Olivia Hussey (Romeo & Juliet, Black Christmas) dead at 73
12-27-24 | 09:57 PM
#1
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Olivia Hussey (Romeo & Juliet, Black Christmas) dead at 73
Apparently it was cancer. A recurrence of breast cancer.
I haven't followed her and honestly haven't heard her name in ages, but I see she did a lot of voice over work in animation in the latter stage of her career.
12-27-24 | 10:07 PM
#2
Re: Olivia Hussey (Romeo & Juliet, Black Christmas) dead at 73
Always loved her accent. Strangely, I just watched the blu-ray of the Lost Horizon musical last night (mainly because of her) and even picked up a signed copy of her memoir a couple weeks ago.
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12-27-24 | 10:17 PM
#3
DVD Talk Gold Edition
Re: Olivia Hussey (Romeo & Juliet, Black Christmas) dead at 73
Sad to hear. I just watched Black Christmas this past week and Romeo & Juliet earlier this year. Enjoyed her performances very much. She'll be remembered fondly.
12-27-24 | 11:36 PM
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From: Formerly known as L. Ron zyzzle - On a cloud of Judgement
Re: Olivia Hussey (Romeo & Juliet, Black Christmas) dead at 73
RIP to a luminous legend.
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Olivia Hussey
12-28-24 | 08:29 AM
#6
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Olivia Hussey (Romeo & Juliet, Black Christmas) dead at 73
Her daughter India is fucking gorgeous!
12-28-24 | 02:38 PM
#7
Re: Olivia Hussey (Romeo & Juliet, Black Christmas) dead at 73
Fell in love with her the summer I turned 16 when I first saw ROMEO AND JULIET. Years later, she pops up in a Japanese sci-fi film directed by Kinji Fukasaku, VIRUS (1980), where she plays the pregnant wife of a Japanese biological researcher trying to stem the worldwide virus. Of all the westerners in the cast (including George Kennedy, Glenn Ford, Robert Vaughn, Henry Silva, Bo Svenson, Edward James Olmos, etc.), she had the biggest part.
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12-28-24 | 02:46 PM
#8
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Olivia Hussey (Romeo & Juliet, Black Christmas) dead at 73
I wouldn't have a problem with the suit, if she hadn't been on record saying "we're European, we're not as uptight about these things" (not verbatim, but something along those lines). I didn't like the buyer's remorse 40-something years after the fact, not to mention she worked with Zefferilli again. But I don't want to speak ill of the recently deceased, she was indeed an amazing actress and she will most certainly be missed.
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12-28-24 | 03:50 PM
#9
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Olivia Hussey (Romeo & Juliet, Black Christmas) dead at 73
RIP
Obviously loved her in Black Christmas (1973) but I'll never forget her appearance on Boy Meets World.
Obviously loved her in Black Christmas (1973) but I'll never forget her appearance on Boy Meets World.
12-28-24 | 04:11 PM
#10
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12-28-24 | 05:06 PM
#11
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Re: Olivia Hussey (Romeo & Juliet, Black Christmas) dead at 73
Shame she's gone. Everyone remembers her from R&J, but I feel her biggest contribution was in Black Christmas, which was one of the first killer on the loose slasher movies to use the whole "final girl" approach, so she's kind of one of the pioneers for that role.
12-28-24 | 05:50 PM
#12
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Re: Olivia Hussey (Romeo & Juliet, Black Christmas) dead at 73
Yesterday I saw Ivanhoe in a Fanflix “Family Time” sale, and now this mention. I saw the original broadcast (my mom was an Anthony Andrews fan after Brideshead Revisited), and now it’s popping up everywhere! 
12-29-24 | 12:20 AM
#13
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Re: Olivia Hussey (Romeo & Juliet, Black Christmas) dead at 73
I still have the DVD probably watch it tomorrow. Also the tv-movie have a young Sam Neil before he became famous on Jurassic Park.
12-29-24 | 01:13 AM
#14
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12-29-24 | 08:39 PM
#15
Re: Olivia Hussey (Romeo & Juliet, Black Christmas) dead at 73
I wouldn't have a problem with the suit, if she hadn't been on record saying "we're European, we're not as uptight about these things" (not verbatim, but something along those lines). I didn't like the buyer's remorse 40-something years after the fact, not to mention she worked with Zefferilli again. But I don't want to speak ill of the recently deceased, she was indeed an amazing actress and she will most certainly be missed.
