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The following biography
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Wikipedia.org
“The Free Encyclopedia.”
Tony Curtis (born June 3, 1925) is an
American film actor. Famous for his dark good looks, flashing long
eyelashes and trademark New York accent, popular during the late 1950s
and early 1960s, the actor's most enduring role has been in Some Like It
Hot with Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe. He has appeared in over 100
films since 1949. He is widely referred to as the last living Hollywood
male icon of his generation.
****
Biography
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 U.S. 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 'My mother was a
very difficult mother. 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 him being institutionalised. When Curtis was 8 he he and his
younger brother Julius were put in an orphanage for a 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 he had to
identify his body. He has said that he still keeps his cap and school
books because that's all which is 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 a submarine tender. He witnessed the Japanese surrender
in Tokyo Bay in September 1945 from a vantage point of 300 yards away.
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 1940 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 great acting talent as well as impossible
good looks with many great performances in outstanding films such as the
scheming press agent Sidney Falco in Sweet Smell of Success, with Burt
Lancaster, and an Oscar-nominated performance as a bigoted escaped
convict chained to Sidney Poitier in The Defiant Ones.
Curtis has also appeared frequently on
television; he co-starred with Roger Moore in the TV series The
Persuaders!. He later starred in McCoy and Vega$. He made his screen
debut uncredited in Criss Cross playing a rhumba dancer. He also did the
voice of "Stony Curtis" as a guest star on The Flintstones.
Since at least the early 1980s, Curtis has
had a second career as a painter. His work can command more than £25000
a canvas now and it is on this 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 stated his disappointment at
never being awarded an Oscar 'I've never felt that my profession has
recognised 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.
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, 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 but then she was unfaithful to me. 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.'
He has also been married to:
Jill Vandenberg Curtis (November 6, 1998—)
Lisa Deutsch (February 28, 1993–1994);
divorced
Andrea Savio (1984–1992); divorced
Leslie Allen (April 20, 1968–1982);
divorced, two children
Christine Kaufmann (February 8, 1963–1967);
divorced, two children
His son with Leslie Allen died of a drug
overdose at 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 stated : ""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 12 years ago in a restaurant and married 5 years later. '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.'
Relationship with Marilyn Monroe
In an interview with The Daily Mail on
December 8, 2006, he spoke of his relationship with Marilyn Monroe
saying 'Apart from my wife, Jill, Marilyn was the great love of my life.
Forget that quote "Kissing Marilyn was like kissing Hitler". I never
said it. The studio made it up after we made Some Like It Hot together.'
He continued 'When we met, she was trying to get a contract at
Universal, she was 20 and we gravitated to each other. We had an affair
for a couple of months. We were very close. But I knew that as soon as
she got started in movies and I was getting started in movies that our
careers would take over. There was nothing permanent about it.' Of the
physical side of their relationship he said 'Marilyn was great in bed.
It was single-minded sex for us. It was a rush of sex. It wasn't
educated sex. When we knew each other, I hadn't had a lot of sexual
experience.'
Trivia
Curtis is 5'9" (1.75m).
Tony Curtis currently resides in Henderson,
Nevada.
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. Many found this ironic, considering Curtis' participation in the
documentary The Celluloid Closet, as well as admitting to his own gay
dalliances in a 2004 interview with Attitude Magazine. In his 80th
birthday interview, Curtis expressed with some bitterness his memory of
being assumed to be gay by everyone who saw him in his early Hollywood
days, especially after Spartacus.
Being measured for their costumes for Some
Like It Hot, the designer apparently said after measuring Marilyn "you
know Tony has a better-looking rear end than you do." To which Monroe
opened her blouse and said "Yeah, but he doesn't have 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).
Filmography
Criss Cross (1949)
Bedrock Across the River (1949)
The Lady Gambles (1949)
Take One False Step (1949) (scenes deleted)
Johnny Stool Pigeon (1949)
How to Smuggle a Hernia Across the Border
(1949) (short subject)
Woman in Hiding (1950)
Francis (1950)
I Was a Shoplifter (1950)
Sierra (1950)
Winchester '73 (1950)
Kansas Raiders (1950)
The Prince Who Was a Thief (1951)
Meet Danny Wilson (1952) (cameo)
Flesh and Fury (1952)
No Room for the Groom (1952)
Son of Ali Baba (1952)
Houdini (1953)
The All-American (1953)
Forbidden (1953)
Beachrock (1954)
Johnny Dark (1954)
The Black Shield of Falworth (1954)
Six Bridges to Cross (1955)
So This Is Paris (1955)
The Purple Mask (1955)
The Rawhide Years (1955)
The Square Jungle (1955)
Trapeze (1956)
Mister Cory (1957)
Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
The Midnight Story (1957)
The Vikings (1958)
Kings Go Forth (1958)
The Defiant Ones (1958)
The Perfect Furlough (1958)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Operation Petticoat (1959)
Who Was That Lady? (1960)
The Rat Race (1960)
Spartacus (1960)
Pepe (1960) (cameo)
The Great Impostor (1961)
The Outsider (1961)
Taras Bulba (1962)
40 Pounds of Trouble (1962)
The List of Adrian Messenger (1963) (cameo)
Captain Newman, M.D. (1963)
Paris, When It Sizzles (1964) (cameo)
Wild and Wonderful (1964)
Goodbye Charlie (1964)
Sex and the Single Girl (1964)
The Great Race (1965)
Boeing Boeing (1965)
Chamber of Horrors (1966) (cameo)
Not with My Wife, You Don't! (1966)
Arrivederci, Baby! (1966)
Don't Make Waves (1967)
On My Way to the Crusades, I Met a Girl
Who... (1968)
Rosemary's Baby (1968) (voice)
The Boston Strangler (1968)
Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty
Jalopies (1969)
You Can't Win 'Em All (1970)
Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came?
(1970)
Mission: Monte Carlo (1974)
Lepke (1975)
London Conspiracy (1976)
The Last Tycoon (1976)
Casanova & Co. (1977)
Sextette (1978)
The Manitou (1978)
The Bad News Bears Go to Japan (1978)
Double Take (1979)
Title Shot (1979)
Little Miss Marker (1980)
It Rained All Night the Day I Left (1980)
The Mirror Crack'd (1980)
The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980) (Television
Movie)
Othello, the Black Commando (1982)
Where Is Parsifal? (1983)
BrainWaves (1983)
The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal
(1985) (documentary)
Club Life (1985)
Insignificance (1985)
The Last of Philip Banter (1986)
Balboa (1986)
The Passenger - Welcome to Germany (1988)
Lobster Man from Mars (1989)
Midnight (1989)
Walter & Carlo In America (1989)
Prime Target (1991)
Center of the Web (1992)
Hugh Hefner: Once Upon a Time (1992)
(documentary)
Naked in New York (1993)
The Mummy Lives (1993)
A Century of Cinema (1994) (documentary)
The Immortals (1995)
The Celluloid Closet (1995) (documentary)
Hardball (1997)
Brittle Glory (1997)
Alien X Factor (1997)
Stargames (1998)
Louis & Frank (1998)
Play It to the Bone (1999) (cameo)
Reflections of Evil (2002) (narrator)
****
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Date Article Copied:
January 2007
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