Career
Assuming her mother's maiden name as her stage name, Hussey appeared on the London stage as Jenny in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, opposite Vanessa Redgrave. It was during the run of this play that Italian film director Franco Zeffirelli first spotted her because of her beauty and theatrical skill. Chosen out of 500 actresses, she appeared in her first starring role, as Juliet in Zeffirelli's 1968 film version of Romeo and Juliet, opposite Leonard Whiting's Romeo. In 1969 she won a special David di Donatello award and the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year - Actress.
Hussey has appeared in over 40 films. She played the leading role of Jessica Bradford in the 1974 Canadian horror film, Black Christmas. The film became very influential as a forerunner of the slasher film genre of horror films. She played Mary, the mother of Jesus in the 1977 TV 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.
She also starred as Marit in the Japanese film Virus, and played Rebecca of York in the 1982 TV remake of Ivanhoe.
In 1990 Hussey played Norma Bates, the mother of Norman Bates in Psycho IV: The Beginning, a TV prequel to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. In 2003 Hussey played the lead in a film adaptation on the life of Mother Teresa, for which she was presented with a CAMIE award (for Character & Morality in Entertainment) on 12 May 2007 in Hollywood.
Read more about this topic: Olivia Hussey
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“I’ve been in the twilight of my career longer than most people have had their career.”
—Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)
“Work-family conflicts—the trade-offs of your money or your life, your job or your child—would not be forced upon women with such sanguine disregard if men experienced the same career stalls caused by the-buck-stops-here responsibility for children.”
—Letty Cottin Pogrebin (20th century)
“My ambition in life: to become successful enough to resume my career as a neurasthenic.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)