Olivia Hussey's new tell all autobiography

Thanks, OP. I will definitely read this for dish on R&J and Leonard Whiting.

Liza was married to Peter Sellers?!

There's not a thing about, from or by Sellers in the current auction of her estate. But now I wish I had the cash to spend on a scrapbook of hers to see if there are any clues!

[quote]claims buddy Liza Minnelli and Peter Sellers were legally married

And yet, that's not the strangest person to marry Liza Minnelli.

I was reading about how the rape happened in the house on Cielo Drive where Sharon Tate and all the others were murdered by the Manson Family. Apparently Olivia's manager owned the house (which Sharon and Roman were renting), and there were plans for Olivia to move into the guest house and help take care of the baby. She even talked to Sharon on the phone who said she couldn't wait to meet her. But then the murders happened and she and her boyfriend moved into the main house. I thought that was interesting.

Sharon Tate went to my elementary school in Pasadena, Texas.

Olivia was in that awesome Black Christmas!

A beautiful and talented actress with an interesting career (always thought it was cool that she was one of the original girls in the London stage cast of “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” with Vanessa Redgrave) and life. I look forward to reading her book!

The son is ok but the father is better. Here are Mom and Dad in glorious youth.

Dean Paul Martin (on the left) in Misfits of Science. And yes, that's Courtney Cox.

Another Misfits group shot. Dean Paul is above.

I never miss an Olivia Hussey musical.

Does she talk about Zeffirelli continually trying to bed Bruce Robinson?

Olivia with Dean Paul Martin.

R12 - Wow! Dean was absolute perfection. The hair of the era really suited him.

And now the bod

^Players was a silly movie.

So Peter Sellers was gay?

Olivia needs to update her hair.

That hussy!

Did Olivia mention that she drove Bette Davis mad, by loudly playing Indian music records at 6am? This was during the filming of “Death on the Nile”. Miss Davis asked her to stop playing those records. Olivia stopped speaking to her or acknowledged her presence afterwards. Olivia was such a bitch, she could have stopped playing that music. Also, she should have shown Miss Davis some respect.

I had the better career.

R10, Olivia claims in the book she beat out Natalie Wood for the "Lost Horizon" role.

"So Peter Sellers was gay?"

No. He was totally crazy, but not gay. I tend to believe that he and Liza Minnelli got married and then got it annulled. They were both nutty as fruitcakes.

Olivia also gave birth to this. Father is David Glen Eisley

Why did I think Leonard Whiting was gay??

R21 Well, Wood was super lucky she lost out on that role in one of the biggest turkeys of the 70s. Hussey had a lousy agent or crappy taste in scripts, hence the lacklustre career. Can she write? Is the book worth reading?

I got ya number, Hussey.

I've had ya pussy, Hussey

I thought Olivia Hussey was the most beautiful teenage girl I"d ever seen. And in 'Romeo and Juliet" she looked like she was wearing no makeup at all. No makeup and she looked gorgeous. I contrast her with Brooke Shields, whose beauty in my opinion has been way overpraised. I thought she always looked like a painted up little tart. And her great vaunted beauty peaked early and went downhill fast. She started looking like a tranny in her twenties.

R19 Hush hush with the loud music, Hussey. You're disturbing my cherished friend and co-star.

I can recall the uproar in the media when "Romeo and Juliet" premiered in London with the Queen attending. It was thought inappropriate for her to view a film with nudity.

She looked so unhappy in her wedding photos with Dino. Didn’t this golden boy basically stalk her after seeing R&J? She sounds easily taken advantage of.

What in the hell did Dean Martin, Jr., see in her?????

R32, Umm, her stunning beauty?

After Olivia, Dino married Dorothy Hamill, a somewhat similar type.

And then he flew his plane into a mountainside and went kaput. Just sayin'

Olivia ran circles around Dean looks wise. She could have had anyone.

Her daughter @ R23 looks like one of those creepy "big eyes" paintings.

Oh Alex, looks fade

r15, Players was indeed a silly movie, but oh Dean Paul Martin was gorgeous in it.

R39, Was it as silly as another Ali cinema classic, "Convoy"?

Very sad that, outside of DL, the whole world has basically forgotten Hussey

I didn't see "Convoy," R39, but I was so disappointed in "Players" because, not only was Dean Paul Martin so handsome and sexy, he was also an accomplished, ranked tennis player. So the film could have been so much better without Ali MacGraw and with an interesting script about the intensity of competition and the grueling life on the tennis tour, and Martin could have credibly handled all the action shots.

^^oops, I meant r40.

Agreed, R33, Olivia Hussey has always been a true beauty.

I haven't heard anything about Olivia Hussey in years and I don't think I've ever seen any of her movies.

I guess this book is her way of keeping her name before the public eye.

Of all people, she played Mother Teresa in a TV movie.

She's 67 now.

