Olivia Hussey From 1968 'Romeo & Juliet' Has Passed Away At 73
Image Source: Medium
Actress Olivia Hussey passed away at her home in Los Angeles on December 27th, 2024. She was 73 years old.
Hussey was born in Buenos Aires in 1951, the daughter of an Argentine tango singer and a British legal secretary. The family moved to the United Kingdom when Olivia was age seven, and she was accepted to the illustrious drama school, the Italia Conti Academy.
Hussey became famous early on, modelling and taking walk-on parts in British television and film as a child actress. Her big break came after two years in the industry, at just fifteen in the 1968 Romeo and Juliet adaptation. Romeo and Juliet won two of its four Oscar nominations, and Hussey took home a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer. Raised Roman Catholic, Hussey found the nude scenes problematic, especially since they had not been included in the original pitch, and she was underage at the time. She and her co-star Leonard Whiting took Paramount Pictures to court years later, but the result wasn’t what she hoped for. She fought to protect minors from sexualisation in the film industry right up until her death.
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Olivia Hussey worked continually in the 70s and 80s in a wide variety of roles, from Rebecca of York in Ivanhoe to Rosalie Otterbourne in the acclaimed Agatha Christie adaption of Death on the Nile (with Mia Farrow and Peter Ustinov). But Hussey began to find a home in horror, playing Norman Bates's mother in a prequel Psycho IV: The Beginning, staring in Black Christmas, and the infamous Stephen King IT miniseries.
At the turn of the millennium, Hussey evolved again, trying voice acting for the first time, portraying Talia Al Ghul in Superman: the animated series, as well as Batman Beyond. She also voiced Master Yuon Par in Star Wars: The Old Republic computer game.
Hussey was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008, and despite a long period of remission, it returned in 2018 and eventually brought about her end. She published a book on her experiences with cancer and the film industry that same year, titled Girl on the Balcony: Olivia Hussey Finds Life after Romeo and Juliet.
She is survived by her husband, David Glen Eisley, daughter, actress India Joy Eisley, and son Maximillian Hussey Fuse.
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