Franco Zeffirelli, 1923-2019

Italian film director Franco Zeffirelli, who came to prominence by directing Elizabeth Teylor and Richard Burton in the 1967 adaptation of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, has died at the age of 96.

Most people of a certain age (myself included) will probably remember Zeffirelli better for introducing Olivia Hussey to a generation of horny pubescent boys when he cast her in another Shakespearean adaptation, Romeo and Juliet:



I know that when we did Romeo and Juliet in whichever English class it was (10th grade, I think), this is the movie version we watched to accompany the reading, and I know my school wasn't the only one.

I remember watching Endless Love a few years back not having realized at the time that it was another Zeffirelli film:



The movie even got an Oscar nomination, although that was for the song (Lionel Richie lost, but would later get one for "Say You, Say Me" from White Nights).