Tony Curtis dies at 85

I was shocked that no one had made this post yet so I decided I would.

Legendary actor Tony Curtis, star of many classic 1950's movies, died late Wednesday evening of cardiac arrest at his home in Las Vegas. He was 85. The news was confirmed to Entertainment Tonight early this morning by his estranged daughter, actress Jamie Lee Curtis.

A friend of mine is named after him (his mom had a mega crush on Tony Curtis when my friend was born).

To read about some of the movies that made Tony Curtis famous check out this link:

http://blog.moviefone.com/2010/09/30/tony-curtis-death-movies-video/?icid=main%7Chtmlws-main-n%7Cdl2%7Csec1_lnk3%7C174474

Tony Curtis (June 3, 1925 – September 29, 2010) was an American film actor. He played a variety of roles, from light comedy, such as the musician on the run from gangsters in Some Like It Hot, to serious dramatic roles, such as an escaped convict in The Defiant Ones, which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. From 1949, he appeared in more than 100 films and made frequent television appearances.

Curtis was born Bernard Schwartz in the Bronx, New York, the son of Emanuel Schwartz and his wife, Helen Klein. His parents were Hungarian Jewish immigrants from Mátészalka, Hungary. Hungarian was Curtis' only language until he was five or six, postponing his schooling. His father was a tailor and the family lived in the back of the shop, the parents in one corner and Curtis and his brothers Julius and Robert in another. His mother had once made an appearance as a participant on the television show You Bet Your Life, hosted by Groucho Marx. Curtis said, "When I was a child, Mom beat me up and was very aggressive and antagonistic." His mother was later diagnosed with schizophrenia, a mental illness which also affected his brother Robert and led to Robert's institutionalization. When Curtis was eight, he and his younger 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 attended Seward Park High School.

During World War II, Curtis joined the United States Navy, inspired by watching Cary Grant in Destination Tokyo and Tyrone Power in Crash Dive (1943). He served aboard USS Proteus, a submarine tender, and on September 2, 1945, he witnessed the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay from about a mile away. Following his discharge, Curtis attended City College of New York under the G.I. Bill and studied acting at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York with the influential German stage director Erwin Piscator, along with Elaine Stritch, Walter Matthau, and Rod Steiger. He was discovered by a talent agent and casting director Joyce Selznick. Curtis claims it was because he "was the handsomest of the boys." Arriving in Hollywood in 1948 at age 23, he was placed under contract at Universal Pictures and changed his name to Tony Curtis, taking his first name from the novel Anthony Adverse and his last name from "Kurtz", a surname from his mother's family. Although the studio taught him fencing and riding, Curtis admits he was at first only interested in girls and money.

Curtis was married six times. His first wife was actress Janet Leigh, to whom he was married from 1951 to 1962, and with whom he fathered actresses Kelly and Jamie Lee Curtis."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." It was Leigh's third marriage. Curtis, who admitted to his infidelity throughout their marriage, divorced Leigh in 1962 to marry Christine Kaufmann, the 17-year-old German co-star of his latest film, Taras Bulba. He stated, however, that his marriage with Leigh had effectively ended "a year earlier". In 1963 Curtis married Kaufmann. They had two daughters, Alexandra (born July 19, 1964) and Allegra (born July 11, 1966). They divorced in 1968. Kaufmann resumed her career, which she had interrupted during her marriage.

Curtis was also married to:

Leslie Allen (April 20, 1968 – 1982) had two sons

Andria Savio (1983 – 1992)

Lisa Deutsch (February 28, 1993 – 1994)

Jill Vandenberg Curtis (November 6, 1998 – September 29, 2010)( his death)

In 1998, he founded the Emanuel Foundation for Hungarian Culture, and served as honorary chairperson. The organization works for the restoration and preservation of synagogues and 1300 Jewish cemeteries in Hungary. He dedicated this to the 600,000 Hungarian victims of the Holocaust.

His son Nicholas (December 31, 1970 — April 2, 1994, with Leslie Allen) died of a heroin overdose at the age of 23.

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