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Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey had been the teenage stars of the 1968 movie adaptation of William Shakespeare’s basic play Romeo And Juliet. Both stars filed a lawsuit towards Paramount concerning their nude scenes within the film on Friday, December 30. The actors, who had been each youngsters when filming the film, are suing the studio for sexually exploiting them and distributing nude photographs of adolescent kids, per Variety. Their lawsuit comes following a California regulation, which suspends the statute of limitations for claims of kid sexual abuse. Find out extra about Leonard, 72, and the lawsuit right here.
1. Leonard and Olivia mentioned they had been each instructed there can be no nudity within the movie.
Leonard was 16 when he took half within the film, and Olivia, now 71, was 15. The lawsuit claims that director Franco Zeffirelli, who died in 2019 at 96, had initially instructed each stars that they’d put on nude undergarments within the controversial bed room scene, however later begged them to movie bare with physique make-up. The lawsuit additionally says that they had been instructed that no nudity can be included within the film, they usually wouldn’t be filmed nude, nevertheless it was. “They trusted Franco. At 16, as actors, they took his lead that he wouldn’t violate that belief that they had. Franco was their buddy, and admittedly, at 16, what do they do? There aren’t any choices. There was no #MeToo,” their supervisor Tony Marinozzi instructed Variety. The two stars are looking for as much as $500 million in damages.
2. Leonard largely retired from performing within the Nineteen Seventies
Before being forged as Romeo, Leonard had appeared in a wide range of TV roles, along with his first half coming in 1965’s The Legend of Young Dick Turpin. Some of his different TV components included on The Magical World of Disney and Laughter from the Whitehall. After Romeo And Juliet, he was forged in just a few extra film and TV roles, together with Frankenstein: The True Story, and 1975’s Rachel’s Man. After the 1975 movie, he not often labored on-screen. His solely roles after 1975 embrace offering the voice for a personality within the animated sequence The Dreamstone in 1990, and a 2015 movie.
3. He was additionally a stage actor
While his final on-screen movie function for 40 years was Rachel’s Man in 1975, Leonard did proceed performing for the stage for a bit bit longer. He performed the Pharaoh in a 1978 manufacturing of the basic musical Joseph And The Technicolor Dream Coat, which ran till 1979, per TheatreGold. The manufacturing was additionally included on the BBC.
4. He’s been married twice
Throughout his life, Leonard has had three totally different wives. He first married late mannequin Cathee Dahmen in 1971 and had a daughter Sarah Beth, who handed away in 2014. After divorcing from Cathee, Leonard was in a relationship with Valerie Tobin, who he had a daughter Charlotte Westenra with. Charlotte has gone on to grow to be a director and dramaturg, based on her website. Charlotte is clearly shut along with her dad and spoke about their relationship in an August 2016 interview with Jinshan Hong. “Sometimes we sit round and focus on Shakespeare collectively. We’ve had arguments over foolish issues. So sometimes we do get into heated debates,” she instructed the outlet. “I used to be actually pleased with him and I’ve bought footage of his stills from a few of his movies.”
Leonard has been married to Lynn Presser since 1995.
5. Leonard reunited along with his ‘Romeo & Juliet’ co-star in 2015
While Leonard largely stepped away from performing within the 70s, he did reunite with Olivia Hussey for the 2015 film Social Suicide, which is loosely primarily based on Romeo And Juliet, practically 50 years after they starred within the 1968 movie. Instead of taking part in star-crossed forbidden lovers although, the 2 performed a mom and father to the main character Julia, performed by Olivia’s daughter India Eisley.
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