She and Leonard Whiting are perhaps two of the most beautiful actors to make a movie together.

I know times were different then but as glorious as her tits were I thought it was gratuitous nudity and a 15 year old actor shouldn't have been put in that situation. Leonard Whiting's ass was pure perfection. He was 18.

R47 Leonard Whiting's ass in Romeo And Juliet.

Beautiful, sleepy Romeo.

I really like her, the book was pretty interesting.

Leonard always struck me as gay but has been married twice and has a daughter.

He's too pretty to be straight.

I'm not exactly a DL regular, but Hussey and everyone related to "R&J" hold a very special place in my heart. That movie turned me on to Shakespeare at age 14. Though the man I fell for was John McEnery, who played Mercutio. You gays wouldn't understand.

R19, Bette's Olivia was much the better of the two Os!

The most magical Olivia of all.

I totally understand, R 53, I fell for Mecutio too. I cried more at his death than when Romeo and Juliet carked it.

Was just reading about McEnery. He was married to Stephanie Beacham and was a brilliant, irresponsible, adulterous wild man. His older brother Peter was hot AF.

Why did Christopher Jones beat Hussey?

He looked good though.

He looked like an edgier version of Alain Delon...

Olivia Hussey on Twitter: "With actor Christopher Jones 😀 Strange memory 😬"

So she claims he roughed her up, raped her & impregnated her ... but then puts a smiley face next to his name in 2015?

[quote]Why did I think Leonard Whiting was gay??

Because you were blinded by his beautiful ass:

David Lean must have had his hands full directing "Ryan's Daughter", with crazy Christopher Jones and crazy Sarah Miles.

[quote]Leonard Whiting's ass was pure perfection. He was 18.

Leonard was actually only 17 when the movie was filmed.

^^One person asked her on Twitter, responding to the caption about Jones: "Why is it strange?".

Hussey (teasingly!) says: "I'm writing about it in my book 😉".

Seriously, a wink emoji? About a person who she alleges beat & raped her?

Sounds like she's promoting this rape / impregnation story (whether true or not) just to sell her book. And she wouldn't tell anyone before the book hit the shelves! What a tease & talented salesperson *smiley wink Emoji*!

It's not a secret that Leonard & Olivia dated for a while.

They didn't hide it:

Dean Paul ate at Hamburger Hamlet on Sunset, as did the entire family- at least once a week. He was beyond handsome. Too bad Alexander turned to drugs, cause he was a cutie at 18.

R65, But she claims in the book they never had sex.

Of course, Livvie prefers cut.

The nose looks a little "beaky"

R57, "brilliant, irresponsible, adulterous wild man" is exactly how his Mercutio comes across. Thank you for that.

Good interview with Olivia & Leonard at the time they shot the film.

Olivia was 15 and Leonard was 17.

They are asked about the nude scene, about their future plans, etc.

Is Olivia part Asian?

R71. They are adorable. Poised and articulate.

Yes, R73.

It makes a nice change from today's teenagers.

They actually sound intelligent & articulate.

This was before the days when teenagers spent all day playing with their phones & posting selfies on Instagram.

Wow, 15 and 17. Teenage actors were so much more mature back then. Who'd be their equivalent today? The last poised and articulate teenage actors I can think of are Jodie Foster and perhaps a young Di Caprio in some interviews.

Btw, had to laugh at 15-y.o. Hussey holding a glass of juice (non-alcoholic beverage probably for her age) but openly smoking a cig during the interview. That was 1967, before the bad effects of smoking became well-known to the public.

Interesting. I just looked up Leonard Whiting on IMDB and he had HUGE gaps in his career. The last project he did was n 1975 and then he turned up in a TV series from 1990 -95, and then nothing until 2015. Was that because he was doing theater?

She looks like Ariana Grande in that YouTube interview.

R76 wasn't there a story about Zeffirelli sabotaging Whiting's film career because he wouldn't fuck him?

Did Whiting say anything during the recent Johnathon Schaech vs. Zeffirelli scandal?

R57, I was in a relationship with a British actor who knew the McEnery brothers back in the day. Peter was mocked as “Peter Machinery” because of his lack of acting skill. He was still hot as hell, though, and had an OK career.

Leonard had two daughters, r51. He had Sarah, who died in 2014, with his first wife, model Cathee Dahmen. He had the other daughter, theatre director Charlotte Westenra, with Valerie Tobin. They weren't married.

Olivia's not part Asian, r72, but she was born Olivia Osuna in Buenos Aires, and her father is Argentinian.

With age and plastic surgery she's starting to look like Helen Gurley Brown.

The best Juliet ever was clearly Marcia Brady.

My homeo!

In the book she said the studio was on her constantly to lose weight during R&J

She said she wasn't overweight but the corsets pushed her breasts up so much they made her look boxy.

