Romeo and Juliet

Olivia Hussey, captivating star of Romeo and Juliet, dies aged 73

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Actor shot to fame after being cast in Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 film adaptation of Shakespeare’s play when she was just 15

By Roisin O’Connor

Olivia Hussey, who mesmerised audiences as the female lead in Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, has died aged 73.

The news was shared from her official Instagram account in a statement that said the Argentina-born star died “at home, surrounded by her loved ones”.

 

Hussey was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008 and underwent a double mastectomy. The illness returned in 2017 and she underwent treatment to remove a small tumour growing between her heart and lungs.

“Olivia was a remarkable person whose warmth, wisdom and pure kindness touched the lives of all who knew her,” her family’s statement said.

It continued: “Olivia lived a life full of passion, love, and dedication to the arts, spirituality, and kindness towards animals.”

Source: Olivia Hussey, captivating star of Romeo and Juliet, dies aged 73 | The Independent

• Read MORE STORIES ON OLIVIA HUSSEY on The Hobbledehoy

‘I couldn’t afford loo roll’: Bruce Robinson on being skint, Zeffirelli’s advances and Withnail’s return

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The director reveals why he finally came round to doing a play based on the cult film that made his name

By Robert Gore-Langton

Bruce Robinson is ramming a huge log into the grate of his ancient fireplace in mud-clogged Herefordshire. He’s 77 and the film for which he is famous, Withnail and I, is about to open as a play. Isn’t it curious it hasn’t happened before, given that the comedy is about two thirsty, unemployed actors and is a sort of love-hate letter to the theatre?

‘I was living on 30 bob a week – I could either afford fish and chips or ten gold leaf’

 

‘I wasn’t fond of the idea of staging it,’ says Robinson, who wrote and directed the 1987 film based on his own boozy life as an actor in the 1960s. ‘I’d done it, you know; it’s decades ago and it’s over. There was a time when Withnail was stuck to me like a colostomy bag. I just wanted to move on. But a while back, a lovely geezer called George Ward wanted to buy the stage rights. He is a very generous man and coughed up a good chunk of dough. So I’ve written the script but I am not the director. I’ve deliberately stayed away from rehearsals. I’d only bring a ball and chain as I would be looking to do what I did before.’

The show is being directed at the Birmingham Rep by Sean Foley, a seasoned comedy director who recently turned the Ealing classic The Man in the White Suit into a stage show. Two young actors play the leads. Robert Sheehan is Withnail, Adonis Siddique is ‘I’ (based on Robinson himself) with stage veteran Malcolm Sinclair playing Monty, Withnail’s fruity, lecherous, Old Harrovian uncle. It’s not a musical but there’s a live band to replicate the film’s soundtrack, which was notable for its doses of Jimi Hendrix. The film is set in 1969 and yet it remains oddly timeless. It made the names of Richard E. Grant (as Withnail) and Paul McGann (as ‘I’) as the two reprobates.

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