Tony Curtis

Tony Curtis (born Bernard Schwartz; June 3, 1925 – September 29, 2010) was an American film actor whose career spanned six decades. He is the father of Kelly Curtis and Jamie Lee Curtis.
==Early life==
Tony Curtis was born Bernard Schwartz on June 3, 1925, at the Flower Fifth Avenue Hospital on 105th Street in Manhattan, New York City, the first of three boys born to Helen (née Klein) and Emanuel Schwartz. 
Biographies have propagated a misconception that he was born in the Bronx, probably due to the family's moves when he was very young, but Tony pointedly corrected this in a TV interview.
His parents were Hungarian-Jewish emigrants from Czechoslovakia and Hungary: his father was born in Ópályi, near Mátészalka, and his mother was a native of Nagymihály (now Michalovce, Slovakia); she later said she arrived in the U.S. from Válykó (now 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 parents in one corner and Curtis and his brothers Julius and Robert in another. His mother made an appearance as a participant on the television show You Bet Your Life on February 9, 1956, hosted by Groucho Marx. 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.
===Military service===
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.Private Screenings: Tony Curtis Turner Classic Movies, January 19, 1999. 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.
==Career==
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.
===Universal as Anthony Curtis===
Under contract at Universal Pictures, he changed his name from Bernard Schwartz to Anthony Curtis and met unknown actors Rock Hudson, James Best, Julie Adams and Piper Laurie. The first name was from the novel Anthony Adverse and "Curtis" was from Kurtz, a surname in his mother's family. Although Universal Pictures taught him fencing and riding, in keeping with the cinematic themes of the era, Curtis admitted he was at first interested only in girls and money and was not hopeful of his chances of becoming a major star. Curtis's biggest fear was having to return home to the Bronx as a failure:
I was a million-to-one shot, the least likely to succeed. I wasn't low man on the totem pole, I was under the totem pole, in a sewer, tied to a sack. 
Curtis's uncredited screen debut came in Criss Cross (1949) playing a rumba dancer, dancing with Yvonne de Carlo. The male star was Burt Lancaster who would make a number of films with Curtis.
In his second film, City Across the River (also in 1949), he was credited as "Anthony Curtis". He had four lines in The Lady Gambles (1949) and a bigger part in Johnny Stool Pigeon (1949). He could also be spotted in Francis (1950), Woman in Hiding (1950), and I Was a Shoplifter (1950).
He was in three Westerns, Sierra (1950), starring Audie Murphy, one of many names he worked with (including fellow Universal contractee, Rock Hudson), Winchester '73 (1950), starring James Stewart and Shelley Winters, and Kansas Raiders (1951), in which he supported Murphy again, playing Kit Dalton and billed as "Tony Curtis." 
===Stardom===
Curtis was receiving numerous fan letters, so Universal awarded him the starring role in The Prince Who Was a Thief (1951), a swashbuckler set in the Middle East with Piper Laurie. It was a hit at the box office and Curtis was now established.
He followed it up with Flesh and Fury (1952), a boxing movie; No Room for the Groom (1952), a comedy with Laurie directed by Douglas Sirk; and Son of Ali Baba (1952), another film set in the Arab world with Laurie.
Curtis then teamed up with then-wife Janet Leigh in Houdini (1953), in which Curtis played the title role. His next movies were more "B" fare: All American (1953), as a footballer; Forbidden (1953), as a criminal; Beachhead (1954), a war film; Johnny Dark (1954), with Laurie, as a racing car driver; and The Black Shield of Falworth (1954), a medieval swashbuckler with Leigh. The box office performances of these films were solid, and Curtis was growing in popularity.
For a change of pace he did a musical, So This Is Paris (1955), then it was back to more typical fare: Six Bridges to Cross (1955), as a bank robber; The Purple Mask (1955), a swashbuckler; The Square Jungle (1955), a boxing film.
===Major star===
Curtis graduated to more prestigious projects when he was cast in support of Burt Lancaster and Gina Lollobrigida in Trapeze (1956). It was one of the biggest hits of the year.
