Tony Curtis

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For other persons named Tony Curtis, see Tony Curtis (disambiguation).
Tony Curtis

Birth name Bernard Schwartz
Born June 3, 1925 (1925-06-03) (age 82)
New York City, New York
Years active 1949 - present
Spouse(s) Janet Leigh (1951-1962)
Christine Kaufmann (1963-1967)
Leslie Allen (1968-1982)
Andrea Savio (1984-1992)
Lisa Deutsch (1993-1994)
Jill Vandenberg Curtis (1998-)
Children Kelly Curtis (b.1956)
Jamie Lee Curtis (b.1958)
Allegra Curtis (b.1966)

Tony Curtis (b. Bernard Schwartz, June 3, 1925) is an American film actor. Famous for his thick black wavy hair, good looks, blue eyes with long lashes and trademark New York accent, he was most popular during the late 1950s and early 1960s. He is best known for his light comic roles, especially his musician on the run from gangsters in Some Like It Hot (1959). He has also essayed a number of more serious dramatic roles over the years, such as his escaped convict in The Defiant Ones (1958), for which he received an Academy Award nomination. He has appeared in over 100 films since 1949, and has also made frequent television appearances.

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[edit] Biography

Tony Curtis was born Bernard Schwartz, the son of Jewish Hungarian (from the city of Mátészalka, Szatmár) immigrants Emanuel and Helen Schwartz, in the Bronx, New York. His father was a tailor who had left his home country to find a new life in the United States. In the early days the family lived in the back of his tailor's shop, parents in one corner and Tony and his brothers Julius and Robert in another. Curtis has said of his mother in interview ' When I was a child she beat me up and was very aggressive, 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 8, he and his younger brother Julius were placed in an orphanage for one month because their parents could not afford to feed them. There were more hard times to come. When Curtis was 13, Julius was hit by a truck and died. It fell to Tony to identify the body. He has said that he still keeps his brother's cap and school books because that's all that's left of him. With the realities of real life all too harsh, a young Curtis sought refuge in the cinema.

"When I was a child, I used to go to the movies and became enthralled by all the fencing, horseback riding, kissing the girls. I said to myself 'Why can't I do that?'"

Between 1942 and 1945 Curtis served in the U.S. Navy aboard the submarine tender, the USS PROTEUS. He witnessed the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay in September 1945, from a vantage point of 300 yards (300 m) away.[1] After his service in the Navy, the young Curtis studied acting alongside Elaine Stritch, Walter Matthau and Rod Steiger. To use his own words, he got into the movies because he was 'the handsomest of the boys.' Arriving in Hollywood in 1948 aged 23 he was put under contract to Universal Pictures and had his name changed to Tony Curtis. The studio sent him to fencing and riding lessons, but Curtis admits he was only interested in girls and money.

Originally seen as just another pretty boy, he nonetheless proved he had very significant acting talent with many impressive performances in outstanding films such as the role of the scheming press agent Sidney Falco in Sweet Smell of Success, along with Burt Lancaster, and an Oscar-nominated performance as a bigoted escaped convict chained to Sidney Poitier in The Defiant Ones.

Tony Curtis was so popular as a screen hunk during the 1950s that Elvis Presley[2] copied his ducktail (DA) hairstyle after seeing it on screen.

Curtis has also appeared frequently on television; he co-starred with Roger Moore in the TV series The Persuaders!. He later co-starred in McCoy and Vega$. He made his screen debut, uncredited, in Criss Cross playing a rumba dancer. He also provided the voice of "Stony Curtis" as a guest star on The Flintstones.

All his life, Curtis has enjoyed painting, and since the early 1980s, has had a second career as a painter. His work can command more than £25000 a canvas now and it is on his career in paint that he now focuses rather than movies. 'I still make movies but I'm not that interested any more. I paint all the time.' In 2007 his painting The Red Table will be on display in the Metropolitan Museum in Manhattan.

