Janet Leigh & Tony Curtis Biography

The romance and marriage in 1951 began happily - both actors were rising stars, their names faces graced the covers of the magazines and the fans swooned. The couple hung out with Frank Sinatra’s 'Rat Pack', drinking and indulging through the night. As Leigh grew up, she became ever more sexy and glamourous. Dying her hair blonder and wearing her clothes tighter, she was often photographed in provocative poses.

Playing to the adoring the fans, big name films started to sign the beautiful actors and their schedules filled up. In 1953, Curtis and Leigh took the leading roles in 'Houdini', a razzle-dazzle biography of the great escape artist. It was the first of five films they were to make together.

As the work piled up, Leigh discovered she was pregnant with her first daughter Kelly in 1956, and two years later she gave birth to their second daughter, Jamie Lee.

After a decade of marriage, problems became apparent. Curtis’ love of intoxicants was legendary and both stars were reveling in massive personal success. In 1960 alone, Leigh was famously butchered in the shower in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho and Curtis stared in Stanely Kubrick’s mighty Spartacus.

Divorce came in 1962, when Curtis dumped Leigh and the children for a young Austrian actress, Christine Kaufmann. He went on to marry four more times. And Leigh almost immediately remarried stockbroker Robert Brandt and moved with her daughters to live a quieter life in the suburbs of LA.