Born:
June 03, 1925
in
New York
Best Known For:
His glittering Hollywood career.
Early-life:
Born Bernard Schwartz on June 3, 1925, in the Bronx, New York. His parents were Hungarian immigrants. His father was a tailor; his mother suffered from schizophrenia, which also affected his brother Robert, who was later institutionalised. His other brother, Julius, was killed in a road accident when Curtis was 12. He served in the US Navy during the Second World War and witnessed the Japanese surrender. On returning home, he studied acting in New York alongside the likes of Rod Steiger and Walter Matthau.
Career:
After being spotted by a talent scout, Curtis was signed by Universal Pictures in 1948. He admits he was interested only in earning money and wooing girls, but he quickly built a hugely successful career. He made his screen debut with walk-on parts in several movies in 1949. By the end of the 1950s, he'd become a major star thanks to films such as The Sweet Smell of Success, The Vikings, The Defiant Ones and Some Like It Hot. More major films followed in the next decade, but in the 1970s he won new fans with TV series The Persuaders! and McCoy. Away from acting, Curtis was an accomplished artist. He suffered from several illnesses in his later years, and underwent heart bypass surgery in 1994. He died from a cardiac arrest on September 29, 2010, at the age of 85.
Quote:
"I wouldn't be seen dead with a woman old enough to be my wife."
Trivia:
He married six times, most famously to fellow thespian Janet Leigh, mother of his actress daughter Jamie Lee Curtis. He also claimed to have had a fling with Marilyn Monroe, and Christine Kaufman, his then teenage Taras Bulba co-star. He was married to Jill Vandenberg, 42 years his junior, from 1998 until his death. He had six children.