Tony Curtis

Actor Tony Curtis buried after Vegas funeral OSKAR GARCIA, The Associated Press LAS VEGAS (AP) — Actor Tony Curtis was buried Monday with a melange of his favorite possessions — a Stetson hat, an Armani scarf, driving gloves, an iPhone and a copy of his favorite novel, "Anthony Adverse," a book that inspired his celebrity name and launched a robust film career that spanned decades and genres. The 85-year-old Oscar-nominated actor who starred in such films as "The Defiant Ones" and "Some Like It Hot" died Wednesday at his home in Henderson, a Las Vegas suburb, after suffering cardiac arrest. More than 400 celebrities, fans, friends and family members gathered to say goodbye at a public funeral Monday in Las Vegas. A montage of Curtis' famous film roles opened the sometimes solemn, sometimes mirthful service attended by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, actor Jamie Lee Curtis, porn star Ron Jeremy and Vera Goulet, widow of Broadway singer Robert Goulet. The crowd laughed as an animated Curtis appeared in a scene from the television series "The Flintstones" and sparred with actor Kirk Douglas in "Spartacus." Friends and fans lined up outside Palm Mortuary & Cemetery well before the funeral, with more than a dozen photographers and television journalists watching the scene. Inside, seven colorful paintings and three black-and-white drawings by Curtis stood on easels, while a photo of the young, dark-haired actor was projected on a screen. The coffin was draped with an American flag. Jamie Lee Curtis, Curtis' daughter from his first marriage with "Psycho" actress Janet Leigh, teared up as she described a man who was, she said, "a little meshuga" — Yiddish for crazy — but always full of life. "All of us got something from him. I, of course, got his desperate need for attention," she joked. The father and daughter were estranged for a long period but eventually reconciled. Curtis took pride in his daughter's on-screen credits, which include "Perfect," ''Halloween," ''True Lies" and the new comedy "You Again." Rabbi Mel Hecht called Schwarzenegger to the front of the room for an impromptu farewell. The Austria native recalled Curtis as a generous mentor who encouraged Schwarzenegger's budding Hollywood career when others told him his foreign accent and name were too much of a handicap. Curtis, whose native Bronx accent initially earned him similar criticism, could sympathize. "You are going to make it," Schwarzenegger recalled Curtis telling him. "Don't pay any attention to those guys. I heard the same thing when I came here." Schwarzenegger said Curtis refused to feel old. "I mean, who has the guts to take off their clothes at the age of 80?" Schwarzenegger said, recalling Curtis' naked photo shoot in Vanity Fair in 2005. Curtis' sixth wife, Jill Curtis, eulogized her husband of 12 years. She recalled how he easily dismissed their 45-year age difference when friends asked if he was worried about keeping up with a younger wife. "Well, if she dies, she dies," she said her husband would deadpan in reply. She recalled his simple loves: Krispy Kreme doughnuts, Splenda, his dog and white clothes. She urged family and friends to dwell not on his death, but on his extraordinary life. "He was, as one fan put it, a once-in-a-lifetime man," she said. The funeral was followed by the burial and then a reception for more than 100 invited guests at the Luxor hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Jill Curtis, who Curtis affectionately called Jillie, told The Associated Press her husband would have approved of the festive goodbye. "Tony didn't like funerals," she said. "He didn't want to make it funeral-y, more like a celebration." Known for his transformation from a pigeonholed pretty boy in the late 1940s and early '50s to a serious actor, Curtis reshaped himself over decades of work and made himself impossible to typecast. The metamorphosis was completed in 1957's "Sweet Smell of Success," in which he played a sleazy press agent manipulated by a ruthless newspaper columnist (Burt Lancaster). In person, Curtis loved giving friends and fans extra touches that made their face-to-face moments more memorable, longtime friend and pallbearer Gene Kilroy told the AP. "He had a certain way of making everybody feel like they were Spartacus," Kilroy said. Kilroy, an executive at Luxor, said billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian, actor