Olivia Hussey
Hussey in 2006, pic by prphotos
Birth Name: Olivia Osuna
Date of Birth: 17 April, 1951
Place of Birth: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Date of Death: December 27, 2024
Place of Death: Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Ethnicity: Argentinian [one half Spanish, one half Scottish]
Olivia Hussey was an Argentinian-British actress. Her roles included the films Romeo and Juliet (1968), Black Christmas (1974), Death on the Nile (1978), The Cat and the Canary (1979), Virus (1980), and Turkey Shoot, and television’s Jesus of Nazareth, Stephen King’s It, and Psycho IV: The Beginning.
Olivia’s father, Osvaldo Ribó (born Andrés Osuna), was born in Victoria, Entre Ríos, Argentina, with Spanish ancestry. He was a famous tango and opera singer. Olivia’s mother, Joy Alma (Hussey), a legal secretary, was of Scottish descent. Olivia moved to London, England, with her mother, when she was seven.
Olivia was married to American rock musician David Glen Eisley, until her death. David was the son of actor Anthony Eisley. Olivia had a son with her former husband, actor and singer Dean Paul Martin (whose father was singer, actor, and entertainer Dean Martin); a son with her former husband, Japanese musician Akira Fuse; and a daughter, actress India Eisley, with David.
Olivia’s maternal grandfather was named Leonard Hussey. Leonard was Scottish.
Olivia’s maternal grandmother was Dora Emilia Lean (the daughter of John Lean and Christina Paterson Orr). Dora was born in Balcarce, Buenos Aires, to parents from Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland. John was the son of John Lean and Elizabeth/Bethia Spalding. Christina was the daughter of Robert Orr and Christina Paterson.
In her autobiography, The Girl on the Balcony: Olivia Hussey Finds Life After Romeo and Juliet, 2018, page 8, Olivia wrote of her parents:
For my grandmother, who ruled my father’s side of the family with an iron fist, even the idea that her grandson should love an English woman was not to be countenanced. She saw the English as nothing more than poor, vulgar potato farmers who should all be sent packing. For my mom’s family, this condescension cut deep. First, they were not English; they were from strong Scottish stock. Second, they had been in Argentina for three generations and felt entitled to call the place home. It was into these dark waters my parents waded. They were in love and, despite their families’ disapproval, they married.
Sources: https://www.instagram.com
https://www.theguardian.com
Ribó was born in Victoria, Argentina, which is in the Entre Ríos province of Argentina. It is important to note that this province, alongside its neighboring provinces, is contained in Argentina’s Mesopotamia region, which is known to have received the highest amounts of recent European immigration. This is reflected in its population, with this region having the highest number of people born of full European descent.
Ribó appears to fit into this demographic. From Hussey’s memoir, she describes her father’s and mother’s ancestry with the following:
“My father’s real name was Andres Osuna. He was born in 1927, into a family that had originally emigrated from Northern Spain.” – “The Girl on the Balcony” by Olivia Hussey
Furthermore, from her own accounts, her father’s family were extremely anti inter-racial marriages outside their Spanish culture.
“For my grandmother, who ruled my father’s side of the family with an iron fist, even the idea that her grandson should love an English woman was not to be countenanced. She saw the English as nothing more than poor, vulgar potato farmers who should all be sent packing. For my mom’s family, this condescension cut deep. First, they were not English; they were from strong Scottish stock.”
– “The Girl on the Balcony” by Olivia Hussey
Also in this excerpt, Hussey states that her mother is fully Scottish and not English.
I would change her profile to reflect her statements as such:
Mother – Argentinian-Scottish
Father – Argentinian-Spanish [Northern Spain]
Olivia also has a brother, Andrew Hussey. It appears he, like her, chose to take their mother’s maiden name instead of their father’s.
Sources:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CfUUBxmOMro/?hl=en
(She left a comment under the post clarifying his name.)
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/dec/30/olivia-hussey-obituary#:~:text=Hussey%20was%20born%20in%20Buenos,in%20films%20and%20television%20dramas.
(I have also attached her obituary, which might help trace her genealogy further if anyone wants to pursue that. )
@ethnic, is there a way I can update her page to reflect these findings?
Died December 27, 2024 (age 73 years), Los Angeles, CA