Curtis made a Western, The Rawhide Years (1957), was a gambler in Mister Cory (1957) and a cop in The Midnight Story (1957). Lancaster asked for him again, to play scheming press agent Sidney Falco in Sweet Smell of Success (1957), starring and co-produced by Lancaster. The film was a box office disappointment, but Curtis, for the first time in his career, received sensational reviews.
Another star-maker, Kirk Douglas, was eager to work with him in The Vikings (1958). Janet Leigh also starred, and the resulting movie was a box office hit. Curtis then co-starred with Frank Sinatra and Natalie Wood in Kings Go Forth (1958), a war story. It was mildly popular, but The Defiant Ones (1958), was a bigger success. Curtis gave an Oscar-nominated performance as a bigoted white escaped convict chained to a black man, Sidney Poitier.
thumb|Curtis with Marilyn Monroe inSome Like It Hot (1959)
Curtis and Janet Leigh then made a popular comedy for Blake Edwards at Universal, The Perfect Furlough (1958). He co-starred with Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe in Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot (1959). It was a huge success and became a classic; equally popular was Operation Petticoat (1959), a military comedy which Curtis made for Edwards alongside Cary Grant.
Curtis and Leigh made one more film together Who Was That Lady? (1960), a comedy with Dean Martin. He and Debbie Reynolds then starred in The Rat Race (1960).
Douglas came calling again, offering Curtis a key role in the former's epic production Spartacus (1960). It was a huge hit and earned Curtis a Golden Globe nomination.
Curtis then made two biopics: The Great Impostor (1961), directed by Robert Mulligan, playing Ferdinand Waldo Demara; and The Outsider (1961), in which he played war hero Ira Hayes. He returned to epics with Taras Bulba (1962), co starring Yul Brynner and Christine Kaufmann, who became Curtis' second wife.
===Comedic roles===
He starred with Suzanne Pleshette in the comedy 40 Pounds of Trouble (1962), which was a mild hit.
Curtis was one of many stars who had small roles in The List of Adrian Messenger (1963). He supported Gregory Peck in Captain Newman, M.D. (1963) and had an uncredited dual role in Paris When It Sizzles (1964). He and Kaufman made their third movie together, the comedy Wild and Wonderful (1964). His focus remained on comedies: Goodbye Charlie (1964), with Debbie Reynolds; Sex and the Single Girl (1964), with Natalie Wood; The Great Race (1965), with Wood and Lemmon for Blake Edwards — the most expensive comedy film up till that time, but popular; Boeing Boeing (1965) a sex farce with Jerry Lewis; Not with My Wife, You Don't! (1966) with George C. Scott; Drop Dead Darling (1966), a British comedy; Don't Make Waves (1967), a satire of beach life from director Alexander Mackendrick, with Claudia Cardinale; and On My Way to the Crusades, I Met a Girl Who... (1967), an Italian comedy with Monica Vitti. In the early 1960s, he was a voice-over guest star on The Flintstones as "Stoney Curtis".
===The Boston Strangler===
Because of the poor performance of a series of comedies, Curtis fired his agent and took a pay cut to $100,000 to play the title role in The Boston Strangler (1968), his first dramatic film in several years. Response from the critics and public was excellent. He returned to comedy for Monte Carlo or Bust! (1969), an all-star car race film in the vein of The Great Race.
He made some comic adventure tales: You Can't Win 'Em All (1970) with Charles Bronson and Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came (1970).
Curtis decided it was time to turn to television and co-starred with Roger Moore in the TV series The Persuaders!.
He was one of the villains in The Count of Monte Cristo (1975) and had the title role in the gangster film Lepke (1975). Curtis had the lead in a TV series that did not last, McCoy (1975–76). He was one of many names in The Last Tycoon (1976) and had the title role in an Italian comedy Casanova & Co. (1977). Later, Curtis co-starred as a casino owner in the Robert Urich 1978-1981 ABC series Vega$ and was in The Users (1978).
