Tony Curtis

Tony Curtis

Name

Bernard Schwartz

Birthplace

The Bronx, New York, U.S.

Birth date

(1925-06-03)June 3, 1925

Death place

Henderson, Nevada, U.S.

Death date

September 29, 2010(2010-09-29) (aged 85)

Occupation

Actor

Active Years

1948–2010

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. 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.

Curtis with Marilyn Monroe in
Some 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

File:Tony Curtis 1997 cropped.JPG

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.^{(citation needed)}

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