Kirk Douglas and singer Phyllis McGuire were among seven honorary pallbearers. Curtis was born Bernard Schwartz in 1925, the son of Hungarian Jews who emigrated to the United States after World War I. His father, Manny Schwartz, yearned to be an actor, but work was hard to find with his heavy accent. He instead became a tailor, relocating the family repeatedly as he sought work. "I was always the new kid on the block, so I got beat up by the other kids," Curtis recalled in 1959. "I had to figure a way to avoid getting my nose broken. So I became the crazy new kid on the block." Curtis suffered tragedy at age 12 when his younger brother was killed in a traffic accident. Finding refuge in movies, he would ditch school to catch matinees starring Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Gary Cooper and other screen idols. After serving on a submarine during World War II, he enrolled in drama school on the G.I. Bill and was doing theater work when an agent lined up an audition with Universal, where he signed a seven-year contract starting at $100 a week at age 23. The studio gave him the name Anthony Curtis, taken from his favorite novel and the Anglicized name of a favorite uncle. He later shortened it to Tony Curtis. As his big-screen star faded in the 1960s, Curtis remolded himself as a character actor and turned to television with the 1970s action series "The Persuaders," costarring Roger Moore, and a recurring role on the crime drama "Vegas." Curtis earned an Emmy nomination in 1980 as producer David O. Selznick in the "Gone With the Wind" chronicle "The Scarlett O'Hara War." He also turned to writing with a 1977 novel, "Kid Cody and Julie Sparrow" and 1993's "Tony Curtis: The Autobiography." Curtis remained vigorous following heart bypass surgery in 1994, although his health declined in recent years. As the funeral ended Monday, a second film reel flashed before the crowd. The montage finished with the words "The End" cast on an image of Curtis shaking his head, as if he were disputing his own epilogue. ___ Associated Press Writer Cristina Silva contributed to this report. ___________________________________________ Family plans public farewell for actor Tony Curtis OSKAR GARCIA, The Associated Press LAS VEGAS (AP) — Celebrities, fans, friends and family members will say goodbye to Tony Curtis during public funeral services to celebrate the movie star's life. Curtis' wife, Jill Curtis, planned to eulogize her husband of 16 years Monday in Las Vegas, longtime friend and pallbearer Gene Kilroy told The Associated Press. The 85-year-old Oscar-nominated actor who starred in such films as "The Defiant Ones," ''Spartacus" and "Some Like It Hot" died Wednesday at his home in Henderson after suffering cardiac arrest. Known for shifting from a pigeonholed pretty boy in the late 1940s and early 1950s to a serious actor, Curtis reshaped himself over decades of work and make himself impossible to typecast. The transformation was completed in 1957's "Sweet Smell of Success," in which he played a sleazy press agent who is manipulated by a ruthless newspaper columnist (Burt Lancaster). In person, Kilroy said, Curtis loved giving friends and fans extra touches that made their face-to-face moments more memorable. "He had a certain way of making everybody feel like they were Spartacus," Kilroy said. An hourlong funeral is to be followed by burial and then a reception for 200 invited guests at the Luxor hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Kilroy, an executive at the casino, said billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian, actor Kirk Douglas and singer Phyllis McGuire are among seven honorary pallbearers. Jamie Lee Curtis, Curtis' daughter from his first marriage with "Psycho" actress Janet Leigh, is among family members expected to attend. She was estranged from her father for a long period, but they eventually reconciled and Curtis took pride in her on-screen credits that include "Perfect," ''Halloween," ''True Lies" and new comedy "You Again." She said in a statement that her father leaves behind a "legacy of great performances in movies and in his paintings and assemblages." Curtis was born Bernard Schwartz in the Bronx in 1925. His father wanted to be an actor, but was hindered by his heavy accent. Curtis found refuge in movies at age 12 after his younger brother was killed in a