Tony Curtis, one of the last great stars of Hollywood's golden age, died yesterday aged 85. The death was confirmed by a representative of his actor daughter Jamie Lee Curtis, although further details have yet to emerge. Curtis's health had been failing for a number of years and he was admitted to hospital in July after suffering an asthma attack.
Appearing on stage at the Guardian BFI Southbank interview in 2008, Curtis was asked by an audience member what he would like to have written on his gravestone. "Nobody's perfect," he quipped, quoting the final line of his best-loved comedy, Some Like it Hot.
He was born Bernard Schwartz, to Hungarian immigrant parents in the Bronx and grew up dreaming of stardom and idolising the casual, easy grace of Cary Grant. Marketed as prime 1950s beefcake by Hollywood, he brought a pulchritudinous dash to a rash of substandard studio pictures before winning praise for his role as a venal press agent in the 1957 drama The Sweet Smell of Success. The following year he gained his only Oscar nomination for his role opposite Sidney Poitier in the tense racial parable The Defiant Ones. His other notable films include The Vikings, Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus and The Boston Strangler. Curtis always insisted that the latter film, in which he played serial killer Albert DeSalvo was the finest performance of his career. In later years he turned to painting, with some success, and cited Van Gogh, Picasso and Magritte as his main inspirations.
His most enduring screen role, however, remains the runaway jazz musician, alongside Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe, in Billy Wilder's 1959 classic, Some Like it Hot. The film even provided Curtis with the chance to channel the spirit of his old idol Cary Grant - mimicking the actor's distinctive transatlantic twang to impersonate a stuffy oil millionaire. "Nobody talks like that!" retorted the disgusted Jack Lemmon. The role was a gamble for Curtis, who spends the bulk of the film in drag, but it paid off brilliantly. "I was very nervous about getting dressed up as a girl," he would later confess. "Jack [Lemmon] had no problem with it .... We realized it was the perfect symmetry for the two of us. Let him be the flaunty one, let me be the more quiet one, which fit our characters perfectly."
["My father leaves behind a legacy of great performances in movies and in his paintings and assemblages," actress Jamie Lee Curtis said in a statement Thursday. "He leaves behind children and their families who loved him and respected him and a wife and in-laws who were devoted to him. He also leaves behind fans all over the world. He will be greatly missed."]
Curtis married six times and appeared to revel in his reputation as a carouser. "I wouldn't be caught dead marrying a woman old enough to be my wife," he once remarked. Frank Sinatra once claimed that Curtis was his favourite Hollywood actor, "because he beat the odds". In old age, the actor looked back delightedly on a career that had carried him from the impoverished neighbourhoods of New York to a high-life as a Hollywood superstar. "I've made 122 movies and I daresay there's a picture of mine showing somewhere in the world every day of the week," he stated proudly, providing an epitaph all his own. Sleep with the angels old friend. We will miss you.
Hi Cutie...Tony was a wonderful actor...I daresay he didn't have affairs...he married them all...
ReplyDeleteCheaters could learn a lot from him.
Hellooooooo
ReplyDeleteHe wasn't a great actor but he had a cheeky grin and mischief in his eyes. He was good at comedy.
ReplyDeleteI truly admired his interpretation of the Boston Strangler. He worked very hard on it and it was the best acting he ever did.He was quite a good artist.
How you doing?
ReplyDeleteI'm okay .How about you?
ReplyDeleteI'm dying to know how did it go for my little man ???
How was the trip to the doctor go.
How's Nana , still being her sweet little self...HA !
Boy, I'm full of questions tonight.
Dad was on his way to bed ...but now he's in the kitchen looking to see if I have all the ingredients for the Tiramisu ...he said it's been a long time since he had some.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to spank Dad's musty butt.
Jakey passed his test and was pleased with himself.
ReplyDeleteBrian's CT scans were clear. The other kidney is still okay,no visible tumors in the lower torso. So we have a reprieve for six months until the next tests.
We are all so happy and relieved.
He is going tomorrow however for prostate tests to see if that tumor is growing but that is not so dangerous ad so we're not too worried
Nana is being a little angel. I hate that. It means she is brewing something horrible. She will do something tomorrow to humiliate me like poo her pants. She did that at the mall one day last year.
ReplyDeletePraise the Lord on all counts.
ReplyDeleteSweetie, I am so happy for you/Brian ...what a relief .
I just knew Jakey was going to pass.
[giggles] I bet it didn't care one bit.
ReplyDeleteTell her you will get her some depends. She won't like that.