A short summary if you don't want to read the whole article:
Apparently, the lawsuit was her new business manager's idea. The guy lives in Ohio and had been representing minor athletes with disabilities. How he came into dealings with Hussey and Whiting is a bit convoluted: His partner got a random cold-call from someone selling homeopathic supplements. The manager decided to look up their website and saw a photo of a woman described as a "medical futurist". So he decided to drum up a new client by reaching out to this lady and pitching her business ideas. On the call, she namedropped Hussey as one of her patients (whom she was treating for the cancer recurrence, presumably with nontraditional methods). That's how this business manager ended up getting in contact with Hussey. Around that time, she had filed for bankruptcy. He directed her to a "business psychologist" contact of his who concluded that she and Whiting had been traumatized from working on Romeo and Juliet. All this conveniently happened to coincide with a deadline to file a case under the California Child Victims Act.
Just my opinion, but the situation sounds sketchy from the article. From a new age physician pushing supplements by phone, to the fact the business manager had Hollywood aspirations (even looking to write a film based on the controversy) and was once arrested by the FBI for pulling a car insurance scam. Before the filing, Hussey had always spoken very warmly of Zeffirelli and rationalized any problematic or manipulative tactics he pulled on set as a means of getting the best performance out of her. They remained friends until his death and the lawsuit only came about after he was gone. Even then, they went after the studio for damages and not Zeffirelli's estate. The article does allude that there was no love lost between Hussey and Paramount. She was paid less than 3K for doing the movie and the studio dropped their option on her after she expressed disinterest in appearing in True Grit with John Wayne. A lifelong agoraphobic, she never really capitalized on the fame generated by Romeo and Juliet. When she contacted Paramount about using a photo of herself from the balcony scene on the cover of her memoir, she was told it would cost 10K for licensing. That would have understandably stuck in her craw.
Last edited by joe_b; 12-30-24 at 01:59 AM.
12-29-24 | 10:01 PM
#16
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Olivia Hussey (Romeo & Juliet, Black Christmas) dead at 73
Vulture did a very detailed piece about the lawsuit last year: https://www.vulture.com/article/rome...t-lawsuit.html
A short summary if you don't want to read the whole article:
Apparently, the lawsuit was her new business manager's idea. The guy lives in Ohio and had been representing minor athletes with disabilities. His pairing with Hussey and Whiting is a bit convoluted: His partner got a random cold-call from someone selling supplements. The manager decided to look up their website and saw a photo of a woman described as a "medical futurist". So he decided to drum up a new client by reaching out to this lady and pitching her business suggestions. On the call, she namedropped Hussey as one of her patients (whom she was treating for the cancer recurrence, presumably with homeopathic methods). That's how this business manager ended up getting in contact with Hussey. Around that time, she had filed for bankruptcy. He directed her to a "business psychologist" contact of his who concluded that she and Whiting had been traumatized working on Romeo and Juliet. All this conveniently happened to coincide with a deadline to file a case under the California Child Victims Act.
Hussey had always spoken very warmly of Zeffirelli and rationalized any problematic or manipulative tactics as a means of getting the best performance out of her. They had remained friends and the lawsuit only came about after Franco had died. The article does allude that there was no love lost between Hussey and Paramount. She was only paid >3K for doing the movie and the studio dropped their option on her after she expressed disinterest in appearing in True Grit with John Wayne. A lifelong agoraphobic, she never really capitalized on the fame and celebrity generated by Romeo and Juliet. When she contacted Paramount about using a photo of herself from the balcony scene on the cover of her memoir, she was told it would cost 10K for licensing. That would have understandably stuck in her craw.
A short summary if you don't want to read the whole article:
Apparently, the lawsuit was her new business manager's idea. The guy lives in Ohio and had been representing minor athletes with disabilities. His pairing with Hussey and Whiting is a bit convoluted: His partner got a random cold-call from someone selling supplements. The manager decided to look up their website and saw a photo of a woman described as a "medical futurist". So he decided to drum up a new client by reaching out to this lady and pitching her business suggestions. On the call, she namedropped Hussey as one of her patients (whom she was treating for the cancer recurrence, presumably with homeopathic methods). That's how this business manager ended up getting in contact with Hussey. Around that time, she had filed for bankruptcy. He directed her to a "business psychologist" contact of his who concluded that she and Whiting had been traumatized working on Romeo and Juliet. All this conveniently happened to coincide with a deadline to file a case under the California Child Victims Act.
Hussey had always spoken very warmly of Zeffirelli and rationalized any problematic or manipulative tactics as a means of getting the best performance out of her. They had remained friends and the lawsuit only came about after Franco had died. The article does allude that there was no love lost between Hussey and Paramount. She was only paid >3K for doing the movie and the studio dropped their option on her after she expressed disinterest in appearing in True Grit with John Wayne. A lifelong agoraphobic, she never really capitalized on the fame and celebrity generated by Romeo and Juliet. When she contacted Paramount about using a photo of herself from the balcony scene on the cover of her memoir, she was told it would cost 10K for licensing. That would have understandably stuck in her craw.