traffic accident. He served on a submarine during World War II, then enrolled in drama school on the G.I. Bill. An agent lined up an audition with Universal, and Curtis signed a seven-year contract starting at $100 a week at age 23. The studio gave him a new name: Anthony Curtis, taken from his favorite novel, "Anthony Adverse," and the Anglicized name of a favorite uncle. He later shortened it to Tony Curtis. ___________________________________________ Original Associated Press article KEN RITTER, The Associated Press HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) — Tony Curtis shaped himself from a 1950s movie heartthrob into a respected actor, showing a determined streak that served him well in such films as "Sweet Smell of Success," ''The Defiant Ones" and "Some Like It Hot." The Oscar-nominated actor died Wednesday evening of cardiac arrest at home in the Las Vegas-area city of Henderson, Clark County Coroner Mike Murphy said Thursday. He was 85. "He died peacefully here, surrounded by those who love him and have been caring for him," his wife, Jill Curtis, told The Associated Press outside their home. "All Tony ever wanted to be was a movie star. He didn't want to be the most dramatic actor. He wanted to be a movie star, ever since he was a little kid." Curtis began acting in frivolous movies that exploited his handsome physique and appealing personality then steadily moved to more substantial roles, starting in 1957 in the harrowing show business tale, "Sweet Smell of Success." In 1958, "The Defiant Ones" brought him an Academy Award nomination as best actor for his portrayal of a white racist who escaped from prison handcuffed to a black man played by Sidney Poitier. The following year, Curtis donned women's clothing and sparred with Marilyn Monroe in one of the most acclaimed film comedies ever, Billy Wilder's "Some Like It Hot." "He was a fine actor ... I shall miss him," said British actor Roger Moore, who starred alongside Curtis in TV's "The Persuaders." "He was great fun to work with, a great sense of humor and wonderful ad libs," Moore told Sky News. "We had the best of times." Curtis' first wife was actress Janet Leigh of "Psycho" fame; actress Jamie Lee Curtis is their daughter. "My father leaves behind a legacy of great performances in movies and in his paintings and assemblages," Jamie Lee Curtis said in a statement. "He leaves behind children and their families who loved him and respected him and a wife and in-laws who were devoted to him. He also leaves behind fans all over the world." Curtis struggled against drug and alcohol abuse as starring roles became fewer then bounced back in film and television as a character actor. His brash optimism returned, and he allowed his once-shiny black hair to turn silver. Again he came back after even those opportunities began to wane, reinventing himself as a writer and painter whose canvasses sold for as much as $20,000. "I'm not ready to settle down like an elderly Jewish gentleman, sitting on a bench and leaning on a cane," he said at 60. "I've got a helluva lot of living to do." Actress and activist Marlo Thomas said she was saddened that Curtis' death so closely followed the Sept. 22 death in Berkeley, Calif., of Eddie Fisher, a superstar singer of the 1950s. "Tony Curtis and Eddie Fisher in the same week. It's very sad," said Thomas, who starred in the late-1960s sitcom "That Girl" and won Emmy, Golden Globe, Grammy and Peabody awards. "He was funny, so very funny, very talented and a great spirit," Thomas said of Curtis. "I found him to be a darling guy." Curtis perfected his craft in forgettable films such as "Francis," ''I Was a Shoplifter," ''No Room for the Groom" and "Son of Ali Baba." He first attracted critical notice as Sidney Falco, a press agent seeking favor with a sadistic columnist, played by Burt Lancaster, in the 1957 classic "Sweet Smell of Success." In her book "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," film critic Pauline Kael wrote that in the film, "Curtis grew up into an actor and gave the best performance of his career." Other prestigious films followed: Stanley Kubrick's "Spartacus," ''The Vikings," ''Kings Go Forth," ''Operation Petticoat" and "Some Like It Hot." He also found time to do a voice acting gig as his prehistoric lookalike, Stony Curtis, in an episode of "The Flintstones." "The Defiant Ones" remained his only Oscar-nominated