I know everything is going to be okay and Nana will be a good girl tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteJakey has to work a little harder and practice more. His Sensei told him if he wants to become a black belt someday he must take the discipline more seriously.
ReplyDeleteHe has one more chance on Saturday morning to get the final stripe that he needs to move up to the next belt. If he doesn't pass that test Sam will move up without him.
They are with Bio this weekend and he said he would drop Jakey at karate before he takes Sam to hockey practice. I sure hope he doesn't let the kid down.
How is the biggest yard sale in the world going??
ReplyDeleteJakey is doing a project on polar bears.I think i will print out some pictures for him.
ReplyDeleteI hope he get him there on time, the baby is trying so hard .
ReplyDeletePIC.. I can't say what I would like to here and right now I am crying for that baby.
It's has slowed down a little , but people gets paid this weekend.
ReplyDeleteThe rent-all funiture stores donated some stuff and said they will give us some more.
Had a nice materess set and Dad let the lady put it on lay-a-way.
Sounds like dad is one of your best salesmen.I bet he charms those ladies' pants off.He probably enjoys himself thoroughly.
ReplyDeleteGil got mad at me today and Dad told him if he run away from home he wasn't going with him .
ReplyDeleteGood for dad. Why was Shank mad at you?
ReplyDeleteShit the set wasn't but $25, the lady gave him $10 and aunt Mae told him he should wait til she had all of it..
ReplyDeleteDad told her to sit her old ass down, the lady was coming back and buy some more stuff and brings friends and it was free to us.
He loves it and one lady told him he had such beautiful hair and could she feel it and he tols let him see where his old lady was and came back with a grin on his face and said feel it quick here she come...Sis was just shaking her head at him.
That old bugger. He will never change. He loves the attention.
ReplyDeleteHe's probably right about the lady coming back. He has learned how to read people after all those years in the gambling business.
ReplyDeleteI was exhausted today and had a bad headache, I hardly ever have headaches.
ReplyDeleteHe told me I was pushing myself to hard and their was enough people to take care of the yard sale and if I get sick who was going to see about my babies.
He said he wasn't going to stand for it, I had to slow down or else.
he said the doctor threatened to put me in the hosiptal last month because of my high blood pressure and Diabetes...I told him the diabetis was fine....he's still hot.
Dad said if she didn't come back he had her $10.
ReplyDeleteIf you have high blood pressure honey, you should be taking it easy...no stress.
ReplyDeleteMind you, him getting mad at you doesn't help the stress situation
You won't help your babies or your bears if you have a stroke.
ReplyDeleteThe trouble is, you're a human dynamo. You don't know how to slow down. If you sot still too long you get bored.
Sorry about my typos lately.I'm sure you don't 'sot' still...HA!
ReplyDeleteHe hug me and told me he loved me and if anything happen to me where would he and my babies be,he waited to long to lose me now.
ReplyDeleteHe says he's not angry and I promised him I would slow down.
Just have my meeting and keep a check on the sale.
That's more like it.
ReplyDeleteIt's just that you can't help getting involved in everything. That's your nature
I think the Shank would be a basket case and a broken man if he lost you.
ReplyDeleteI can't talk about your typos ...hell I have so many.
ReplyDeleteHe wants me to go to DC and he supports me in my save the bears. he says I have been to all the rent-alls and they will call me when they pick up more stuff .
NAN/Lois/Sis and Dad will take care of things and I know how NAN/Lois hold to the money.
This thing will be a success and you will be on your way. I think business will pickup a lot on the weekend. Getting the Rentall people to donate was brilliant.
ReplyDeleteDad told me I was going to slow down or else because the whole compound was with me about my bears and he beat at least half of the members was my relatives.
ReplyDeleteI asked him who is he to talk, he forgot he was out of the stuff for his hands that we bought at the healt-food store.
I think the weekends will be good..we are hitting $14 hundred, The Reat-all says it was better to give it away and take a right off than to try and re-sell it because they can't rent it again.
ReplyDeleteSounds like dad and your whole family is very involved in your bears. Dad did say you had made a convert out of him.
ReplyDeleteI am going to look on the internet for something to ease his pain in his hands. He can't take any medications because of his heart. But the Chinese People know a lot about herbal medicine so I will ask them.
They have a herbal nurse there and she gave Dad some teas and Made him a lotion and he's out the lotion don't know how long.
ReplyDeletePlease ask them ...the herrbal nurse at the health food store is Chinese.
ReplyDelete[giggles] I told my man if I let him poke me real good my headache will go away.Hahaha
ReplyDeleteI forgot to call J when we got home from the doctor's to tell her about her dad, I had to go out again and was going to call all the family when I got home. So J was pretty mad at me.She finally got Nana to answer the phone and found out about Brian.