12-29-24 | 11:31 PM
#17
Re: Olivia Hussey (Romeo & Juliet, Black Christmas) dead at 73
There are quotes from her childhood friends in the article that describe a negative change in her self-esteem after returning home from the Romeo and Juliet shoot. There may very well have been unprocessed trauma. I suppose it's possible that experience could have been the root of the agoraphobia, even if she might not have made the connection.
As for the merit of the case, the $500 million in damages did seem excessive considering both actors had traded-in on their involvement and spoken so highly (for decades) of their time making the film. Hussey described herself as being overly trusting of people who rarely had her best interests in mind - with a string of managers outright stealing from her. She claimed she always went with her instincts in matters of business and representation. Unfortunately, it seems like it rarely worked out well for her.
As for the merit of the case, the $500 million in damages did seem excessive considering both actors had traded-in on their involvement and spoken so highly (for decades) of their time making the film. Hussey described herself as being overly trusting of people who rarely had her best interests in mind - with a string of managers outright stealing from her. She claimed she always went with her instincts in matters of business and representation. Unfortunately, it seems like it rarely worked out well for her.
Last edited by joe_b; 12-30-24 at 12:47 AM.
12-30-24 | 10:47 AM
#18
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Olivia Hussey (Romeo & Juliet, Black Christmas) dead at 73
Hussey was 15 years old when she cast her in Franco Zeffirelli's adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.
She had been a working stage actor for a few years but was unknown in the world of film and had no agent or manager.
Hussey was in awe of Zeffirelli. “When he comes into the room and speaks, no one else says anything,” she told a journalist at the time. “No one else can compete with anything he says, his ideas are so brilliant.” Sometimes she called him “Daddy.”If he was a father figure, he wasn’t a very nurturing one. His focus on her body was relentless. Before the shoot began, she was ordered to go to a doctor who prescribed her diet pills that made her ill. By the time the cameras were rolling, Olivia weighed 100 pounds and wasn’t allowed to gain any weight.
When she told Zeffirelli she was self-conscious about her chest and wasn’t sure about wearing a low-cut dress, he gave her the nickname “Boobs O’Mina,” which he would shout into a megaphone whenever he wanted her on set. She later reasoned he had humiliated her in order to break down her defenses.
Zeffirelli waited until nearly the end of production to shoot the film’s most controversial scene.
Olivia did not realize she would be fully undressed until that morning, when the makeup man arrived and announced he was there to make her up “head to toe.”
In the end, the scene proved central to the film’s good fortune. Zeffirelli had turned Shakespeare’s complex tale of a status-obsessed mercantile society into a fever dream of teenage rebellion and youthful lust perfectly suited to the tempestuous climate of 1968. It was sexy and beautiful and sad, and it reflected a common fixation of the era: young people fighting to get their own way in a world set against them. In the marketing materials, Paramount, the film’s distributor, emphasized Olivia and Leonard’s youth and their nudity.
The film was hugely profitable for both Zeffirelli and Paramount, yielding what was then the highest ratio of investment to earnings in the studio’s history. Its success helped revive Paramount, which had been on the verge of closing after a series of flops. For Zeffirelli, who had been known mostly as a director of lavish opera productions, its popularity was transformative.
It made him rich and internationally renowned. “I had crossed over from one state into another.” Olivia and Leonard, meanwhile, each made less than $3,000.
For almost a year, they promoted the film. They were the two most famous teenagers in the world, and Olivia’s face was everywhere. She inspired a collectible doll in South Korea and was the cover girl for the Yardley cosmetics campaign (a shoot she says she was never paid for). Olivia hated the crowds and the flashing bulbs, and she resented how frugal she had to be on the road. With no budget for clothes, she would wash her dresses in hotel sinks. In a story for Seventeen magazine, she said she often felt moody — “sad and happy, depressed and then gay, all mixed up for no reason that I can think of.”
A few months after the film's premiere, she told a reporter she was broke and struggling to find work. On the shoot, she had grown ashamed of her body, which led to bouts of bulimia and more diet pills, and in the wake of the premiere, as she was stalked by paparazzi, she developed crippling agoraphobia.
She couldn’t quite seem to motivate herself anymore — to work, to leave the house, to do much of anything. She didn’t act for nearly two years after Romeo and Juliet, talking herself out of big roles in major films, including True Grit, starring John Wayne.
If someone took an interest in her, she trusted them immediately and would do whatever they asked.
She moved to L.A. at the urging of a manager who told her it would help her career. It didn’t.
She worked withIn dozens of managers, but they never seemed to have her best interests in mind. One persuaded her to sign bad contracts for his own enrichment. Some stole from her outright. In 1993, a manager named Jay Lawrence Levy was arrested after forging checks in her name and taking out a mortgage on her house. Hussey lost her life savings and was forced to sell the home. She went bankrupt not long after.