role. "I think it has nothing to do with good performances or bad performances," he told The Washington Post in 2002. "After the number of movies I made where I thought there should be some acknowledgment, there was nothing from the Academy. "My happiness and privilege is that my audience around the world is supportive of me, so I don't need the Academy." In 2000, an American Film Institute survey of the funniest films in history ranked "Some Like It Hot" at No. 1. Curtis — famously imitating Cary Grant's accent — and Jack Lemmon play jazz musicians who dress up as women to escape retribution after witnessing a gangland massacre. Monroe was their co-star, and Curtis and Lemmon were repeatedly kept waiting as Monroe lingered in her dressing room out of fear and insecurity. Curtis fumed over her unprofessionalism. When someone once remarked that it must be thrilling to kiss Monroe in the film's love scenes, the actor snapped, "It's like kissing Hitler." In later years, his opinion of Monroe softened, and in interviews he praised her unique talent. In 2002, Curtis toured in "Some Like It Hot" — a revised and retitled version of the 1972 Broadway musical "Sugar," which was based on the film. In the touring show, the actor graduated to the role of Osgood Fielding III, the part played in the movie by Joe E. Brown. After his star faded in the late 1960s, Curtis shifted to lesser roles. With jobs harder to find, he fell into drug and alcohol addiction. "From 22 to about 37, I was lucky," Curtis told Interview magazine in the 1980s. "But by the middle '60s, I wasn't getting the kind of parts I wanted, and it kind of soured me. ... But I had to go through the drug inundation before I was able to come to grips with it and realize that it had nothing to do with me, that people weren't picking on me." He recovered in the early '80s after a 30-day treatment at the Betty Ford Center. "Mine was a textbook case," he said in a 1985 interview. "My life had become unmanageable because of booze and dope. Work became a strain and a struggle. Because I didn't want to face the challenge, I simply made myself unavailable." One role during that era of struggle did bring him an Emmy nomination: his portrayal of David O. Selznick in the TV movie "The Scarlett O'Hara War," in 1980. He remained vigorous following heart bypass surgery in 1994, although his health had declined in recent years. "Definitely, I still watch his movies," said Roxanne Shannon, a neighbor of Curtis in the suburban golf course development about 11 miles southeast of the Las Vegas Strip. "What a handsome man, oh my God, and a great actor." Jill Curtis, his sixth wife, said Curtis had been hospitalized several times in recent weeks for treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung problems she blamed on smoking 30 years ago. She said he recently returned home, where died in his sleep. "His heart survived things that Tony would always say would kill an ordinary man," she said. "This time, his heart was ready to go and ready to be at peace." Curtis took a fatherly pride in daughter Jamie's success. They were estranged for a long period, then reconciled. "I understand him better now," she said, "perhaps not as a father but as a man." He also had five other children. Daughters Kelly, also with Leigh, and Allegra, with second wife Christine Kaufmann, also became actresses. His other wives were Leslie Allen, Andrea Savio, Lisa Deutsch and Jill VandenBerg, whom he married in 1998. Jill Curtis, 40, operates Shiloh Horse Rescue, a nonprofit refuge for abused and neglected horses. She said she planned to make arrangements for a public memorial. Tony Curtis married Janet Leigh in 1951, when they were both rising young stars. They divorced in 1963. "Tony and I had a wonderful time together; it was an exciting, glamorous period in Hollywood," Leigh, who died in 2004, once said. "A lot of great things happened, most of all, two beautiful children." Curtis was born Bernard Schwartz in the Bronx in 1925, the son of Hungarian Jews who had emigrated to the United States after World War I. His father, Manny Schwartz, had yearned to be an actor, but work was hard to find with his heavy accent. He settled for tailoring jobs, moving the family repeatedly as he sought work. "I was always the new kid on the block, so I got beat up by the other kids," Curtis recalled in 1959. "I had to figure a way to avoid getting