--- name: "Olivia Hussey" canonical: "https://film.one/person/olivia-hussey" roles: ["Actor"] born: "17 April 1951" died: "27 December 2024" reviewed_on_fi1m: 1 average_as: "actor" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-20T05:14:20.504552+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Olivia Hussey Actor. Born 17 April 1951 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Died 27 December 2024. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 17 April 1951, Buenos Aires, Argentina - **Died:** 27 December 2024 - **Also known as:** Olivia Osuna Hussey, اولیویا هاسی, اُلیویا هاسی - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivia_Hussey, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q234293, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001377/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/24695 ## Fi1m on Olivia Hussey > At fifteen Olivia Hussey played Juliet as a girl finding out something about herself while the camera watched, and nothing she did afterwards came close. The performance is the reason to know her name; the rest is worth an evening or two, no more. Watch the Capulet ball in Franco Zeffirelli's *Romeo and Juliet* (1968) and see what Olivia Hussey does while a boy sings Nino Rota's ballad about youth being a passing thing. She does very little. Zeffirelli cuts between her face and Leonard Whiting's across a crowded hall, and Hussey plays it as a girl who has just learnt something about herself and has not yet decided what to do with it. She was fifteen. We were moved by a scene we have seen played a dozen ways, because Hussey does not look like an actress showing us a discovery. She looks like a girl making one. That is the performance, and nothing after it came close. Zeffirelli saw her on stage in *The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie* (1966), opposite Vanessa Redgrave, and put her in real Italian streets under a sun that made everyone squint. The fame came at once. What followed is a short, odd list. *Black Christmas* (1974) made her Jess Bradford, the lead in an early slasher, since taken as an early model for the horror heroine who keeps her head. Zeffirelli brought her back as Mary in *Jesus of Nazareth* (1977). She was Rosalie Otterbourne in the ensemble of *Death on the Nile* (1978). After that the work was mostly television, horror, voices for animation and games, and the title role in *Mother Teresa of Calcutta* (2003). Her last screen credit, *Social Suicide* (2015), put her beside Whiting again. What she could do is on the screen in Verona, and so is what she could not. The verse gave her trouble. The balcony scene, played as two children whispering so as not to wake the house, is lovely, because the lines are short and she can treat them as talk. Give her a long speech and she leans on it. Zeffirelli cuts to her face rather than staying with her voice, and the film is at its best when he does. He came back to her, and other directors cast her as the Virgin Mary and as Mother Teresa, which is a compliment of a narrow kind. "If I am remembered only for Juliet, Mary and Teresa, that will be enough for me," she said. Whether it should be enough for us is a different matter. We would like to have seen more of the young woman she played in *Black Christmas*, the one who does the sensible thing under pressure, and to have seen her grow up on screen. That did not happen. What we have is one summer in Italy at fifteen, filmed by a man who knew exactly what he had, and it is the first half of that film we would send you to, for the ball and the balcony and a girl finding out. ## Biography Olivia Hussey was an Argentine-British actress. Born Olivia Osuna in Buenos Aires, she moved to England as a child and trained at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London. She began acting professionally in her teens and was spotted by Franco Zeffirelli while appearing in a London stage production of *The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie*. This led to her casting as Juliet in Zeffirelli’s 1968 film adaptation of *Romeo and Juliet*, opposite Leonard Whiting. The performance brought her a Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress. Hussey appeared in films including *Black Christmas* (1974) and *Death on the Nile* (1978), and in television series and miniseries such as *Jesus of Nazareth* (1977) and *It* (1990). She also provided voice work for animated series including *Batman Beyond* (1999). *Sources: imdb.com, nytimes.com, en.wikipedia.org, bbc.co.uk.