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Olivia Hussey, Romeo and Juliet, UK-Italy, 1967. The first version where the stars were close to the ages of Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers. Leonard Whiting and Olivia were 17 and 15. At MGM, circa 1935, Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer were, ridiculously, 43 and 35! Italian director Franco Zeffirelli saw 500 hopeful Juliets, including Hollywood’s Kim Darby, Anjelica Huston and Bernadette Peters and the UK’s Jenny Agutter, Angela Cartwright, Sarah Douglas, Pamela Franklin, Susan George, singer Lulu (Phil Collins and Paul McCartney had been seen for Romeo!), Jane Seymour, Madeline Smith, Sally Thomsett and the model Twiggy. He then fell (literally) for the Argentine-born Hussey: “the unrequited love of my life.” Zeffirelli had to obtain permission for the scene as Olivia was 15. “But in Europe a lot of the films had nudity,” she said. “It wasn’t that big a deal. Leonard wasn’t shy at all! and I just completely forgot I didn’t have clothes on.” And yet, (a) she found herself legally banned from seeing her own nudity in the London premiere as she was under 18 and (b) by 2023, Hussey and Whiting (in their 70s) were suing Paramount for having their “child abuse” nude scenes and causing them suffering throuighout their lives!!! . Olivia grew up to join the Stars Wars, play the mothers of Jesus and Norman Bates and the life of Mother Teresa.
- Helen Mirren, Age of Consent, 1969. Too much nudity required in this Australian film with James Mason for the kid actress just turning 17. Even Mirren thought she’d be body stockinged for the first of her career’s naked scenes. “The only thing you can do wrong when you’re stripped is to look awful… I tried to be cool.” Just as Jenny did for Walkabout, 1971 – also in Australia.
- Candace Glendenning, Nicholas and Alexandra, 1970. Jenny, The Girl from Nic Roeg’s 1969 marvel, Walkabout, plus Hollywood’s Logan’s Run and now, of course, the ceaseless Call the Midwife, 2012-2022, was among the seven young Brits – Glendenning, Janina Faye, Pamela Franklin, Olivia Hussey, Lord Bangor’s daughter Lalla Ward – auditioning as the third daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia: the Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna. The entire royal family was assassinated in 1918. (Hussey had been chosen by Zeffirelli over Agutter, Franklin and Ward for his 1967 Juliet),
- Pamela Hensleey, The Nude Bomb, 1979. But how could they make a film version of the spy send-up series by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry… without the ravishing 99: Barbara Feldon? Hensley as Agent 36, Andrea Howard, Agent 22 and SAylvia Kristel, Agent 34, did not add up to 99. Feldon was persuaded back for the TV sequel, Get Smart Again!, 1988. Which is why it was better. She always denied she was first called Agent 69 – sorry about that, Chief. “It was Agent 100, because she was 100%.”
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 4