I was so sad to hear of the death this week of the actress Olivia Hussey. She was 73; although this is difficult for me to imagine, as she is immortalised as Shakespeare’s Juliet – a role she played at just 16 years of age.
I watched Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 film version of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ one afternoon in Secondary School. I remember the class, sceptical at first, falling silent, absorbed with what is still, in my opinion, the best film version of Shakespeare’s tragedy.
Although she appeared in other films, she knew she would be remembered for just one – she even called her autobiography ‘The Girl on the Balcony’. Perhaps it is the price you pay for inhabiting a role so completely, for giving such an iconic performance so young.
Wide-eyed and luminous – she will forever be Juliet.