IMO the most beautiful pairings in movies are Leonard/Olivia in R&J and Taylor & Clift in A Place in the Sun.

Just stunning perfection.

New interview with Leonard & Olivia:

Dear God! The ravages of time.

Whiting lost his looks within ten years of shooting R&J, though.

I used to see Olivia around town. She was married to an Asian guy.

Which elementary school was that, R5? I had no idea that Sharon Tate had ever lived in Pasadena.

Olivia has had a huge influence in Asian countries in terms of her looks and presentation. She was briefly married to Japanese pop superstar Akira Fuse and they had a son. I'm not sure but I think they were both involved with the same religious organization. Their son fell in their pool and nearly drowned but the 911 operator gave her the instructions and he began breathing again.

She was not only beautiful but pretty scary in the Psycho prequel.

She had the cutest laugh in R & J.

Interesting old interview with Olvia.

My favorite photo of Leonard Whiting.

To me she will always and only be Audra from "It"

R60, Someone on Twitter recently called him a monster and Olivia replied "he wasn't a monster, he just needed help." So despite what he did, she actually doesn't hate him. I don't think there is any room for hatred or negativity in her life. She is always posting about being grateful for every moment and is a deeply spiritual person.

R9, that doesn't negate the fact that she's using the rape accusation to PR and shill her new book for $$$. She may be "deeply spiritual", but she's also clearly a financially opportunist.

Also what do you mean "despite what he did" - it's an allegation, not a fact. Or has it been independently corroborated by others or the police?

Conveniently for Hussey, Christopher Jones is dead (as of recent - 2014). So he obviously can't comment on or refute her *winky smile emoji* allegations.

*financial opportunist

Agree and well said R98. Rape sells.

^R97, not R9

R98, Here is an blog post from 2011 which includes an interview with Christopher Jones. so it isn't the first time she has talked about this. She has mentioned it in private, at least:

[quote]"I knocked up Olivia Hussey, ("Romeo and Juliet") and she made me pay for the abortion. I have the canceled check to prove it," he told me. I recently saw Olivia and asked her about this and she said it was true, but that he had forced himself on her. She was only nineteen years old. She said the doctor advised her to get an abortion because Chris is schizophrenic and that it is hereditary. (That explained a lot of things to me too). She said he also has a brother with the same disease.

R102, where did she say earlier that he "beat her" up then? And so she's willing to mention being "forced upon" specifically to Bill Dakota, author of the "GOSSIP COLUMNIST", a salacious gossip book (where your excerpt comes from). But when it comes to a public statement - she teases her fans and publicly cajoles them into buying her $$$ book first to find out about it.

Btw, Bill Dakota seems to have used 'scandalous' hooks himself to get people to buy his gossip book. Apparently, he PRed that he'll spill 'secrets' and 'out' many bisexual celebs in the book - people eagerly bought it, but it seems it was just an empty, deceptive ploy to shill the book and get $$$ from readers:

[quote] Amazon: "This book is a major disappointment. About a year ago, I came across an internet link that led me to a promo for this book. The main attraction was a supposed list of 150 Bi-Sexual Male Stars, which caught my immediate attention. Many of the names on the list were movie/TV stars from my childhood in the 60's and 70's. Some of the names were the usual subjects of gay or bi-sexual rumors i.e. Rock Hudson, Sal Mineo, James Dean. Many of the names on the list were complete surprises to me and really peaked my curiosity for more details (that was the hook). I ordered this book thinking I would get some juicy details. Instead, the majority of this book is an autobiography of the author's childhood and young adulthood, growing up in Michigan. It follows him in his travels, including time spent in Hollywood. He claims to have met several notable actors while in Hollywood and had some sort of a relationship with them. Most of what he writes is very vague and does nothing to confirm anything about their sexuality."

R103, I didn't know or, frankly, care about the man whose blog it is. My point was just that it wasn't the first time she has spoken in regards to Christopher Jones displaying this kind of behavior, so it wasn't made up just for the book.

It is just one passage out of the book. The entire thing isn't about that one event but her entire life and career as a whole. The rape just happens to be the passage the press latched onto the most. "I Was Raped In The Manson Murder House" makes for a good, juicy headline. People involved in crimes write books about them all the time. Nothing wrong with creating a little good out of a bad situation. I haven't seen Olivia herself try to use that situation to try and sell books outside of that one tweet to a random stranger.

R103 " ' Many of the names...peaked my curiosity.'"

That is, they gave him a hardon.

[quote]r103 where did she say earlier that he "beat her" up then?

I know Susan Strasberg wrote about Jones beating HER throughout their marriage (plus his being crazy) in her autobiography [italic]Bittersweet [/italic) (1980)

It sounds like par for the course for him.

R104, but apparently now is the first time Hussey herself claims she was beaten up by him, per OP? Right in time for her book's release.