Curtis has spoken of his disappointment in never being awarded an Oscar 'I've never felt that my profession has recognized me for my work.' In March 2006, Curtis received the Sony Ericsson Empire Lifetime Achievement Award. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and received France's honor, the Order of Arts and Letters, in 1995.

[edit] Relationships

Tony 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 (1951-1962), and with whom he fathered actresses Jamie Lee Curtis and Kelly Curtis. He said of their relationship, "For a while, we were Hollywood's golden couple. I was very dedicated and devoted to Janet. I was on top of my trade, but in her eyes that goldenness had started to wear off. I realised that whatever I was, I wasn't enough for Janet. That hurt me a lot and broke my heart." Leigh married her third husband, Tony Curtis, on June 4, 1951. They had two children, actresses Kelly and Jamie Lee. Curtis, who admitted 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. Leigh was granted a quick divorce, and married stockbroker Robert Brandt later that year in Las Vegas.

He has also been married to:

His son, Nicholas (with Leslie Allen), died of a heroin overdose on July 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."

About his sexuality, Curtis purportedly stated in a 2002 interview with 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." [1]

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."

[edit] Trivia

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The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
Curtis and Roger Moore in The Persuaders! (1971/72).
Curtis and Roger Moore in The Persuaders! (1971/72).
  • Tony Curtis currently resides in Henderson, Nevada.
  • Curtis was very close friends with Jack Lemmon. They starred in Some Like It Hot in 1959 and The Great Race in 1965.
  • Audie Murphy suggested Curtis portray him in his biopic To Hell and Back.
  • Despite Lew Grade suggesting otherwise in his biography Still Dancing, Curtis is good friends with Roger Moore.
  • Curtis and actress-activist Bo Derek met in Washington, D.C. in support of the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act in May 2004.
  • Has appeared in tourism advertisements for his ancestral homeland Hungary.
  • Has stated that his favorite movie star and co-star was Cary Grant.
  • Made "Top 10 stars of the year", 1961 and 1962.
  • In late 2005, Curtis voiced criticism of the film Brokeback Mountain, stating that he had no intention of seeing it.
  • Being measured for their costumes for Some Like It Hot, the designer apparently said after measuring Marilyn "you know Tony has a better-looking ass than you do." To which Monroe opened her blouse and said "Yeah, but he doesn't have tits like these!"
  • Curtis has reportedly enjoyed watching science fiction for decades, and is a fan of the British science fiction comedy television series Red Dwarf (1988). In 1994, this show achieved its highest accolade so far, winning an International Emmy Award for the Outstanding Popular Arts category. Curtis was 69 at the time and presented the award to Robert Llewellyn (who played Kryten in the show). In Red Dwarf Series V episode, "The Inquisitor", the character Rimmer remarks on Kryten and Lister being manacled together, "Look, they come here with some cock-and-bull story, they're chained together like Sidney Poiter and Tony Curtis -- I say open the door to oblivion and kick 'em through."
  • Tony Curtis is used as a continuing in-joke in the 2005 BBC series Look Around You.
  • In 1994 Tony Curtis appeared in a South Korean drama called "Land of the People" about Korean immigrants to Mexico. He played a ranch owner and his segments were filmed on location in Mexico. To date he is the most famous Western star to appear in a South Korean drama.
  • Tony Curtis is currently doing much to help save horses from slaughter through his wife's (Jill Curtis') Shiloh Horse Rescue in Sandy Valley, Nevada.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://tendertale.com/ttiii/ttiii1.html
  2. ^ Elvis Presley Elvis Presley News

[edit] Further reading

  • Curtis, Tony; Barry Paris (1993). Tony Curtis: The Autobiography. New York: William Morrow & Co. ISBN 978-0-688-09759-2. 
  • Ayres, Ian (2006). Van Gogh's Ear: The Celebrity Edition (includes Tony Curtis's prose/poetry/artwork). Paris: French Connection. ISBN 978-2-914-85307-1. 

[edit] External links

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