Tony Curtis was a Hollywood icon in the mid-20th century, when he was the darkly handsome star of movies including The Sweet Smell of Success (1957, with Burt Lancaster) and the raucous cross-dressing comedy Some Like it Hot (1959, with Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe). Curtis started out on the studio payroll, appearing in dramas and costumers until capturing a lead role in 1951's The Prince Who Was a Thief. He turned in reliable performances throughout the '50s (including a star turn as magician Harry Houdini in 1953's Houdini), building an onscreen persona that was part charming rogue and part earnest, sensitive hunk. Meanwhile, his marriage to actress Janet Leigh (1951-62) made him a favorite of fan magazines and gossip columns. In 1959 he earned an Oscar nomination for The Defiant Ones (1958, with Curtis handcuffed to Sidney Poitier), and in 1960 he co-starred with Kirk Douglas in the Roman Empire epic Spartacus. Curtis specialized in light comedies during the 1960s, including The Great Race (1965) and Arrivederci, Baby (1968, with Nancy Kwan), but his memorable turn as the killer in The Boston Strangler (1968, with Henry Fonda) reaffirmed his dramatic skills. Since then Curtis has worked sporadically in the movies and on television, including the feature films The Last Tycoon (1976) and Sextette (1978, with Mae West), and the TV cult favorite The Persuaders (1971, with Roger Moore).
Curtis and Janet Leigh were the parents of actresses Kelly Curtis (b. 1956) and Jamie Lee Curtis... He's has been married six times in all. He married his sixth wife, Jill Vanden Berg, in 1998... Curtis is an accomplished painter... He served in the U.S. Navy from 1942-45.
(born June 3, 1925, New York, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. film actor. He appeared on Broadway before going to Hollywood in 1949. He acted in adventure films, becoming known for his pretty face and his Bronx accent, then earned acclaim for his roles in Sweet Smell of Success (1957) and The Defiant Ones (1958). His success in Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot (1959) was followed by roles in other light comedies in the 1960s. He continued to perform onstage and in films into the 21st century.
Born: Jun 03, 1925 in Bronx, New York City, New York
Occupation: Actor
Active: '50s-'90s
Major Genres: Drama, Comedy
Career Highlights: Some Like It Hot, Sweet Smell of Success, The Scarlett O'Hara War
First Major Screen Credit: City Across the River (1949)
Biography
Originally dismissed as little more than a pretty boy, Tony Curtis overcame a series of bad reviews and undistinguished pictures to emerge as one of the most successful actors of his era, appearing in a number of the most popular and acclaimed films of the late '50s and early '60s. Born Bernard Schwartz on June 3, 1925, in New York City, he was the son of an impoverished Hungarian-born tailor, and was a member of an infamous area street gang by the age of 11. During World War II, Curtis served in the navy, and was injured while battling in Guam. After the war, he returned to New York to pursue a career in acting, touring the Borscht circuit before starring in a Greenwich Village revival of Golden Boy. There Curtis came to the attention of Universal, who signed him to a seven-year contract. In 1948, he made his film debut, unbilled, in the classic Robert Siodmak noir Criss Cross. A series of bit roles followed, and he slowly made his way up through the studio's ranks.
While 1950's Kansas Raiders was nominally headlined by Brian Donlevy, Curtis was, for many, the real draw; dark and handsome, he was hugely popular with teens and fan-magazine readers, and his haircut alone was so admired that Universal was receiving upwards of 10,000 letters a week asking for a lock of his hair. There was even a contest, "Win Tony Curtis for a week." Clearly, he was on the brink of stardom and earned top billing in his next picture, 1951's The Prince Who Was a Thief, which co-starred another up-and-comer, Piper Laurie. Despite his surging popularity, however, he still had much to learn about his craft and spent the remainder of the year training in voice, dramatics, and gymnastics. In 1952, Curtis finally returned to the screen as a boxer in Flesh and Fury. Two more pictures with Laurie, No Room for the Groom and Son of Ali Baba, followed. In 1953 Paramount borrowed Curtis to portray Houdini, which cast him opposite his wife, Janet Leigh.
Despite continued -- albeit measured -- box-office success, Curtis was roundly panned by critics for his performances, a problem exacerbated by Universal's reliance on formula filmmaking. Pictures like 1954's Beachhead (a war drama), Johnny Dark (an auto-racing tale), and The Black Shield of Falworth (a medieval saga) were all by-the-numbers products. Finally, in 1956 United Artists borrowed him for the Burt Lancaster vehicle Trapeze; not only was it Curtis' first serious project, but it was also his first true commercial smash, resulting in another long-term Universal package. Still, the studio cast him in low-rent programmers like The Rawhide Years and The Midnight Story, and he was forced to fight executives to loan him out. Lancaster tapped him to co-star in 1957's The Sweet Smell of Success, and the resulting performance won Curtis the best reviews of his career. Similar kudos followed for The Vikings, co-starring Kirk Douglas, and Kings Go Forth, a war story with Frank Sinatra.
