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Tony Curtis (born Bernard Schwartz on
June 3, 1925) is an American film actor. He is best
known for light comic roles, especially his musician on
the run from gangsters in Some Like It Hot (1959) with
Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe. He has also played
serious dramatic roles, such as the escaped convict in
The Defiant Ones (1958), which earned him an Academy
Award nomination. Since 1949, he has appeared in more
than 100 films and has made frequent television
appearances. |
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Curtis was born as Bernard Schwartz in the
Bronx, New York, the son of Hungarian Jewish immigrants Helen (née
Klein) and Emanuel Schwartz. His father was a tailor. The family
lived in the back of the tailor shop, his parents in one corner and
Curtis and his brothers Julius and Robert in another. Curtis has
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 his
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, his brother
Julius was struck and killed by a truck.
During
World War II Curtis served in the United States Navy aboard USS
Proteus (AS-19), a submarine tender. On September 2, 1945, he
witnessed the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay from about a mile
away.
Following his military service, Curtis studied acting in New York
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.
Although the studio taught him fencing and riding, Curtis admits he
was at first only interested in girls and money.
Curtis's screen debut came uncredited in the
Criss Cross playing a rumba dancer. Later, he cemented his
reputation with breakout performances such as in the role of the
scheming press agent Sidney Falco in Sweet Smell of Success with
Burt Lancaster (who also starred in Criss Cross) and an
Oscar-nominated performance as a bigoted escaped convict chained to
Sidney Poitier in The Defiant Ones.
He was so popular during the 1950s as a screen hunk that
Elvis Presley copied his on-screen ducktail hairstyle.
Curtis also appeared frequently on television; he co-starred with
Roger
Moore in the TV series The
Persuaders!. Later, he co-starred in McCoy and Vega$. In the early
1960s, he was immortalized as "Stony Curtis," a voice-over guest
star on
The Flintstones.
Throughout his life, Curtis has enjoyed painting, and since the
early 1980s, has painted as a second career. His work commands more
than $25,000 a canvas now and he now focuses on painting rather than
movies. "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 in Manhattan.
Curtis has spoken in the past of his disappointment at never being
awarded an Oscar. "My profession has never recognized me
sufficiently for my work." But in March 2006, Curtis did receive the
Sony Ericsson Empire Lifetime Achievement Award. He also has a star
on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and received the Ordre des Arts et
des Lettres (Order of Arts and Letters) from France in 1995. |
