Tony Curtis (born Bernard Schwartz; June 3, 1925 – September 29, 2010) was an American actor with a career that spanned six decades, achieving the height of his popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in more than 100 films, in roles covering a wide range of genres. In his later years, Curtis made numerous television appearances.
He achieved his first major recognition as a dramatic actor in Sweet Smell of Success (1957) with co-star Burt Lancaster. The following year he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for The Defiant Ones (1958) alongside Sidney Poitier (who was also nominated in the same category). This was followed by the comedies Some Like It Hot and Operation Petticoat in 1959. In 1960, Curtis played a supporting role in the epic historical drama Spartacus.
His stardom and film career declined considerably after 1960. His most significant dramatic part came in 1968 when he starred in the true-life drama The Boston Strangler. Curtis also took on the role of the Ukrainian Cossack Andrei in the historical action romance epic Taras Bulba in 1962 and starred in the ITC TV series The Persuaders!, with Curtis playing American millionaire Danny Wilde. The series ran for twenty-four episodes.
Curtis married six times and fathered six children. He is the father of actresses Kelly Curtis and Jamie Lee Curtis with his first wife, actress Janet Leigh, and actresses Allegra Curtis and Alexandra Curtis with his second wife Christine Kaufmann. He had two sons with his third wife Leslie Allen, one of whom predeceased him. From 1998 until his death, he was married to horse trainer Jill Vandenberg.
Tony Curtis was born Bernard Schwartz on June 3, 1925, at the Fifth Avenue Hospital corner of East 105th Street in East Harlem, Manhattan the first of three boys born to Helen (née Klein) and Emanuel Schwartz.
His parents were Jewish emigrants from Hungary: his father was born in Ópályi, near Mátészalka, and his mother was a native of Michalovce, Slovakia; she later said she arrived in the U.S. from Vaľkovo, Slovakia. He spoke only Hungarian until the age of six, delaying his schooling. His father was a tailor and the family lived in the back of the shop. His mother was later diagnosed with schizophrenia. His youngest brother Robert was institutionalized with the same mental illness.
When Curtis was eight, he and his 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 joined a neighborhood gang whose main crimes were playing truant from school and minor pilfering at the local dime store. When Curtis was 11, a friendly neighbor saved him from what he felt would have led to a life of delinquency by sending him to a Boy Scout camp, where he was able to work off his energy and settle down. He attended Seward Park High School. At 16, he had his first small acting part in a school stage play.
Curtis enlisted in the United States Navy after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Inspired by Cary Grant's role in Destination Tokyo and Tyrone Power's in Crash Dive (1943), he joined the Pacific submarine force. Curtis served aboard a submarine tender, the USS Proteus, until the end of the Second World War. On September 2, 1945, Curtis witnessed the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay from his ship's signal bridge about a mile away.
Following his discharge from the Navy, Curtis attended City College of New York on the G.I. Bill. He then studied acting at The New School in Greenwich Village under the influential German stage director Erwin Piscator. His contemporaries included Elaine Stritch, Harry Belafonte, Walter Matthau, Beatrice Arthur, and Rod Steiger. While still at college, Curtis was discovered by Joyce Selznick, the notable talent agent, casting director, and niece of film producer David O. Selznick.
In 1948, Curtis arrived in Hollywood at age 23. In his autobiography, Curtis described how by chance he met Jack Warner on the plane to California, and also how he briefly dated Marilyn Monroe before either was famous.
Curtis was married six times. His first wife was actress Janet Leigh, whom he married in 1951. The studio he was under contract with, Universal-International, generally stayed out of their stars' love lives. When he chose to get married, however, studio executives spent three days trying to talk him out of it, telling him he would be "poisoning himself at the box office." They threatened "banishment" back to the Bronx and the end of his budding career. In response, Curtis and Leigh defied the studio heads and eloped and were married by a local judge in Greenwich, Connecticut. Comedian and close friend Jerry Lewis was present as a witness.
The couple had two children, actresses Kelly and Jamie Lee.
The couple divorced in 1962. "For a while, we were Hollywood's golden couple," he said. "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."
The following year Curtis married Christine Kaufmann, the 18-year-old German co-star of his latest film, Taras Bulba. He stated that his marriage with Leigh had effectively ended "a year earlier". Curtis and Kaufmann had two daughters, Alexandra (born July 19, 1964) and Allegra (born July 11, 1966). The couple divorced in 1968. After their divorce, Kaufmann resumed her career, which she had paused during their marriage.
On April 20, 1968, Curtis married Leslie Allen, with whom he had two sons -- Nicholas Bernard Curtis (December 31, 1970 – July 2, 1994) and Benjamin Curtis (born May 2, 1973). The couple divorced in 1982.
Curtis married Andrea Savio in 1984; they divorced in 1992.
The following year, on February 28, 1993, he married Lisa Deutsch. They divorced only a year later in 1994.
His sixth and last wife, Jill Vandenberg, was 45 years his junior. They met in a restaurant in 1993 and married on November 6, 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."
On April 26, 1970, Curtis was arrested for marijuana possession at Heathrow Airport in London.
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Curtis, who had a problem with alcoholism and drug abuse, went through the treatment center of the Betty Ford Clinic in the mid-1980s, which was successful for him.
In 1994, his son Nicholas died of a heroin overdose at the age of 23. After his son's death, Curtis remarked that it was "a terrible thing when a father loses his son."
In 1974, Curtis developed a heavy cocaine addiction while filming Lepke, at a time when his stardom had declined considerably and he was being offered few film roles. In 1984, Curtis was rushed to the hospital suffering from advanced cirrhosis as a result of his alcoholism and cocaine addiction. He then entered the Betty Ford Clinic and vowed to overcome his various illnesses. He underwent heart bypass surgery in 1994, after suffering a heart attack.
On July 8, 2010, Curtis, who suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), was hospitalized in Las Vegas after suffering an asthma attack during a book-signing engagement in Henderson, Nevada, where he lived.
Curtis died at his Henderson home on September 29, 2010, of cardiac arrest. A few days beforehand, he had met photographer Andy Gotts for a photo-shoot at his home, saying: "I'm not in a good way at the moment but can I ask you one thing? Can you make me look like an icon just one more time?" He left behind five children and seven grandchildren. His widow Jill told the press that Curtis had suffered from various lung problems for years as a result of cigarette smoking, although he had quit smoking about 30 years earlier. During the 1960s Curtis served as the president of the American 'I Quit Smoking' Club. In a release to the Associated Press, his daughter, actress Jamie Lee Curtis, said:
If you want to read more, go here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Curtis
- SERVES
- 4
- COOK TIME
- 55 Min
Who says you have to go outside to make an amazing BBQ dinner? Not us! With our recipe for Skillet Barbecued Chicken you can cook up a summer favorite...indoors! So, whether it's snowing, raining, or you just don't feel like firing up the grill, this barbecue chicken recipe is just perfect. Trust us, every bite is lip-smackin' good.
- 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) butter
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 (3- to 3-1/2-pound) chicken, cut into 8 pieces
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
- 1/3 cup steak sauce
- 3/4 cup firmly-packed light brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- In a large deep skillet over medium heat, melt butter; saute onion and garlic 5 to 7 minutes, or until onion is tender.
- Sprinkle chicken with salt then add it to skillet and cook 8 to 10 minutes, or until browned on all sides.
- Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine remaining ingredients; mix well then pour over chicken.
- Reduce heat to medium-low and cook 35 to 40 minutes, or until no pink remains in chicken, stirring occasionally.
And births this date include..
1938 – Ron Ely , American actor