In 2018, Hussey published her memoir, a book shot through with sorrow and loss. It chronicles the long line of men who had gained her trust and betrayed her.
As she was preparing to publish the book, she’d asked Paramount for a small favor — she wanted to use an image of her face from the balcony scene for the cover. They replied that it would cost $10,000.
Hussey was in awe of Zeffirelli. “When he comes into the room and speaks, no one else says anything,” she told a journalist at the time. “No one else can compete with anything he says, his ideas are so brilliant.” Sometimes she called him “Daddy.”If he was a father figure, he wasn’t a very nurturing one. His focus on her body was relentless. Before the shoot began, she was ordered to go to a doctor who prescribed her diet pills that made her ill. By the time the cameras were rolling, Olivia weighed 100 pounds and wasn’t allowed to gain any weight.
When she told Zeffirelli she was self-conscious about her chest and wasn’t sure about wearing a low-cut dress, he gave her the nickname “Boobs O’Mina,” which he would shout into a megaphone whenever he wanted her on set. She later reasoned he had humiliated her in order to break down her defenses.
Zeffirelli waited until nearly the end of production to shoot the film’s most controversial scene.
Olivia did not realize she would be fully undressed until that morning, when the makeup man arrived and announced he was there to make her up “head to toe.”
In the end, the scene proved central to the film’s good fortune. Zeffirelli had turned Shakespeare’s complex tale of a status-obsessed mercantile society into a fever dream of teenage rebellion and youthful lust perfectly suited to the tempestuous climate of 1968. It was sexy and beautiful and sad, and it reflected a common fixation of the era: young people fighting to get their own way in a world set against them. In the marketing materials, Paramount, the film’s distributor, emphasized Olivia and Leonard’s youth and their nudity.
The film was hugely profitable for both Zeffirelli and Paramount, yielding what was then the highest ratio of investment to earnings in the studio’s history. Its success helped revive Paramount, which had been on the verge of closing after a series of flops. For Zeffirelli, who had been known mostly as a director of lavish opera productions, its popularity was transformative.
It made him rich and internationally renowned. “I had crossed over from one state into another.” Olivia and Leonard, meanwhile, each made less than $3,000.
For almost a year, they promoted the film. They were the two most famous teenagers in the world, and Olivia’s face was everywhere. She inspired a collectible doll in South Korea and was the cover girl for the Yardley cosmetics campaign (a shoot she says she was never paid for). Olivia hated the crowds and the flashing bulbs, and she resented how frugal she had to be on the road. With no budget for clothes, she would wash her dresses in hotel sinks. In a story for Seventeen magazine, she said she often felt moody — “sad and happy, depressed and then gay, all mixed up for no reason that I can think of.”
A few months after the film's premiere, she told a reporter she was broke and struggling to find work. On the shoot, she had grown ashamed of her body, which led to bouts of bulimia and more diet pills, and in the wake of the premiere, as she was stalked by paparazzi, she developed crippling agoraphobia.
She couldn’t quite seem to motivate herself anymore — to work, to leave the house, to do much of anything. She didn’t act for nearly two years after Romeo and Juliet, talking herself out of big roles in major films, including True Grit, starring John Wayne.
If someone took an interest in her, she trusted them immediately and would do whatever they asked.
She moved to L.A. at the urging of a manager who told her it would help her career. It didn’t.
She worked withIn dozens of managers, but they never seemed to have her best interests in mind. One persuaded her to sign bad contracts for his own enrichment. Some stole from her outright. In 1993, a manager named Jay Lawrence Levy was arrested after forging checks in her name and taking out a mortgage on her house. Hussey lost her life savings and was forced to sell the home. She went bankrupt not long after.
In 2018, Hussey published her memoir, a book shot through with sorrow and loss. It chronicles the long line of men who had gained her trust and betrayed her.
As she was preparing to publish the book, she’d asked Paramount for a small favor — she wanted to use an image of her face from the balcony scene for the cover. They replied that it would cost $10,000.
No doubt Hussey was manipulated and abused during the making of Romeo and Juliet, and then taken advantage of, financially, afterwards.
I just don't buy that this "mental anguish" led to "a lifetime of lost earnings and opportunities," which is what the lawsuit alleged. Too many people go through too much that they manage to get over and get on with their lives.
At 15, Hussey had already been a working stage actor for a few years.
Her parents had split up when she was 1, and she hadn’t seen her father since she was 7.
Her mother, a British secretary who worked three jobs, wasn’t around on set.
To make the film, Olivia and her co-star moved in with director Zefferelli in his villa outside Rome.
Her parents had split up when she was 1, and she hadn’t seen her father since she was 7.
Her mother, a British secretary who worked three jobs, wasn’t around on set.
To make the film, Olivia and her co-star moved in with director Zefferelli in his villa outside Rome.