The point about the author Bill Dakota was that it seems the only time Hussey mentioned the alleged incident, it was specifically to this notorious Hollywood gossiper. For what purpose did she tell him that? Probably for his low-brow gossip book, because he included it.

Her tweet is a public tweet, visible to everyone who's following her - her main fanbase. Her coy wink-wink nudge-nudge Tweet is definitely PR for the book.

And when did she start writing the book - right after Jones conveniently died recently?

What is the title?

“Confessions of a Hussey” seems like the obvious choice.

Interesting interview indeed at R94 — thank you for sharing! Laughed out loud when Hussey said she was coming out with a line of caftans — was she courting DLers, or what?!

Say what you will, she could rock a caftan.

R86, Just about to post the same pairings. GMTA!

Brooke and Martin were pretty fab together, as well

Leonard Whiting shirtless during filming of R&J:

No, they weren’t, R114, they were awful. Brooke had the sexuality of a slug. Shirley Knight, who played the mother, said in interviews after the movie came out that Brooke was completely in over her head and just giggled in every scene.

Shirley Knight was mad her own daughter, actress Kaitlin Hopkins, didn't get the role. So - -

R107, According to Wikipedia Christopher Jones has seven children, and to my knowledge not one of them has publicly said anything against Olivia for her claims. If his own children aren't coming to his defense for such serious accusations then to me that says something. Surely they have heard about it by now.

And we don't know it was the only time she said anything. For all we know, she could've told many close friends, family members, or any fan who was curious enough to ask. It was just this particular man that decided to run his mouth off about it. We don't hear her private conversations.

Anyways, so what if she is exploiting her own tragedy to sell books? She certainly wouldn't be the first. Far from it. There are a hundred million books about real life murders. If she is using a scandal to sell more copies then more power to her. She is the one who had to suffer through it so she may as well take advantage and make something good out of it. It isn't like she is Meryl Streep with a new movie out every month, so she has to make a living somehow.

Romeo and Juliet (1968)

I own the DVD, 1:85:1 format, which is no longer available.

Jealous, Bitches?

[quote] She is the one who had to suffer through it

Evidence, please, R118. The following of your hypotheticals is not evidence: 'his 7 kids (most of whom weren't even born back then and likely never even saw Hussey) haven't publicly commented yet, ergo they must all concur!'; 'she could have said something in private to some random friend, but we have no idea who that secret friend is or if he even exists!', etc.

R119, does that version give the best view of Leonard's butt?

[quote] Anyways, so what if she is exploiting her own tragedy to sell books?

Alleged tragedy. She's free to "exploit" it of course, if that's her thing. But doesn't mean people will respect her more for only shilling it in her book for sale. But perhaps she doesn't want respect, just the dough.

Fair enough. You're right, she's exactly like the rest of Hollywood, coy opportunists. Pity, I thought she was different.

So he beat his wife for years and was schizophrenic, but you think he probably didn’t rape Olivia Hussey because she talks about it in a way that indicates that, literally 50 years later, she isn’t crying over it.

There’s a part in the Guardian interview with her where she says she disn’t have a problem living in Sharon Tate’s house immediately after the murder because “When you walked in there, there were no bad vibes or anything. All I felt was the sweetness of Sharon. I never felt afraid.”

R98 oh calm down, dear

I absolutely believe her about Christopher Jones - everything I've read about him, he comes across as batshit crazy (although also breathtakingly beautiful) He was too crazy for Sarah Miles, which says something.

I read a book about David Lean that went into great detail about his horrid experience working with Christopher Jones in ‘Ryan’s Daughter’. Lean cast Jones based on having seen him only in one film, and he didn’t do any research from Hollywood people to find out anything about Jones’ reputation. Had he done so he would have heard how erratic and undependable Jones was. By the time he realized just how terrible Jones was, he’d already filmed too much of the movie. Lean ended up having a nervous breakdown afterward, due to the negative critical reaction to the film, which can be largely attributed to Jones’ terrible acting.

I think most of his dialogue is dubbed in that film, because Lean didn't want to call him back in post production for looping.

Ryan's Daughter Won 2 Oscars and was nominated for 2 more. Jones even won the Star of Tomorrow Laurel Award (whoever they are). The IMDb rating is 7.5 and the audience score from Rotten Tomatoes is 72%, while the critic score is 47%. I've never seen it.

I’ve always thought Ryan’s Daughter is a wonderful film.

I wonder why no one lives in the stone cottage? Maybe it's really isolated.

I’ve always liked “Ryan’s Daughter”, flawed as it is, and inevitably get a lump in my throat during the last scene.

And it got John Mills the Oscar but then again he was playing a mental so was at an advantage.

I think Jones' daughter with Strasberg had a severe medical problem.

Olivia also stunningly played Mary in Zeffirelli’s star-studded Jesus of Nazareth miniseries. Her performance was truly otherworldly.