===Later career===
thumb|upright|Curtis in 1997
Curtis supported Mae West in Sextette (1978) and starred in The Manitou (1978), a horror film, and The Bad News Bears Go to Japan (1978), a comedy. He had good roles in It Rained All Night the Day I Left (1980), Little Miss Marker (1980) and The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980) and was one of many stars in The Mirror Crack'd (1980). On television, he continued to make occasional guest appearances (sometimes playing fictional versions of himself) into the mid-2000s. His final TV series was as host of the documentary-retrospective series "Hollywood Babylon" 
(adapting Kenneth Anger's book series) in 1992–1993; each episode would include Curtis recalling some anecdotes from his own career.
===Painter===
Throughout his life, Curtis enjoyed painting and, beginning in the early 1980s, painted as a second career. His work commands more than $25,000 a canvas now. In the last years of his life, he concentrated on painting rather than movies. A surrealist, Curtis claimed Van Gogh, [Paul] Matisse, Picasso, and Magritte as influences. "I still make movies but I'm not that interested in them any more. But I paint all the time." In 2007, his painting The Red Table was on display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. His paintings can also be seen at the Tony Vanderploeg Gallery in Carmel, California.
Curtis spoke of his disappointment at never being awarded an Oscar. In March 2006, Curtis received the Sony Ericsson Empire Lifetime Achievement Award. He also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame inducted in 1960, and received the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from France in 1995.
