Emblematic Actress Cast as Virgin Mary Dies Shortly After Christmas

British actress Olivia Hussey, best known for her emblematic roles as “the perfect Juliet” and Virgin Mary in two of Zeffirelli’s most acclaimed masterpieces, died two days after Christmas 2024, aged 73.

The sad news were published on the star’s official Instagram account, where her family said she passed peacefully at home on December 27, surrounded by her loved ones.

The star had enjoyed a long and enviable career reincarnating great roles on the screen. She was thrice married and is survived by her three children and and one grandson, all from her last marriage to her husband of 35 years, David Glenn Eisley.

Although unconfirmed, it is believed that her death was related to the breast cancer she had been diagnosed with and treated for in 2008 and 2017.

“Olivia lived a life full of passion, love, and dedication to the arts, spirituality, and kindness towards animals,” her family’s post read. “As we grieve this immense loss, we also celebrate Olivia’s enduring impact on our lives and in the industry,” it concluded.

Cinema history’s most charming and controversial Juliet

From an early age, Olivia Hussey was associated with some of the most emblematic roles of the international repertoire, starting from reincarnating Shakespeare’s most famous heroine.

Born in Argentina and raised in England, the teenage actress was scouted for the role of Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 film adaptation of the timeless romantic drama Romeo and Juliet.

The movie was Hussey’s breakthrough, bringing her widespread acclaim and international recognition as she was dubbed “the perfect Juliet” and won a special David di Donatello Award as well as the Golden Globe award for New Star of the Year – Actress in 1969.

Beyond her spectacular acting success however, the sudden rise to stardom aggravated the young girl’s agoraphobia.

In 2022, Hussey and her Romeo and Juliet co-star Leonard Whiting filed a 500 million U.S. dollar lawsuit against Paramount Pictures for sexual exploitation, sexual harassment, and fraud, regarding their controversial nude scene, claiming they had suffered emotional damage and mental anguish for decades. 

The case was dismissed in Los Angeles Superior Court six months later, on the basis that the actors did “not put forth any authority showing the film can be deemed to be sufficiently sexually suggestive as a matter of law to be held to be conclusively illegal.”

Olivia Hussey as Virgin Mary and Mother Teresa

In the years following Romeo and Juliet, Olivia Hussey starred in additional milestone roles, at some point shifting to crime and horror cinema.

She was the lead character in the Canadian cult slasher film Black Christmas (1974); John Guillermin’s Agatha Christie adaptation of Death on the Nile (1978); Psycho IV: The Beginning; and a horror miniseries adapted from Stephen King’s It (both 1990).

But it was another role in a Franco Zeffirelli production that would place Hussey in front of the eyes of millions of viewers across the globe for decades to come; the Jesus of Nazareth epic TV series, where she was cast as Mary, mother of Jesus.

The series reunited several actors from the cast of 1967’s Romeo and Juliet; Hussey (Mary), York (John the Baptist), Holder (Enoch), Skinner (Possessed Boy) and casting director Lovell had co-starred ten years earlier as Juliet, Tybalt, Peter, Balthasar and Sampson respectively.

Broadcast worldwide since its 1977 premiere, Jesus of Nazareth is still considered one of the most widely marketed and most critically acclaimed productions in the history of television, estimated to have been watched by approximately 750,000 viewers in the first seven years of broadcast alone.

Among her last roles, Hussey played the lead in Mother Teresa of Calcutta in 2003, a biopic of influential Christian Catholic nun Mother Teresa, and was presented with a Character and Morality in Entertainment Award for her performance.

In her very last film, Hussey reunited with her Romeo and Juliet co-star Leonard Whiting as on-screen partners in the film Social Suicide in 2015, the only film that they both appeared in since their 1967 hit.

In a most moving tribute following the news of Hussey’s passing, Whiting wrote: “You have never been frightened of fighting to fix everything wrong in this world. Rest now my beautiful Juliet no injustices can hurt you now. And the world will remember your beauty inside and out forever.”