* ## On Fi1m (1) - *Romeo and Juliet* (1968), Fi1m 75, as Juliet — [page](https://film.one/film/romeo-and-juliet-1968.md) ## Complete filmography (48) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *The Calls Are Coming from Inside* (2021), as Jess (archive footage) - *Social Suicide* (2015), as Julia's Mother - *Tortilla Heaven* (2008), as Petra - *Railroad to Hell: A Chinaman's Chance* (2008), as Mrs. Duncan - *Three Priests* (2008), as Rachel - *Headspace* (2005), as Dr. Karen Murphy - *Mother Teresa of Calcutta* (2003), as Mother Teresa - *Mother Teresa* (2003), series, as Mother Teresa - *El Grito* (2002), Actor - *Island Prey* (2001), as Catherine Gaits - *Shame, Shame, Shame* (1999), as The Therapist - *Batman Beyond* (1999), series, as Talia al Ghul (voice) - *The Gardener* (1998), as Mrs. Carter - *Superman: The Animated Series* (1996), series, as Talia (voice) - *Dead Man's Island* (1996), as Rosie, the housemaid - *The Lord Protector* (1996), as The Voice of the Ancients - *Ice Cream Man* (1995), as Nurse Wharton - *Save Me* (1994), as Gail - *Quest of the Delta Knights* (1993), as The Mannerjay - *Boy Meets World* (1993), series, as Aunt Prudence Curtis - *It* (1990), series, as Audra Denbrough - *Psycho IV: The Beginning* (1990), as Norma Bates - *Undeclared War* (1990), as Rebecca Ecke - *The Jeweller's Shop* (1989), as Thérèse - *Distortions* (1987), as Amy Marks - *The Corsican Brothers* (1985), as Annamarie de Guidice - *Murder, She Wrote* (1984), series, as Kitty Trumbull - *The Last Days of Pompeii* (1984), series, as Ione - *Turkey Shoot* (1982), as Chris Walters - *Ivanhoe* (1982), as Rebecca - *The Man with Bogart's Face* (1980), as Elsa - *Virus* (1980), as Marit - *The Cat and the Canary* (1978), as Cicily Young - *Death on the Nile* (1978), as Rosalie Otterbourne - *The Bastard* (1978), series, as Alicia Parkhurst - *The Pirate* (1977), series, as Leila - *H-Bomb* (1977), as Erica - *Jesus of Nazareth* (1977), series, as Virgin Mary - *Black Christmas* (1974), as Jess - *Lost Horizon* (1973), as Maria - *Summertime Killer* (1972), as Tania Scarlotti - *All the Right Noises* (1970), as Val - *Romeo and Juliet* (1968), as Juliet — Fi1m 75, [page](https://film.one/film/romeo-and-juliet-1968.md) - *Cup Fever* (1965), as Jinny - *The Battle of the Villa Fiorita* (1965), as Donna - *The Crunch* (1964), as Mrs Ken's Daughter - *Drama 61-67* (1961), series, as Mrs. Ken's Daughter - *Hallmark Hall of Fame* (1951), series, as Annamaria de Guidice ## Gallery - ![Promotional photograph of Olivia Hussey as Rebecca in the 1982 television movie, Ivanhoe.](https://film.one/media/person/1243392/gallery-3e2de11c9aa0.jpg) Promotional photograph of Olivia Hussey as Rebecca in the 1982 television movie, Ivanhoe. — CBS, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c8/Olivia_Hussey_-_Ivanhoe_%281982%29.jpg/1280px-Olivia_Hussey_-_Ivanhoe_%281982%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Olivia Hussey](https://film.one/media/person/1243392/gallery-88cd73150880.png) Olivia Hussey — Unknown authorUnknown author, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Olivia_Hussey_ca._1970s_%28cropped%29.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Photograph of actress Olivia Hussey, 1968.](https://film.one/media/person/1243392/gallery-05bff6018107.png) Photograph of actress Olivia Hussey, 1968. — Unknown photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Olivia_Hussey_-_Photograph_%281968%29.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Olivia Hussey](https://film.one/media/person/1243392/gallery-88c286481af9.jpg) Olivia Hussey — Image via TMDB - ![Olivia Hussey](https://film.one/media/person/1243392/gallery-593a01cd8bcb.jpg) Olivia Hussey — Image via TMDB - ![Olivia Hussey](https://film.one/media/person/1243392/gallery-0e5eb33921eb.jpg) Olivia Hussey — Image via TMDB - ![Olivia Hussey](https://film.one/media/person/1243392/gallery-544ddf50e720.jpg) Olivia Hussey — Image via TMDB - ![Olivia Hussey](https://film.one/media/person/1243392/gallery-7fd621fd6e04.jpg) Olivia Hussey — Image via TMDB - ![Olivia Hussey](https://film.one/media/person/1243392/gallery-b7cef5cb0a58.jpg) Olivia Hussey — Image via TMDB --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/olivia-hussey