==Filmography==
===Film===
Year	Title 	Role 	Notes
1949	Criss Cross 	Gigolo 	Uncredited
1949	City Across the River 	Mitch 	credited as Anthony Curtis
1949	Johnny Stool Pigeon 	Joey Hyatt 	credited as Anthony Curtis
1949	The Lady Gambles 	Bellboy 	credited as Anthony Curtis
1949	Take One False Step 	Hot Rod Driver 	Uncredited
1949	How to Smuggle a Hernia Across the Border 	unknown role 	Short
1950	Francis 	Captain Jones 	credited as Anthony Curtis
1950	Woman in Hiding 	Dave Shaw 	Voice, Uncredited
1950	I Was a Shoplifter 	Pepe 	credited as Anthony Curtis
1950	Sierra 	Brent Coulter 	credited as Anthony Curtis
1950	Winchester '73 	Doan 	credited as Anthony Curtis
1950	Kansas Raiders 	Kit Dalton 	
1951	The Prince Who Was a Thief 	Julna 	
1952	Flesh and Fury 	Paul Callan 	
1952	No Room for the Groom 	Alvah Morrell 	
1952	Son of Ali Baba 	Kashma Baba 	
1952	Meet Danny Wilson 	Himself – Nightclub Patron 	Uncredited
1953	Houdini 	Harry Houdini 	
1953	All American 	Nick Bonnelli 	
1953	Forbidden 	Eddie 	
1954	Beachhead 	Burke 	
1954	Johnny Dark 	Johnny Dark 	
1954	The Black Shield of Falworth 	Myles 	
1954	So This Is Paris 	Joe Maxwell 	
1955	Six Bridges to Cross 	Jerry Florea 	
1955	The Purple Mask 	Rene de Traviere aka Purple Mask 	
1955	The Square Jungle 	Eddie Quaid/Packy Glennon 	
1956	Trapeze 	Tino Orsini 	
1956	The Rawhide Years 	Ben Matthews 	
1957	Mister Cory 	Cory 	
1957	The Midnight Story 	Joe Martini 	
1957	Sweet Smell of Success 	Sidney Falco 	also Executive Producer
1958	The Vikings 	Eric 	
1958	Kings Go Forth 	Corporal Britt Harris 	
1958	The Defiant Ones 	John "Joker" Jackson 	
1958	The Perfect Furlough 	Corporal Paul Hodges 	
1959	Some Like It Hot 	Joe / Josephine/ Shell Oil Junior 	
1959	Operation Petticoat 	Lieutenant Nicholas Holden 	
1960	Who Was That Lady? 	David Wilson 	
1960	The Rat Race 	Pete Hammond, Jr. 	
1960	Spartacus 	Antoninus 	
1960	Pepe 	Himself 	uncredited
1960	The Great Imposter 	Ferdinand Waldo Demara, Jr. / Martin Donner / Dr. Gilbert	
1961	The Outsider 	Ira Hamilton Hayes 	
1962	Taras Bulba 	Andriy Bulba 	
1962	40 Pounds of Trouble 	Steve McCluskey 	
1963	The List of Adrian Messenger 	Organ Grinder 	cameo
1963	Captain Newman, M.D. 	Corporal Jackson "Jake" Leibowitz 	
1964	Paris When It Sizzles 	Maurice / Philippe – 2nd Policeman 	Uncredited
1964	Wild and Wonderful 	Terry Willams 	
1964	Goodbye Charlie 	George Tracy 	
1964	Sex and the Single Girl 	Bob Weston 	
1965	The Great Race 	The Great Leslie 	
1965	Boeing, Boeing 	Bernard Lawrence 	
1966	Chamber of Horrors 	Mr. Julian 	Uncredited
1966	Not with My Wife, You Don't! 	Tom Ferris 	
1966	Arrivederci, Baby! 	Nick Johnson 	also known as Drop Dead Darling
1967	Don't Make Waves 	Carlo Cofield 	
1967	On My Way to the Crusades, I Met a Girl Who... 	Guerrando da Montone 	
1968	Rosemary's Baby 	Donald Baumgart 	Voice, Uncredited
1968	The Boston Strangler 	Albert DeSalvo 	
1969	Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies	Chester Schofield 	also known as Monte-Carlo or Bust!
1970	You Can't Win 'Em All 	Adam Dyer 	
1970	Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came? 	Shannon Gambroni 	
1975	Lepke 	Louis "Lepke" Buchalter 	
1976	The Last Tycoon 	Rodriguez 	
1977	Some Like It Cool 	Giacomino / Casanova 	
1977	The Manitou 	Harry Erskine 	
1978	Sextette 	Alexei Karansky 	
1978	The Bad News Bears Go to Japan 	Marvin Lazar 	
1979	Title Shot 	Frank Renzetti 	
1980	Little Miss Marker 	Blackie 	
1980	It Rained All Night the Day I Left 	Robert Talbot 	
1980	The Mirror Crack'd 	Martin N. Fenn 	
1982	Black Commando 	Colonel Iago 	
1982	BrainWaves 	Dr. Clavius 	
1982	Sparky's Magic Piano 	TV interviewer 	Voice, Direct-to-Video
1983	Dexter the Dragon & Bumble the Bear 	unknown role 	Voice, English version
1983	Balboa 	Ernie Stoddard 	
1984	Where Is Parsifal? 	Parsifal Katzenellenbogen 	
1985	Insignificance 	Senator 	
1986	Club Life 	Hector 	
1986	The Last of Philip Banter 	Charles Foster 	
1988	Welcome to Germany 	Mr. Cornfield 	
1989	Lobster Man from Mars 	J.P. Shelldrake 	
1989	Midnight 	Mr. B 	
1989	Walter & Carlo i Amerika 	Willy La Rouge 	
1991	Prime Target 	Marietta Copella 	
1992	Center of the Web 	Stephen Moore 	
1993	Naked in New York 	Carl Fisher 	
1993	The Mummy Lives 	Aziru / Dr. Mohassid 	
1995	The Immortals 	Dominic 	
1997	Bounty Hunters 2: Hardball 	Wald 	Direct-to-Video
1997	Brittle Glory 	Jack Steele 	
1998	Louis & Frank 	Lenny Star Springer 	
1998	Stargames 	King Fendel 	
1999	Play It to the Bone 	Ringside Fan 	
2002	Reflections of Evil 	Host 	
2006	Where's Marty? 	Himself 	Direct-to-DVD
2007	The Blacksmith and the Carpenter 	God 	Voice, Short
2008	David & Fatima 	Mr. Schwartz 	Final film role
===Television===
Year 	Title 	Role 	Notes
1955 	Allen in Movieland 	Himself 	Television Movie
1955–1956	The Ed Sullivan Show 	Himself (Guest) 	3 episodes
1959 	The Joseph Cotten Show: On Trial 	Charlie 	Episode: "Man on a Rock"
1960 	Startime 	The Juggler 	Episode: "The Young Juggler"also Executive Producer
1965 	The Flintstones 	Stony Curtis 	Voice, Episode: "The Return of Stony Curtis"
1968 	The Song Is You 	Himself 	Television Movie
1968–1971	Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In 	Himself (Guest Performer) 	recurring role (8 episodes)
1970 	American Cancer Society anti-smoking public service announcements	Himself 	multiple PSAs plus interview with Martin Agronsky on WTOP-TV News.
