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Quick Facts
- NAME: Tony Curtis
- OCCUPATION: Film Actor
- BIRTH DATE: June 03, 1925
- DEATH DATE: September 30, 2010
- EDUCATION: Seward Park High School, New School for Social Research
- PLACE OF BIRTH: The Bronx, New York
- PLACE OF DEATH: Henderson, Nevada
- Full Name: Bernard Schwartz
- AKA: Tony Curtis
- AKA: Anthony Curtis
Best Known For
From Some Like It Hot to Spartacus, Tony Curtis was the reigning Hollywood heartthrob of the 1950s. He's also known as actress Jamie Lee Curtis's dad.
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Play NowTony Curtis. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 02:26, May 23, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/tony-curtis-9263844.
Tony Curtis. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/tony-curtis-9263844 [Accessed 23 May 2013].
"Tony Curtis." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 23 2013, 02:26 http://www.biography.com/people/tony-curtis-9263844.
"Tony Curtis," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/tony-curtis-9263844 [accessed May 23, 2013].
"Tony Curtis," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/tony-curtis-9263844 (accessed May 23, 2013).
Tony Curtis [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 23] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/tony-curtis-9263844.
Tony Curtis, http://www.biography.com/people/tony-curtis-9263844 (last visited May 23, 2013).
Tony Curtis. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/tony-curtis-9263844. Accessed May 23, 2013.
Synopsis
Born in New York on June 3, 1925, Tony Curtis's piercing blue eyes and good looks gained him a great deal of attention at a young age. After enlisting in the U.S. Navy and serving in World War II, the aspiring actor moved to Hollywood, California. His career took off following his high-profile marriage to Janet Leigh in 1951, which produced daughters Kelly Lee and Jamie Lee Curtis. In the late 1950s and '60s,
Contents
Quotes
"My longevity is due to my good timing."
"Where there is no art show, I would still be painting."
Curtis starred in films like Houdini, Operation Petticoat, Some Like It Hot and Spartacus. He later appeared in a variety of low-profile films and on various television shows. He died of cardiac arrest on September 30, 2010, in Henderson, Nevada.
Early Life
Tony Curtis was born Bernard Schwartz on June 3, 1925, in the Bronx, New York, to Hungarian Jewish immigrants Helen and Emanuel Schwartz. Curtis's father owned a tailor shop, and he and his family lived behind the business in a cramped apartment. His parents slept in one room, and Curtis shared the other with his two brothers, Julius and Robert. Curtis's mother suffered from schizophrenia, and often beat the boys.
In 1933, during the economic struggles of the Great Depression, Curtis's parents could no longer care for the boys financially. Tony and Julius were placed in a state institution, where the boys were frequently involved in conflicts with anti-Semitic youngsters who often threw stones and started fistfights with the brothers. In 1938, Julius was hit by a truck and killed. He was 12 years old.
Shaken by the loss, Curtis was determined to make a better life for himself and began attending Seward Park High School on Manhattan's Lower East Side. After graduation, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, serving in World War II aboard the submarine U.S.S. Proteus. Following his honorable discharge from the military, Curtis began acting lessons in New York at the New School for Social Research, where his classmates included fellow Seward Park alumnus Walter Matthau.
Career Highlights
Tony Curtis's boyish good looks helped him to land a contract with Universal Pictures in 1948. During this time, he settled on the name Anthony Curtis, and began a series of small movie roles, including Criss Cross (1949), Francis (1950) and No Room for the Groom (1952).
Thanks in large part to his high-profile marriage to Hollywood beauty Janet Leigh in 1951, Curtis went on to star in a string of successful roles in the late 1950s and '60s, including Houdini (1953), in which Leigh was his co-star. Other films include the military comedy Operation Petticoat (1959); the famed romantic comedy Some Like It Hot, with co-star Marilyn Monroe; and the Stanley Kubrick epic Spartacus (1960).
Personal Life
The star's career all but collapsed in 1962, however, when he divorced Janet Leigh after having an affair with 17-year-old German actress Christine Kaufmann. By then, he and Leigh had two children: Kelly Lee and Jamie Lee Curtis. Curits and Kaufmann married in 1963 and divorced in 1967. Shortly thereafter, in 1968, the actor married 23-year-old model Leslie Allen.
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