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The Cast of Romeo & Juliet 1968
Olivia Hussey, a shy, petite brunette, at 15-years-old is the youngest actress ever to play Juliet professionally. Director Franco Zeffirelli describes her as "Classically beautiful with a husky voice and mesmerizing eyes- perfect!" She is the daughter of an Argentine opera singer (who died when Miss Hussey was two years old) and an English mother. When she was seven years old, she moved from Argentina to England and attended drama school. for nearly two years she played a schoolgirl in the London stage production of "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie." Although she was never interested in formal schooling, she has been a keen dramatic student, studying at the Italia Conti Drama School in London. She is a fraction over 5'3" tall and weighs 100 pounds. She loves dancing and music and is especially fond of modern jazz. She appeared in small roles in two previous films - "The Battle of the Villa Fiorita" and "Cup Fever."
Leonard Whiting, Romeo, who celebrated his 17th birthday while filming ROMEO AND JULIET, in Italy has had four years of acting experience on the British stage and television. The young actor, who makes his screen debut in "Romeo and Juliet," was chosen for the role after Italian director Franco Zeffirelli had auditioned hundreds of candidates. Whiting was perfect for the role in this "young person's" version of the Shakespearean tragedy; according to Zeffirelli, "He has a magnificent face, gentle melancholy, sweet, the kind of idealistic young man Romeo ought to be." Whiting began his stage career after an agent who heard him singing with a "pop" group, suggested he audition for "Oliver." He won the part and subsequently played The Artful Dodger in the stage musical for 15 months, while continuing his schooling and appearing on British televison. He later became the youngest member of the National Theater and toured Moscow and Berlin in Congreve's "Love for Love." He is 5'8" tall and slender. He describes the theatre and the cinema as his two great loves. Whiting was seen on American television in Walt Disney's "The Legend of Young Dick Turpin."
Milo O'Shea, cast as Friar Laurence, won international recognition for his brilliant and sensitive portrayal of leopold Bloom in the film version of James Joyce's "Ulysses." As a youngster, O'Shea participated in school theatricals as an actor, assistant stage manager, director, house manager, scene designer, singer and piano player. He appeared regularly with the Dublin Gate Theatre and the Abbey Theatre. His screen assignments prior to "Ulysses" were few and included "Mrs. Gibbons' Boys," "Carry On, Cabby" and "Never Put It in Writing." He soon will be seen in an important role in Paramount's "Barbarella."
Michael York is one of the fastest rising of the current crop of fast-rising young British performers. The 26-year-old actor is cast as Tybalt in ROMEO AND JULIET, his third film for Paramount Pictures. His other assignments for the company were in "Smashing Time" and "The Strange Affair." York, who was graduated from Oxford with a bachelor of arts degree with honors after majoring in English, also has appeared on screen in "Accident" and in Zeffirelli's "The Taming of the Shrew." A member of the National Theatre, he played in Zeffirelli's "Sicilian" stage production of "Much Ado About Nothing."
John McEnery took a leave of absence from Sir Laurence Olivier's National Theatre Company to accept the role of the volatile Mercutio in ROMEO AND JULIET. The younger brother of stage and screen actor Peter McEnery, John McEnery was chosen by director Franco Zeffirelli from more than 50 candidates. McEnery, who is one of the many youthful performers who help make ROMEO AND JULIET a "young person's" version of the Shakespearean tragedy, was born in Birmingham, England, on November 1, 1943. He studied at the Bristol Old Vic School and appeared in repertory theatre in a wide variety of roles. ROMEO AND JULIET marks his screen debut; his recent stage credits include "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead," "The Royal Hunt of the Sun" and Zeffirelli's production of "Much Ado About Nothing."
Pat Heywood, a hearty young woman of solid build, who plays the Nurse in ROMEO AND JULIET, is one of five children born to John David Heywood, a civil servant, in Gretna Green, Schotland. She trained for two years in the Bristol Old Vic School and at 20, in 1954, she was made a member of the company. Her first professional job, and her only London stage experience, was for a year in the musical "Salad Days." She played Maria in "Twelfth Night" in Lisbon, Copenhagen, Zurich and the open-air Coliseum in Verona. At Glyndebourne she was in an Old Vic production of Moliere's "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme." She is married to actor Oliver Neville and is raising a stepson, 14, and a stepdaughter, 12. ROMEO AND JULIET is her first film.
Paul Hardwick distinguished British stage actor Paul Hardwick - who plays Capulet, Juliet's father has acted in all but six of Shakespeare's plays. His first professional engagement was as Scarus with Dame Edith Evans and the late Sir Godfrey Tearle in "Anthony and Cleoatra." A native of Bridlington in East Yorkshire, he was born in November 15, 1918. He is one of three children of a grocer. He had his primary education locally and earned a degree in modern languages at Birmingham University. Television frequently engages his talents, and just before coming to Italy to film ROMEO AND JULIET he played an Indian sergeant major in Paramount's "The Long Duel."
Natasha Parry made her debut, at the age of 12, in Maxwell Anderson's "The Wingless Victory." Two years later she was a fairy in John Gielgud's production of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." later, Gielgud directed her in "Charley's Aunt." She appeared with Rex Harrison in New York in Jean Anouilh's "The Fighting Cock." In films Natasha Parry played in "M. Ripois" (Knave of Hearts,) and "Midnight Lace," and on United States television she was Cordelia to Orson Welles' "King Lear." She is married to the celebrated English director, Peter Brook.
