Olivia Hussey, known for her iconic on-screen portrayals of Mary and Mother Teresa, died Dec. 27 at age 73 at her California home, according to a statement released by her family the following day.
Friend and filmmaker Marc Huestis confirmed Hussey’s death to the San Francisco Chronicle, with Hussey’s publicist later confirming breast cancer as the cause. Hussey had been diagnosed with the disease in 2008, and had been in remission until 2018.
Born Olivia Osuna in Buenos Aires, Hussey was the daughter of Argentine opera singer Andrés Osuna and his wife, Joy Hussey, whose parents were Scottish expatriates. After Andrés Osuna left his family, Olivia Hussey moved at a young age to London with her mother and brother, and began studying drama. While performing onstage professionally, Hussey caught the eye of director Franco Zeffirelli, who cast her at age 15 in his film adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”– a role that rocketed her to international fame.
Over a decade later, Zeffirelli cast her as Mary in his critically acclaimed 1977 television miniseries “Jesus of Nazareth.” Hussey, who was 27 at the time, recounted in a 2016 interview with St. Anthony Messenger that the part was exceptionally demanding, as she had to spend eight months away from her young son Alexander during filming in Morocco and Tunisia.
“It was very hard on me, but Morocco and Tunisia were not places to take a 3-year-old boy, especially when I had to work 14 hours a day,” she said in that interview.
She also said the experience of portraying Mary was deeply moving.
“I remember the crucifixion scene in particular. I had always thought it was going to be moving but I didn’t realize it was going to have the effect it had on me,” she said. “It was a very profound experience; it was almost too much for me to bear. I can’t imagine how Jesus could have died for our sins on the cross that way.”
Hussey realized a cherished dream by portraying St. Teresa of Kolkata in Fabrizio Costa’s 2003 television film “Mother Teresa,” a role she had sought for 20 years, and for which she won a 2007 Character and Morality in Entertainment Award, an honor bestowed by a nonprofit of the same name between 2001 and 2010.
Hussey prepared for the part through intense study and prayer.
“I did pray every single day on that set,” Hussey told St. Anthony Messenger, noting that amid the “very difficult conditions” under which the movie was made, she drew on the example of Mother Teresa’s response to hardships and challenges. Hussey attended the 2003 beatification of Mother Teresa, seated next to Agi Bojaxhiu, the niece of the future saint. Mother Teresa was canonized in 2016.
“I started to cry and buried my head in my hands,” Hussey said. “It was the dream of a lifetime.”
Following the beatification, Hussey met personally with St. John Paul II. The pontiff had frequently cited “Jesus of Nazareth” as his favorite film.
“He’s an incredible man,” recalled Hussey. “I truly love the pope.”
The experience compensated for a previously missed opportunity to meet the pope. In 1988, Hussey had played Therese in Michael Anderson’s 1988 film version of “The Jeweller’s Shop,” a play written by Karol Wojtyla, the future St. John Paul. Hussey told St. Anthony Messenger she had been unable to attend the Vatican screening, since she had only received 24 hours’ notice and couldn’t arrange child care in time.
Hussey, who is survived by her fourth husband, musician David Eisley, and her three children, also undertook roles in mystery and horror films, notably the 1978 production of Agatha Christie’s “Death on the Nile.”
Though not formally naming herself in media interviews as a practicing Catholic, Hussey — whose mother was a devout Catholic — pointed to faith and prayer as constants in her life.
“I’m in God’s hands, really,” she told St. Anthony Messenger. “Every day I say, ‘Thy will be done, God. Whatever is my destiny, whatever’s meant to be.’ My friends come to my house and say, ‘Your house looks like a church!’ I just love spiritual things. So I give my life to God every day. I try to love God above everything and the rest will unfold.”
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