my nose broken. So I became the crazy new kid on the block." His sidewalk histrionics helped avoid beatings and led to acting in plays at a settlement house. He also grew to love movies. "My whole culture as a boy was movies," he said. "For 11 cents, you could sit in the front row of a theater for 10 hours, which I did constantly." After serving in the Pacific during World War II and being wounded at Guam, he returned to New York and studied acting under the G.I. Bill. He appeared in summer stock theater and on the Borscht Circuit in the Catskills. Then an agent lined up an audition with a Universal-International talent scout. In 1948, at 23, he signed a seven-year contract with the studio, starting at $100 a week. Bernie Schwartz sounded too Jewish for a movie actor, so the studio gave him a new name: Anthony Curtis, taken from his favorite novel, "Anthony Adverse," and the Anglicized name of a favorite uncle. After his eighth film, he became Tony Curtis. The studio helped smooth the rough edges off the ambitious young actor. The last to go was his street-tinged Bronx accent, which had become a Hollywood joke. Curtis pursued another career as an artist, creating Matisse-like still lifes with astonishing speed. "I'm a recovering alcoholic," he said in 1990 as he concluded a painting in 40 minutes in the garden of the Bel-Air Hotel. "Painting has given me such a great pleasure in life, helped me to recover." He also turned to writing, producing a 1977 novel, "Kid Cody and Julie Sparrow." In 1993, he wrote "Tony Curtis: The Autobiography." ___ Associated Press Writers Bob Thomas in Los Angeles, Oskar Garcia in Henderson, Nev., and AP video producer Nicole Evatt in New York contributed to this report. ____________________________________________ The Associated Press Reaction to the death of Tony Curtis at home in Henderson, Nev., at age 85: ___ "All Tony ever wanted to be was a movie star. He didn't want to be the most dramatic actor. He wanted to be a movie star, ever since he was a little kid." — Jill Curtis, wife. ___ "My father leaves behind a legacy of great performances in movies and in his paintings and assemblages. He leaves behind children and their families who loved him and respected him and a wife and in-laws who were devoted to him. He also leaves behind fans all over the world." — Jamie Lee Curtis, daughter, actress. ___ "He's one of those actors who in the 50s was a beautiful, charismatic leading man, who became sort of iconic as a sex symbol. Not somebody who you originally thought had a lot of depth. He was just charming and funny and yet he revealed himself to be quite complex and gave some great performances." — Tony Goldwyn, actor, director and son of film producer Samuel Goldwyn, Jr. ___ "Tony Curtis was a Hollywood icon, a great performer and artist and devoted family man. I saw his extraordinary talent and ability to inspire generations of Americans firsthand on the set of 'Christmas in Connecticut,' and will always remember our times together." — Arnold Schwarzenegger, California governor and actor. ___ "The guy was such a sweetheart. Beautifully neurotic, in a very endearing kind of Woody Allen way." — Sam Rockwell, actor with Curtis in the 1998 movie "Louis and Frank." ___ "Tony Curtis and Eddie Fisher in the same week. It's very sad. He was funny, so very funny, very talented and a great spirit." — Marlo Thomas, actress, advocate and star of 1960s sitcom. "That Girl." __ "One thing Tony always said: 'God is great, he won't hurt us, 'cause he looks like Tony Curtis.' I guess now he knows how he looks." — Jill Curtis. __ "I'm fan of Billy Wilder films and you know, 'Some Like It Hot.' I mean, it's an iconic, comedic film. Besides the writing being brilliant, the acting was fantastic. Tony Curtis, I mean, he was phenomenal. He was a legend." — Jimmy Fallon, comic and television host. __ "He'd gotten to a transitional place at 55, 60 years old where all of a sudden they're looking for the next Tony Curtis. But the guy was filled with joy. One day we were sitting in a car together, a picture car, and he had these wonderful clothes on from the '30s, as did I, and he turned to me with a huge grin on his face and said, 'Isn't this fun? We're lucky people.'" — Brian Dennehy, actor, co-star with Curtis in the 1980 remake of "Little Miss Marker." __ "I am just a huge fan of his. What he gave to the world will live forever, which