Tony Curtis Biography

A truck killed his brother, Julius, in 1938, by which time the young Curtis had already joined a street gang.

Curtis joined the Navy in 1943. After the Second World War, he joined the Dramatic Workshop in the City College of New York. In 1948, with the prospect of a job offer from Universal, he moved to California.

His screen debut was in 'Criss Cross' in 1948, initially billed as James Curtis, before changing to Anthony. Moving his family to California the next year, he married top actress Janet Leigh in 1951, the first of many failed marriages.

Curtis has been married six times. He fathered actresses Jamie Lee Curtis and Kelly Curtis with Janet Leigh. He has also been married to Jill Vandenberg Curtis (1998—), Lisa Deutsch (1993–1994), Andrea Savio (1984–1992), Leslie Allen (1968–1982) and Christine Kaufmann (1963–1967).

Tragically, his son, Nicholas (with Leslie Allen), died of a heroin overdose in 1994 at the age of 23.

Curtis took varied work, making it big with 'The Sweet Smell of Success', in 1957, and the Sidney Poitier film, 'The Defiant Ones', in 1958, for which he won an Oscar nomination.

His enduring fame rests upon his starring role in Billy Wilder’s 1959 classic, 'Some Like It Hot', where he showed off his comedic skills alongside Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon. He also shone throughout the next decade in films such as 'The Vikings' (1958), 'Spartacus' (1960) and 'The Boston Strangler' (1968).

Curtis was also famous for his friendship with Hollywood’s ‘Rat Pack’: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Junior, and he appeared in several Rat Pack films, such as 'Pepe', in 1960.

In the early 1970s, Curtis appeared on British TV in 'The Persuaders', and wrote his first novel, 'Kid Andrew Cody & Julie Sparrow', in 1977.

Curtis has been active in promoting Jewish-Hungarian culture and founded the Emanuel Foundation for Hungarian Culture.

After undergoing a cardiac bypass operation in 1994, Curtis is still working and writing.