ReplyDeleteI took her shopping tonight and bought her a coat and she forgave me.It was a guilt coat.
He said he haven't had any choochie in so long, his poker is in his belly and he will have to get something to pull it out.Hahaha
ReplyDeleteGeez, you think poking can fix anything. If you had an ear-ache , would you get him to poke you in the ear??
ReplyDeleteJ is a very lucky girl to have such a sweet mama .
ReplyDeleteI hope she know how lucky she is and know how much you have on your plate.
I hate to tell you what Sis would do if she had as much on her plate as you.
No but I will still want the poking..Haha
ReplyDeleteI not going to bed tonight because he is waiting on me Hahaha
Boy Tony did not age too well did he? He was so handsome when he was young. Now there is a guy who did a lot of poking.
ReplyDeleteOksana is going to be on Oprah.
ReplyDeleteDo you think Mel is beginning to look like Boris Karloff ???
Aaaaw, you can't leave poor Gil lying there waiting on you with a big chubby. That's not good for them. You must go and relieve his pain.You wouldn't want him to get the dreaded 'blue balls' would you?
ReplyDeleteTony had 6 wives..
ReplyDeleteThe media would have had a field day with him ,Liz , and a lot of them, they didn't gossip about the celebs so much back then.
I haven't seen a picture of Mel lately. Does he really look like that? He is not aging well either. In fact he and Tony got downright ugly. That's interesting considering they were so handsome in their hey-day. Maybe it was all that poking that made them so ugly. You better reconsider all that poking you're doing.
ReplyDeleteGil is in there snoring his long ass off and laying on his stomach to make sure I don't get it..HA !
ReplyDeleteNow every time you see and ugly old man or lady you're going to think....Geez, I bet they got that way from too much poking.
ReplyDeleteI got Mel on SH's and Oksana to.
ReplyDeleteTake a look and tell me what you think.
I don't think it's the poking that makes them look old...the fools just don't take care of themselves.
ReplyDeleteDid you take a look ???
ReplyDeleteIsn't he beginning to look like Boris Karloff.
Just read your Mel post, pretty good and yes, Boris Karloff for sure. He has gone completely grey or maybe he has just stopped dying his hair.
ReplyDeleteI have a post about Oksana being on Oprah's show underneath the Mel post.
ReplyDeleteI think Mel is going to disappear from public life. And not a moment too soon for me. Let him slowly melt away into a puddle of mean nasty abusive shit.
ReplyDeleteRobyn is much older than Oksana but she sure looks a hellva lot better than the slutty ho.
ReplyDeleteStay on the lookout for more tapes...these are suppose to be from the bimbo robyn left him the first time.
ReplyDeleteOksana may come out of this quite well. I mean, Geez,Oprah already.That's getting up there.It would be so hilarious if all this crap boosted Oksana's career and she became a bigger star than Mel.
ReplyDeleteI think Mel would shoot her and then blow his own head off.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to the tapes. Where will they be? On TMZ?
ReplyDeleteI think you are right.
ReplyDeleteOprah was going up against 60 Minutes and Oprah won..
Either one would give Oksana's career a boost.
I want Mel to get a DNA test...
It would be a hoot to find out the baby is not his.
Keep a check on: TMZ...Popeater...RadarOnline and I founa new one.
ReplyDeleteAskmen.com they have a lot of good stuff.
IT's time for good little girls to go to bed and put their cold feet on their old mens' asses. I can hear snoring and I don't think it's Max.
ReplyDeleteGo wake up the Shank and tell him it's time to go to the hospital....the baby is coming....your water just broke.
I have been to Askmen. It's a good website.
ReplyDeleteAskmen.com has a lot of stuff about a lot of celebrities and I got Katy from there
ReplyDeleteHe say what, I will sue that damn doctor for working on my ball and not fix them.Haha
ReplyDeleteSweetie I will say goodnight and see you tomorrow same time , same place.
ReplyDeleteMy all your dreams be pleasent and come true.
Goodnite ...HUGS & KISSES...PIC
Kiss the ROCK.
Again let me say how happy I am for you...keep the faith and we will keep saying prayers, things will be fine....NITE
I just love yanking Shank's chain. And that is the first thing he would say.'Sue the doctor'
ReplyDeleteOh well,to sleep, perchance to dream.( Hamlet) See, I know book stuff.Have a good one Sweetie and I'll see you tomorrow. Take it easy, you're precious.
See you at the yard sale. I'll be looking used bras, size F cup....LUV PIC