is a marvelous gift of this industry." — actress Diane Lane. ___ Associated Press staff members Oskar Garcia in Las Vegas, Michael Weinfeld in Washington, D.C., Nicole Evatt and Mesfin Fekadu in New York, and Christy Lemire in Los Angeles contributed to this report. ___________________________________________________________ Defiance, resilience marked career of Tony Curtis DAVID GERMAIN, The Associated Press From dressing in drag to posing nude for his 80th birthday, Tony Curtis truly was a defiant one. He overcame early typecasting as a lightweight pretty boy to become a serious actor in such films as "Sweet Smell of Success," ''Spartacus" and "The Defiant Ones," the latter earning him an Academy Award nomination. He resisted obsolescence, continually reshaping himself and taking lesser roles to find steady work in a business that prizes youth. He subdued alcohol and drug addictions, lived through six marriages and five divorces, and found peace with a new art as a painter. Curtis, whose wildly undefinable cast of characters ranged from a Roman slave leading the rebellious cry of "I'm Spartacus" to a jazz age musician wooing Marilyn Monroe while disguised as a woman in "Some Like It Hot," died Wednesday night. The 85-year-old actor suffered cardiac arrest at his home in Henderson, Nev., near Las Vegas, the coroner said Thursday. "My father leaves behind a legacy of great performances in movies and in his paintings and assemblages," Jamie Lee Curtis — his daughter with first wife Janet Leigh, co-star of "Psycho" — said in a statement. "He leaves behind children and their families who loved him and respected him and a wife and in-laws who were devoted to him. He also leaves behind fans all over the world." Starting his career in the late 1940s and early 1950s with bit parts as a juvenile delinquent or in such forgettable movies as the talking-mule comedy "Francis," Curtis rose to stardom as a swashbuckling heartthrob, mixing in somewhat heftier work such as the boxing drama "Flesh and Fury" and the title role in the film biography "Houdini." Hindered early on by a Bronx accent that drew laughs in Westerns and other period adventures, Curtis smoothed out his rough edges and silenced detractors with 1957's "Sweet Smell of Success," in which he played a sleazy press agent who becomes the fawning pawn of a ruthless newspaper columnist (Burt Lancaster). "Curtis grew up into an actor and gave the best performance of his career," critic Pauline Kael wrote in her book "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang." Yet it was sheer stardom, not critical acclaim, that drove Curtis, said his sixth wife, Jill Curtis. "All Tony ever wanted to be was a movie star. He didn't want to be the most dramatic actor," Jill Curtis said. "He wanted to be a movie star, ever since he was a little kid." A year after "Sweet Smell of Success," Curtis was nominated for a best-actor Oscar in "The Defiant Ones" as a white escaped prisoner forced to set aside his racism to work with the black inmate (Sidney Poitier) to whom he is handcuffed. "He's one of those actors who in the '50s was a beautiful, charismatic leading man, who became sort of iconic as a sex symbol. Not somebody who you originally thought had a lot of depth. He was just charming and funny and yet he revealed himself to be quite complex and gave some great performances," said actor and director Tony Goldwyn, son of film producer Samuel Goldwyn Jr. In 1959, Curtis teamed with Monroe and Jack Lemmon for a screwball landmark, Billy Wilder's "Some Like It Hot," which ranks No. 1 on the American Film Institute's list of 100 best U.S. comedies. Curtis and Lemmon starred as 1920s musicians who disguise themselves as women in an all-girl band to hide out from mobsters after they witness the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. It was a masterful comic performance by Curtis, whose character pursues the band's singer (Monroe) both in drag and in another charade as a Shell Oil heir who talks like Cary Grant, with whom Curtis co-starred later that year in the Navy farce "Operation Petticoat." In Stanley Kubrick's "Spartacus," Curtis played star Kirk Douglas' loyal follower, leading a chorus of captured slaves shouting "I'm Spartacus!" to confound Roman oppressors seeking the ringleader of a rebellion. His other credits included "Captain Newman, M.D.," ''The Vikings," ''Kings Go Forth," ''Sex and