In 1958, Curtis and Sidney Poitier starred in Stanley Kramer's social drama The Defiant Ones as a pair of escaped convicts -- one white, the other black, both manacled together -- who must overcome their prejudices in order to survive; their performances earned both men Academy Award nominations (the only such nod of Curtis' career), and was among the most acclaimed and profitable films of the year. He returned to Universal a major star and a much better actor; upon coming back, he first starred in a Blake Edwards comedy, The Perfect Furlough, then made the best film of his career -- 1959's Some Like It Hot, a masterful Billy Wilder comedy which cast him and Jack Lemmon as struggling musicians forced to dress in drag to flee the mob. Curtis next starred with his avowed idol, Cary Grant, in Edwards' comedy Operation Petticoat, another massive hit followed in 1960 by Who Was That Lady? with Leigh and Dean Martin.
For director Stanley Kubrick, Curtis co-starred in the 1960 epic Spartacus, followed a year later by The Great Impostor. He delivered a strong performance in 1961's The Outsider, but the film was drastically edited prior to release and was a box-office disaster. After exiting the Gina Lollobrigida picture Lady L prior to production, Curtis made a brief appearance in John Huston's acclaimed The List of Adrian Messenger before appearing opposite Gregory Peck in Captain Newman, M.D. With second wife Christine Kauffman, he starred in 1964's Wild and Wonderful, which was reported to be his last film for Universal. Curtis then focused almost solely on comedy, including Goodbye Charlie, the big-budget The Great Race, and, with Jerry Lewis, Boeing Boeing. None were successful, and he found his career in dire straits; as a result, he battled long and hard to win the against-type title role in 1968's The Boston Strangler, earning good critical notices.
However, Curtis returned to comedy, again with disappointing results: The 1969 Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies was the unsuccessful follow-up to the hit Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, while 1970's Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came? found even fewer takers. Curtis then attempted a 1971 television series, The Persuaders, but it lasted barely a season. In 1973, he toured in the play Turtlenecks and appeared in the TV movie The Third Girl on the Left. That summer he announced his retirement from films, but was back onscreen for 1975's Lepke. Curtis also attempted another TV series, McCoy, but it too was unsuccessful. In 1976, he appeared in the all-star drama The Last Tycoon, and published a novel, Kid Cody and Julie Sparrow. In 1978, he was also a regular on the hit series Vega$. Ultimately, the decades to come were no more successful than the 1970s, and although Curtis continued to work prolifically, his projects lacked distinction. Still, he remained a well-liked Hollywood figure, and was also the proud father of actress Jamie Lee Curtis. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
Janet Leigh (1951–1962) Christine Kaufmann (1963–1967)
Leslie Allen (1968–1982)
Andrea Savio (1984-1992)
Lisa Deutsch (1993–1994)
Jill Vandenberg (1998–present)
Tony Curtis (born Bernard Schwartz; June 3, 1925) is an Americanfilmactor. He has played a variety of roles, from light comic, such as the musician on the run from gangsters in Some Like It Hot, to serious dramatic roles, such as an escaped convict in The Defiant Ones, which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Since 1949, he has appeared in more than 100 films and has made frequent television appearances.
Curtis was born as Bernard Schwartz in the Bronx, New York, a son of Emanuel Schwartz and his wife Helen Klein.[1][2] His parents were Jewish immigrants from Mátészalka, Hungary. His father was a tailor and the family lived in the back of the shop, the parents in one corner and Curtis and his brothers Julius and Robert in another. Curtis has said, "When I was a child Mom beat me up and was very aggressive and antagonistic." His mother was later diagnosed with schizophrenia, a mental illness which also affected his brother Robert and led to his institutionalization. When Curtis was eight, he and his younger brother Julius were placed in an orphanage for a month because their parents could not afford to feed them. Four years later, Julius was struck and killed by a truck.
Curtis, during a signing of his 2008 memoir, American Prince
Curtis's screen debut came uncredited in the Criss Cross (1949) playing a rumba dancer. Later, he cemented his reputation with breakout performances such as in the role of the scheming press agent Sidney Falco in Sweet Smell of Success (1957) with Burt Lancaster (who also starred in Criss Cross) and an Oscar-nominated performance as a bigoted escaped convict chained to Sidney Poitier in The Defiant Ones
Curtis also appeared frequently on television; he co-starred with Roger Moore in the TV seriesThe Persuaders!. Later, he co-starred in McCoy and Vega$. In the early 1960s, he was immortalized as "Stony Curtis," a voice-over guest star on The Flintstones.
