italia Conti Academy drama school for five years. When she was 15 years old, she was scouted and cast in Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet, which shot her to international fame and earned her a Golden Globe for New Star Of The Year. Hussey is also known for playing Jess in the 1974 cult classic slasher Black Christmas and the Virgin Mary in the 1977 miniseries Jesus of Nazareth. Her other credits include the 1978 adaptation of Death on the Nile, Psycho IV: The Beginning, The Cat and the Canary, and more. Her last onscreen credit was in 2015’s Social Suicide, a modern take on Romeo and Juliet in which she and Whiting reunited to play the Capulet parents.
In December 2022, Hussey and Whiting sued Paramount over allegations that Zeffirelli had pressured them into doing a nude scene for Romeo and Juliet. Hussey later told Vulture in 2023 that the lawsuit was “in God’s hands” and the she would be okay even if it failed. “Most people on their deathbeds, even the most evil people, have to say, What have I done? And what was wrong? And what did I do right?” she said. “I’m not afraid to die because I’m not scared of my reckoning.” The original complaint was ultimately dismissed, and a judge later dismissed a second lawsuit tied to the claims in October 2024.