Olivia Hussey (born April 17, 1951) is an actress best known for her Golden Globe-winning role as Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 film version of Romeo and Juliet.

Biography

Olivia Hussey was born Olivia Osuna in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the daughter of Joy Alma Hussey, an English legal secretary, and Andreas Osuna (aka Isvaldo Ribo), an Argentine opera and tango singer who divorced when she was two.

Raised as a Catholic, when she was seven years old, Olivia and her younger brother went with their mother to live in London, England, where she attended the Italia Conti Academy drama school for five years.

Olivia Hussey as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, 1968Assuming her mother's maiden name as her stage name, Olivia appeared on the London stage as Jenny in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie opposite Vanessa Redgrave. It was during the run of this play that Italian film director Franco Zeffirelli first spotted her. Chosen out of 500 actresses, she appeared in her first starring (and star making) role, as Juliet in Zeffirelli's 1968 film version of Romeo and Juliet opposite Leonard Whiting's Romeo. In 1969, she won a David di Donatello award for Best Actress. Olivia did a brief nude scene in the film, notable for the fact that she was only fifteen years of age when filming occurred. Olivia was, in fact, unable to attend the premiere of the film as she was deemed too young to watch it due to censorship laws at that time.

Olivia has appeared in over 40 films. Notable roles include Jessica Bradford in the 1974 Canadian horror movie Black Christmas, Mary, the mother of Jesus in the 1977 Zeffirelli TV production of Jesus of Nazareth, and as Rosalie Otterbourne in Death on the Nile (1978) with Peter Ustinov. One of her other memorable performances was as "Rebecca of York" in the 1982 TV remake of Ivanhoe. In 2003, Olivia played the lead in a film adaptation on the life of Mother Teresa, for which she was presented with a CAMIE award (for Character & Morality in Entertainment) on May 12, 2007 in Hollywood.

Olivia is known for her natural beauty, reportedly wearing little or no makeup in her roles.

Olivia has also been lauded by many for her unique voice. Her current husband suggested she try out for voice work in animation. She has a handful of notable credits and was nominated for "Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Female Performer in an Animated Television Production" at the Annie Awards for her work in Batman Beyond. She has also lent her voice to video games such as

Olivia was married first to actor Dean Paul Martin (son of the famous Rat Pack singer/actor, Dean Martin) in 1971 (he reportedly fell in love with her after seeing Romeo and Juliet, and sought her out). They had a son, Alexander Dean Martin (later an actor), in 1973, before divorcing in 1978. Dean Paul Martin met an untimely death in 1987 when his National Guard F-4 Phantom fighter jet crashed in California's San Bernardino Mountains during a snowstorm. Fourteen-year-old Alexander had watched his father take off on the ill-fated flight.

In 1980 Olivia married Japanese musician Akira Fuse, and had one son, Max (born 1983). Divorced from Fuse in 1989, she married American musician David Glen Eisley in 1991. In October 1993, she gave birth to a daughter, India Eisley, now an actress who plays a series regular on the ABC Family teen drama The Secret Life of the American Teenager.

Olivia Hussey has suffered from agoraphobia, which she decided to treat with meditation rather than medication. Olivia Hussey has also suffered from anorexia.

This Olivia Hussey Biography Page is Copyright © 2004 - 2009 Chuck Ayoub