Throughout his life, Curtis has enjoyed painting, and since the early 1980s, has painted as a second career. His work commands more than $25,000 a canvas now and he now focuses on painting rather than movies. "I still make movies but I'm not that interested in them any more. But I paint all the time." In 2007, his painting The Red Table was on display in the Metropolitan Museum in Manhattan. His paintings can also be seen at the Tony Vanderploeg Gallery in Carmel, California.
Curtis has spoken in the past of his disappointment at never being awarded an Oscar. "My profession has never recognized me sufficiently for my work."[cite this quote] But in March 2006, Curtis did receive the Sony Ericsson Empire Lifetime Achievement Award. He also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and received the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of Arts and Letters) from France in 1995.
Personal life
Curtis has been married six times. His first (and most famous) wife was the actress Janet Leigh (1927–2004), to whom he was married for 11 years (June 4, 1951 – 1962), and with whom he fathered actresses Jamie Lee and Kelly Curtis. "For a while, we were Hollywood's golden couple," he says. "I was very dedicated and devoted to Janet and on top of my trade, but in her eyes that goldenness started to wear off. I realized that whatever I was, I wasn't enough for Janet. That hurt me a lot and broke my heart."[cite this quote] It was Leigh's third marriage. Curtis, who admits to cheating on her throughout their marriage, left Leigh in 1962 for Christine Kaufmann, the 17-year-old German co-star of his latest film, Taras Bulba.
His son, Nicholas (with Leslie Allen), died of a heroin overdose on April 2, 1994, at the age of 23. Of this, Curtis has said, "As a father you don't recover from that. There isn't a moment at night that I don't remember him."[cite this quote]
In 2002, Curtis purportedly told a British gay magazine attitude, "I was 22 when I arrived in Hollywood in 1948. I had more action than Mount Vesuvius; men, women, animals! I loved it too. I participated where I wanted to and didn't where I didn't. I've always been open about it."[5]
Curtis stated on the television series Shrink Rap that he had a brief relationship with Marilyn Monroe in 1949, which had to end due to their different work commitments.[6]
His current wife is 42 years his junior. They met in a restaurant in 1993 and married in 1998. "The age gap doesn't bother us. We laugh a lot. My body is functioning and everything is good. She's the sexiest woman I've ever known. We don't think about time. I don't use Viagra either. There are 50 ways to please your lover."[cite this quote]
In 2004, he was inducted into the UNLV Hall of Fame.[7] A street is named after him at The Revere at Anthem development in Henderson, Nevada.
In 1998, he founded the Emanuel Foundation for Hungarian Culture, and has served as honorary chairperson. This is for the restoration and preservation of synagogues and 1300 Jewish cemeteries in Hungary. He dedicated this to the 600,000 Hungarian victims of the Holocaust.[8]
Curtis nearly died when he contracted pneumonia in December 2006 and was in a coma for several days. He now uses a wheelchair and can only walk short distances.[9] Curtis now lives in Las Vegas, NV.
In October 2008, Curtis released his latest autobiographyAmerican Prince: A Memoir (Harmony Books), written with Peter Golenbock.[10] In it, he elaborates on his widely publicized affair with Marilyn Monroe, his encounters with other Hollywood legends of the time, including Frank Sinatra and James Dean, as well as his hard-knock childhood and path to success.
There is a mural of him on US Highway 101 Southbound at the Sunset Blvd. exit.
On 24 October 2008 he also appeared on the Irish chat show 'The Late Late Show' hosted that night by presenter Gerry Ryan.
On 21 May 2009, he appeared as a guest on The One Show, on BBC 1 in the United Kingdom.
On the 22nd of May 2009, he appeared as a guest on the popular Breakfast show GMTV, on ITV in the UK.
On 22 May 2009, Curtis had to apologize to the BBC radio audience after he used three swear words in a six-minute interview with BBC presenter William Crawley. The presenter also apologized to the audience for Curtis's "Hollywood realism". Curtis explained that he thought the interview was being taped, when it was in fact live.
Curtis, Tony (2009). Some Like it Hot: My Memories of Marilyn Monroe and the Making of the Classic Movie. New York: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 240. ISBN978-0470537213.
Ayres, Ian (2006). Van Gogh's Ear: The Celebrity Edition (includes Tony Curtis's prose/poetry/artwork). Paris: French Connection. ISBN978-2-914-85307-1.
