Argentinian/British actress Olivia Hussey, 73, best known for Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 Romeo & Juliet, died of cancer on Dec. 27. Hussey was a rising teen starlet when picked as Juliet, at age 16. The fleeting nudity of Hussey and costar Leonard Whiting caused a scandal. They both later sued the production company, but Hussey was on record as saying that “Nobody my age had done that before. Everyone thinks ‘they were so young they didn’t realize what they were doing.’ But we were very aware. We both came from drama schools and when you work you take your work very seriously.” Though best-known as Juliet, Hussey had a long career, which included one of the schoolgirls in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, the bomb Lost Horizon, Black Christmas, Jesus of Nazareth (as Mary), Death on the Nile, Psycho IV (as Norma Bates), It (Stephen King, not Elinor Glyn), and Lonesome Dove. Hussey had been married to Dean Paul Martin (Dean’s son), and actors Akira Fuse and David Glen Eisley (who survives).
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