Olivia Hussey, who dazzled moviegoers as the female star of Franco Zeffirelli‘s 1968 fabled adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, died Thursday. She was 73.
The Argentina-born actress died “at home surrounded by her loved ones,” according to an announcement on her official Instagram account. “Olivia was a remarkable person whose warmth, wisdom, and pure kindness touched the lives of all who knew her.”
Hussey was just 16 when she starred opposite Leonard Whiting as Romeo in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, also co-written by Zeffirelli. The Paramount film was nominated for the best picture Oscar and three other Academy Awards, and she received a David di Donatello award and a Golden Globe for her work.
Her performance in a 1966 London production of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie opposite Vanessa Redgrave led her to Zeffirelli.
Hussey also worked with the Italian filmmaker with a turn as Mary in the 1977 miniseries Jesus of Nazareth and appeared as the sulky Rosalie Otterbourne, the daughter of Angela Lansbury’s character in Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile (1978), directed by John Guillermin.
And in Black Christmas (1974), the cult slasher horror movie directed by Bob Clark and made in Canada, she was Jess Bradford, terrorized in her sorority house.
More recently, she worked as a voice actress in Star Wars video games, including 1998’s Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, 2000’s Star Wars: Force Commander and 2011’s Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Survivors include her husband of 35 years, David Glen Eisley; her children, Alexander, Max and India; and her grandson, Greyson.
She also was married to Dean Paul Martin, the son of actor-singer Dean Martin, from 1971 until their 1978 divorce, and to actor-writer Akira Fuse from 1980 until their 1989 divorce.
More to come …