1971–1972	The Persuaders! 	Danny Wilde / Aunt Sophie 	series regular (24 episodes)
1972 	The ABC Comedy Hour 	Himself (Guest Performer) 	Episode: "The Friars Roast of Joe Namath"
1972 	The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour 	Himself (Guest Performer) 	2 episodes
1973 	The Third Girl from the Left 	Joey Jordan 	Television Movie
1973 	Shaft 	Clifford Grayson 	Episode: "Hit-Run"
1975 	The Count of Monte-Cristo 	Fernand Mondego 	Television Movie
1975–1976	McCoy 	McCoy 	series regular (5 episodes)
1978 	The Users 	Randy Brent 	Television Movie
1978–1981	Vega$ 	Roth 	series regular (17 episodes)
1980 	The Scarlett O'Hara War 	David O. Selznick 	Television Movie
1981 	Inmates: A Love Story 	Flanagan 	Television Movie
1981 	The Million Dollar Face 	Chester Masterson 	Television Movie
1982 	Portrait of a Showgirl 	Joey DeLeon 	Television Movie
1983 	The Fall Guy 	Joe O'Hara 	Episode: "Eight Ball"
1986 	Mafia Princess 	Sam Giancana 	Television Movie
1986 	Murder in Three Acts 	Charles Cartwright 	Television Movie
1989 	Tarzan in Manhattan 	Archimedes Porter 	Television Movie
1989 	Charlie 	Scott Parish 	Television Movie
1990 	Thanksgiving Day 	Max Schloss 	Television Movie
1992 	Christmas in Connecticut 	Alexander Yardley 	Television Movie
1992–1993	Hollywood Babylon 	Himself (Host) 	5 episodes
1994 	Bandit: Beauty and the Bandit 	Lucky Bergstrom 	Television Movie
1994 	A Perry Mason Mystery: The Case of the Grimacing Governor 	Johnny Steele 	Television Movie
1994 	Cilla's World 	Himself 	Television Movie
1995–2003	Biography 	Himself (Interviewee) 	4 episodes– Episode: "Roger Moore" (1995)– Episode: "Ernest Borgnine" (2000)– Episode: "Tony Curtis" (2001)– Episode: "Janet Leigh" (2003)
1996 	Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman 	Dr. Mamba 	Episode: "I Now Pronounce You..."
1996 	Roseanne 	Hal 	Episode: "Ballroom Blitz"
1997 	Elvis Meets Nixon 	Himself 	Uncredited, Television Movie
1998 	Suddenly Susan 	Peter DiCaprio 	Episode: "Matchmaker, Matchmaker"
2004 	Hope & Faith 	Morris 	Episode: "Jack's Back"
2005 	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation 	Himself 	Episode: "Grave Danger (Part 1)"
2006 	60 Minutes 	Himself 	Episode: "Gay Marriage/The Marilyn Mystery"
2010 	Who Wants to Be a Millionaire 	Himself (Celebrity Question Presenter)	Episode: "Million Dollar Movie Week 1"
===Box office ranking===
For a number of years Curtis was voted by exhibitors in an annual poll from Quigley Publishing as among the top stars in the United States:
* 1954—23rd
* 1959—18th
* 1960—6th
* 1961—9th
* 1962—18th
==External links==
*Tony Curtis on Wikipedia 
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Category:American male film actors
Category:American male television actors
Category:American people of Hungarian descent
Category:American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
Category:American Jews
Category:David di Donatello Career Award winners
Category:Jewish American male actors
Category:Male actors from New York City
Category:Male actors from California
Category:Male actors from Nevada
Category:People from the Bronx
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Category:Writers from Nevada