Olivia Hussey facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Olivia Hussey
Hussey at the 2008 Cinema City Film Festival
Born	Olivia Osuna (1951-04-17) 17 April 1951 (age 73) Buenos Aires, Argentina
Nationality	British, Argentine
Alma mater	Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1964–present
Spouse(s)	Dean Paul Martin ​ ​ (m. 1971; div. 1978)​ Akira Fuse ​ ​ (m. 1980; div. 1989)​ David Glen Eisley ​ ​ (m. 1991)​
Children	3, including India Eisley
Signature

Olivia Hussey (born Olivia Osuna; 17 April 1951) is a British-Argentine actress. Her awards include a Golden Globe Award and a David di Donatello Award. The daughter of Argentine opera singer Andrés Osuna, Hussey was born in Buenos Aires but spent most of her early life in her mother's native England. She aspired to become an actress at a young age and studied drama for five years at Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London.

Hussey began acting professionally as an adolescent. She appeared in a 1966 London production of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, opposite Vanessa Redgrave; this led to her being scouted for the role of Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 film adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. Hussey received widespread acclaim and international recognition for her performance. In 1974, she appeared as the lead character Jess Bradford in the cult slasher film Black Christmas. This and her roles in the horror productions Psycho IV: The Beginning and Stephen King's It (both 1990) earned her the label of scream queen.

Hussey reunited with Zeffirelli in the miniseries Jesus of Nazareth (1977) as Mary and appeared in John Guillermin's Agatha Christie adaptation Death on the Nile (1978). She appeared in several international productions throughout the 1980s, including the Japanese production Virus (1980) and the Australian dystopian action film Turkey Shoot (1982). She also has worked as a voice actress, providing voice roles in Star Wars video games including Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (1998), Star Wars: Force Commander (2000), and Star Wars: The Old Republic (2011).

Early life

Hussey was born Olivia Osuna on 17 April 1951 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the first child of Argentine opera singer Andrés Osuna (stage name Osvaldo Ribó), and Joy Hussey, a legal secretary from England. Her parents were Roman Catholics, and she was raised in that denomination. Hussey recalled. "I grew up with a mini-altar at home that she had; a candle was always alight on it. She always had a great love for God, and she instilled that in me." When Hussey was two years old, her parents separated but never divorced.

Hussey was fascinated by acting from a young age, and as a child, would dress up as a nun. At age seven, she moved with her mother and younger brother to London. There, Hussey was accepted into the Italia Conti Academy drama school, which she attended for five years, taking modeling and walk-on parts to help pay her fees. At 13, she began acting professionally on stage, assuming her mother's maiden name as her stage name. In 1964, she appeared in an episode of the television series Drama, followed by minor roles in two films the following year: The Battle of the Villa Fiorita and Cup Fever.

Career

Breakthrough with Romeo and Juliet

Hussey in 1968

Hussey appeared in a West End production of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, playing Jenny opposite Vanessa Redgrave. Italian film director Franco Zeffirelli noticed her performance because "she was the only choice mature enough with experience and natural beauty to play Juliet while still looking 14." She was chosen out of 500 actresses to star in Zeffirelli's film, opposite 16-year-old Leonard Whiting's Romeo. Her performance won her a special David di Donatello Award and the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year - Actress in 1969.

After the success of Romeo and Juliet, Hollywood producer Hal B. Wallis offered her the title role in Anne of the Thousand Days (1969) and the co-starring role with John Wayne in True Grit (1969). In her 2018 memoir, Hussey recalled that she had "mumbled something about being interested in Anne of the Thousand Days" but that she "couldn't see herself with Wayne", concluding that this "adolescent and opinionated" remark ended her professional relationship with Wallis, who immediately withdrew his offer.

Subsequent screen roles and voice work

Hussey in 1979

In 1971, she appeared in the British drama All the Right Noises, followed by The Summertime Killer (1972), and the musical Lost Horizon. In 1974, she played the lead role of Jess Bradford in the Canadian horror film Black Christmas (1974), which became influential as a forerunner of the slasher film genre of horror films. She played Mary, the mother of Jesus, in the 1977 television production of Jesus of Nazareth (her second work for director Zeffirelli). In 1978, she played Rosalie Otterbourne in Death on the Nile with Peter Ustinov, and appeared in The Cat and the Canary (1979). She also starred as Marit in the Japanese film Virus (1980), and played Rebecca of York in the 1982 remake of Ivanhoe (1982); the same year, she had a lead role in the Australian horror film Turkey Shoot (1982).

In 1987, Hussey, along with several well-known actors, made a cameo appearance in a clip for the Michael Jackson video Liberian Girl. In 1990, Hussey played Norma Bates, the mother of Norman Bates, in Psycho IV: The Beginning, a prequel to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), and appeared in the miniseries It, an adaptation of the Stephen King novel.

Hussey played the lead in Mother Teresa of Calcutta (2003), a biographical film about Mother Teresa, for which she was presented with a Character & Morality in Entertainment Award on 12 May 2007 in Hollywood. She stated in an interview that it had been her dream to portray the role of Mother Teresa of Calcutta ever since she finished her role as the Virgin Mary in Jesus of Nazareth. ..... In the project, Hussey's daughter, actress India Eisley, played their fictional daughter, Julia Coulson.

Hussey has also worked as a voice actress, 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 the DC Animated Universe as Talia al Ghul. She voiced the character of Kasan Moor in the PC/Nintendo 64 game, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (1998) and was also in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game Star Wars: The Old Republic (2011) as Jedi Master Yuon Par. She also lent her voice to Star Wars: Force Commander in 2000.

Hussey was slated to reprise her role as Jess Bradford in the Black Christmas fan film It's Me, Billy: Chapter 2, but withdrew from the project due to health reasons.

Personal life

Hussey has agoraphobia, which was aggravated by the fame she achieved after Romeo and Juliet.

She briefly dated Leonard Whiting during 1968. They have remained friends ever since, reportedly communicating "at least once every 10 days."

Hussey also dated actor Christopher Jones in 1968 but ended the relationship due to him being abusive towards her. .....

In 1971, Hussey married Dean Paul Martin, the son of Dean Martin. They had one son, writer and actor Alexander Gunther Martin (born 1973). They divorced in 1978 but remained friends. Martin died in 1987 when the National Guard F-4 Phantom jet fighter he was piloting crashed.

From 1980 until their 1989 divorce, Hussey was married to Japanese singer Akira Fuse. They had one son, Maximillian Hussey Fuse (born 1983).

In 1991, she married American musician David Glen Eisley, the son of actor Anthony Eisley. They have one daughter, actress India Eisley (born 1993).

Hussey was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008, and underwent a double mastectomy. After being in remission for nearly a decade, the breast cancer returned in 2018, with Hussey undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatment to remove a small tumour growing between her heart and lungs.

Hussey's memoir, The Girl on the Balcony: Olivia Hussey Finds Life After Romeo and Juliet, was published on 31 July 2018.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Stage

See also

In Spanish: Olivia Hussey para niños