The “Romeo and Juliet” actress died at the age of 73

Actress Olivia Hussey, who rose to international fame as a teenager for her role in the acclaimed 1968 film version of Romeo and Juliet, has died aged 73.

The Argentinian-born actress, who grew up in London, died on Friday surrounded by her loved ones, according to a statement posted on her Instagram.

Hussey won a Golden Globe for Best New Actress for her portrayal of Juliet, but decades later she sued Paramount Pictures for sexual assault because she was only 15 years old when she filmed a nude scene in the film.

Her other most notable screen role was as Mary, the mother of Jesus, in the 1977 television series Jesus of Nazareth.

“While grieving this tremendous loss, we also celebrate Olivia’s lasting impact on our lives and industry,” the statement said.

Hussey was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1951, before moving to London at the age of seven to study at the Italia Conti Academy drama school.

She was 15 when Romeo and Juliet director Franco Zeffirelli discovered her on stage, starring opposite Vanessa Redgrave in The Bloom of Miss Joan Brodie.

Zeffirelli was looking for someone young enough to be a convincing Juliet in what he wanted to be the definitive film version of Shakespeare’s play.

He cast Hussey alongside 16-year-old Briton Leonard Whiting as Romeo in the film.

The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture and Best Director. Hussey herself didn’t receive an Oscar nomination in a strong year that saw Barbra Streisand win the top prize for Funny Girl.

But Hussey won Best New Star at that year’s Golden Globes.

Decades later, she and Whiting sued Paramount Pictures, claiming that Zeffirelli, who died in 2019, encouraged them to shoot nude scenes despite previous assurances that they would not have to.

The couple sought more than $500m (£417m) in damages based on the suffering they said they had endured and the profits the film had made since its release.

But last year a the judge dismissed the casefinding that the scene was not “sexy enough”.

Hussey reunited with Zeffirelli for Jesus of Nazareth in 1977 to play the Virgin Mary, before appearing a year later in Death on the Nile, based on Agatha Christie’s novel.

Her roles in the early slasher Black Christmas (1974) and the TV movie Psycho IV: The Beginning earned her recognition as a scream queen. In the latter, she played Norman Bates’ mother in the prequel storyline.

In later years, she also took up work as a voice actress, often appearing in video games.

But she had one last reunion with her Romeo ex – when she and Whiting appeared together in the 2015 British film Social Suicide, which was based on Romeo and Juliet, albeit in the age of social media.