In the early hours of this morning,
Tony Curtis passed away at the age of 85 after a couple of years marked by failing health. Born in the Bronx, the son of Hungarian immigrants, Curtis would rise to become one of the biggest movie stars of his generation. For around twenty years, between the early-50s and the early-70s, Curtis took starring roles in major pictures which saw him work for some of the top directors of the day: Carol Reed ('Trapeze'), Alexander Mackendrick ('The Sweet Smell of Success'), Blake Edwards ('Operation Petticoat'), Billy Wilder ('Some Like It Hot'), Stanley Kramer ('The Defiant Ones'), Stanley Kubrick ('Spartacus') and Roman Polanski ('Rosemary's Baby'). Curtis was considered something of a meathead during the fifties, but he began to earn rave reviews - and an Oscar nomination - for 1958's '
The Defiant Ones', alongside Sidney Poitier. In 1959 Curtis played perhaps his best remembered role, alongside Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe in '
Some Like It Hot'. His hilarious Cary Grant impression in that film may have been a topic of conversation on set in '
Operation Petticoat' later that year, as he starred opposite Grant - an actor he idolised. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udZgIsIKU30& Known as a charismatic comic lead (and in his private life, earning a reputation as something of a Lothario), Curtis had a wider acting range than was often explored. When he left his comfort zone he displayed that he was a fine dramatic actor. In '
Spartacus', alongside Kirk Douglas, Curtis is in some ways the emotional centre of the story - he was certainly the character I always rooted for as a kid. In 1968 he appeared in the title role of '
The Boston Stranger'. He regarded this performance as the greatest of his career, but the change from affable hero to dark and sinister murderer (in a film which graphically depicted violence towards women) may have been a contributing factor in the subsequent rapid decline of his career. Other factors may have been the changing nature of the American film industry, which in the late-60s was experiencing a "New Wave" and breaking away from studio-era Hollywood, as well as the simple fact that by this time Curtis was in his forties and no longer able to play the same boyish looking rogue he had popularised.
By 1971, Curtis was a regular face on television, starring opposite Roger Moore in the detective show, '
The Persuaders!', and after that show ended he never really found a place in the movies again. He continued to appear in films, often in small cameo roles, but he would never again be an A-list star. But he was never a bitter or resentful man, by all accounts. Curtis apparently always acknowledged the great luck that had come his way in being able to move from the poverty of his childhood to a life of international fame, riches and beautiful women. In his latter life he became a dedicated philanthropist and a spirited raconteur. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u93bhAimFFU There is an old anecdote I once heard attributed to Lawrence Olivier. I can't find reference to it anywhere so it could be false, but it works so I'm using it anyway: A producer says to Olivier "Tony Curtis is a movie star. You could see him playing a milkman and you'd go 'that's a movie star!'" to which Olivier apparently replied, "aren't you supposed to think 'that's a milkman?'" Olivier is, of course, right. But Tony Curtis, above all else, was a genuine movie star: someone who loomed large on the silver screen and demanded your attention. He was funny, likeable and sweet in his films, and will be justly remembered as one of the great stars of Hollywood's "Golden Age".