Olivia Hussey, the actress who starred as teenage Juliet in the 1968 film “Romeo and Juliet” and the early slasher film “Black Christmas,” has died at age 73.

According to a family statement posted on her Instagram account, Hussey died “peacefully at home surrounded by her loved ones” on Friday local time.

Hussey was 15 when director Franco Zeffirelli cast her in his adaptation of William Shakespeare’s tragedy after seeing her on stage in the play “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,” which also starred Vanessa Redgrave.

Romeo and Juliet won two Oscars and Hussey won a Golden Globe for Best New Actress for her role as Juliet alongside then 16-year-old British actor Leonard Whiting.

Decades later, Hussey and Whiting filed a lawsuit against Paramount Pictures for sexual abuse, sexual harassment and fraud over nude scenes in the film.

They said they were originally told they would be wearing flesh-colored underwear in a bedroom scene, but on the day of filming, Zeffirelli told the couple that they would only be wearing body makeup and that the camera would be positioned that she is not visible nudity.

They claimed they were filmed naked without their knowledge.

The case was dismissed in 2023 by a Los Angeles County judge, who found that her depiction could not be considered child pornography and that the couple filed their lawsuit too late.

Whiting was among those who paid tribute to Hussey on Saturday.

“Rest now, my beautiful Julia, no injustice can harm you now,” he wrote.

Hussey also starred in Black Christmas, widely considered one of the first films in the slasher genre.

She played Jessica, a sorority girl whose house is haunted by an anonymous murderer.

Hussey was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina on April 17, 1951 and moved to London as a child.

Her other roles included Mary, the mother of Jesus, in the 1977 television series Jesus of Nazareth, as well as the 1978 adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile and Psycho IV: The Beginning.

She is survived by her husband, David Glen Eisley, their three children and one grandchild.

AP/ABC