She has acted in many films since 1965, when at just 14 years old in It happened she played Donna, the daughter of Lorenzo (Rossano Brazzi), until 2008 in Chinaman’s Chance: America’s Other Slaves in which she played Mrs. Duncan. Yet her graceful beauty and grace are inextricably linked to the Juliet of Franco Zeffirelli’s masterpiece for which she was chosen by the director among 500 candidates alongside Leonard Whiting-Romeo. The world of cinema mourns Olivia Hussey, who died on December 27 at the age of 73 in Burbank (Los Angeles), after a long battle with breast cancer. “Olivia was an extraordinary person whose warmth, wisdom and pure kindness touched the lives of all who knew her,” her family to whom she was very close announced on social media. Especially the children India Eisley (also an actress), Alexander Martin, Maximillian Fuse from the three marriages of his life with David Glen Eisley married in 1991, with Akira Fuse (from 1980 to 1989), and with Dean Paul Martinson of Dean Martin (from 1971 to 1978), all linked to the world of music and cinema.
Daughter of an Argentine opera singer, Andres Osuna (also known as Osvaldo Ribo)and the Anglo-Argentine legal secretary Alma Joy HusseyHussey landed in England at the age of 7 and, after attending the Drama School for five years, made his debut as a teenager on the big screen but also on the theater with The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie – based on the novel The Shining Years of Miss Brodie – with Vanessa Redgrave. Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet, winner of two Oscars, gave her great fame and numerous awards including the David di Donatello and the Golden Globe as the revelation actress of 1968. But also disturbances, linked in particular to the nude scene he did with his co-star, when both were minors. Last year, in fact, the two actors filed a lawsuit against Paramount Pictures accusing the studio of child abuse, but the proceeding was rejected by the judge. At the time it did not cause a scandal, even if the protagonist was not allowed to attend the film’s premiere due to the nudity. However, Olivia Hussey’s career has incontrovertibly demonstrated her unique skill and versatility. He shone in the Canadian horror Black Christmas (1974) and in the mystery Murder on the Nile (1978) alongside Peter Ustinov. But it was also a wonderful Mary in the miniseries Jesus of Nazareth (1977), again directed by Zeffirelli, and a convincing Rebecca of York in the TV remake of Ivanhoe (1982). She starred in the cast of the cult horror It (1990), playing the character of Audra Phillips Denbrough, and in 2003 in the television drama Mother Teresa. With other Hollywood colleagues in 1989 she appeared in the music video for Michael Jackson’s Liberian Girl.