Olivia Hussey, the actor who starred as a teenage Juliet in the 1968 film Romeo & Juliet, has died, her family said on social media on Saturday. She was 73.
Hussey died on Friday “peacefully at home surrounded by her loved ones”, a statement posted to her Instagram account said.
Hussey was 15 when director Franco Zeffirelli cast her in his adaptation of the William Shakespeare tragedy after spotting her in the play The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which also starred Vanessa Redgrave.
Romeo and Juliet won two Oscars and Hussey won a Golden Globe for best new actress for her part as Juliet, opposite British actor Leonard Whiting, who was 16 at the time.
Decades later Hussey and Whiting brought a lawsuit against Paramount Pictures alleging sexual abuse, sexual harassment and fraud over nude scenes in the film.
They alleged that they were initially told they would wear flesh-coloured undergarments in a bedroom scene, but on the day of the shoot Zeffirelli told the pair they would wear only body make-up and that the camera would be positioned in a way that would not show nudity. They alleged they were filmed in the nude without their knowledge.