the Single Girl" and "The Boston Strangler." He also did a wryly self-deprecating cartoon gig, providing the voice of his prehistoric lookalike, Stony Curtis, in a television episode of "The Flintstones." "The guy was such a sweetheart. Beautifully neurotic, in a very endearing kind of Woody Allen way," said Sam Rockwell, who co-starred with Curtis in the 1998 movie "Louis and Frank." Curtis and Lemmon collaborated again on 1965's "The Great Race." And more than 40 years after "Some Like It Hot," Curtis co-starred in a stage version, playing the role originated by Joe E. Brown in the film as a millionaire smitten by Lemmon's female alter-ego. To mark his 80th birthday in 2005, Curtis posed nude in Vanity Fair alongside his dogs, Josephine and Daphne, named after his and Lemmon's "Some Like It Hot" characters. By then, his shiny-black hair had turned silver, he had long since kicked booze and drugs, and painting his Matisse-like still-lifes filled much of the creative space left as his acting career waned. In a 2002 interview with The Associated Press, Curtis talked candidly about where his life was in his 50s, when he was relegated to television work and such movies as "The Bad News Bears Go to Japan" or the cheesy sex comedy "Some Like It Cool." "I wasn't happy with my marriages. I wasn't happy with the films I was getting. The next thing I know, I'm using cocaine and alcohol. And the next thing I know, I'm immersed in it," Curtis said. He checked into the Betty Ford Center and got himself clean and sober in the early 1980s, then spent time in Hawaii, where he sought solitude and painted. Though he acted in small parts fairly regularly through the 1990s and took occasional roles over the last decade, Curtis continued to enjoy life away from Hollywood in Las Vegas, where he lived with his sixth wife, the former Jill VandenBerg, whom he married in 1998. "Jilly and I, we don't need a lot of people around," Curtis said in the 2002 AP interview. "We get dressed for dinner, go down on the Strip, beautiful hotels. We see a show, we go dancing. During the day, I swim and I paint. I can't imagine living anywhere else anymore." Curtis had six children from his marriages. He was estranged for a long period from daughter Jamie Lee Curtis, whose credits include "Perfect," ''Halloween," ''True Lies" and last week's comedy release "You Again." He and his daughter eventually reconciled, and Curtis took great pride in her Hollywood success. Curtis had married her mother, Janet Leigh, in 1951, when both were rising young stars. They divorced in 1963. "Tony and I had a wonderful time together. It was an exciting, glamorous period in Hollywood," Leigh, who died in 2004, once said. "A lot of great things happened — most of all, two beautiful children." Curtis was born Bernard Schwartz in the Bronx in 1925, the son of Hungarian Jews who had emigrated to the United States after World War I. His father, Manny Schwartz, had yearned to be an actor, but work was hard to find with his heavy accent. He settled for tailoring jobs, moving the family repeatedly as he sought work. "I was always the new kid on the block, so I got beat up by the other kids," Curtis recalled in 1959. "I had to figure a way to avoid getting my nose broken. So I became the crazy new kid on the block." He suffered tragedy at age 12 when his younger brother was killed in a traffic accident. Finding refuge in movies, he would skip school to catch matinees starring Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Gary Cooper and other screen idols. After serving on a submarine during World War II, he enrolled in drama school on the G.I. Bill and was doing theater work when an agent lined up an audition with Universal, where he signed a seven-year contract starting at $100 a week at age 23. The studio gave him a new name: Anthony Curtis, taken from his favorite novel, "Anthony Adverse," and the Anglicized name of a favorite uncle. He later shortened it to Tony Curtis. As his big-screen star faded in the 1960s, Curtis remolded himself as a character actor and turned to television with the 1970s action series "The Persuaders," co-starring Roger Moore, and a recurring role on the crime drama "Vegas." Curtis earned an Emmy nomination in 1980 as producer David O. Selznick in the "Gone With the Wind" chronicle "The Scarlett O'Hara War." He also turned to writing with a 1977 novel, "Kid Cody and Julie Sparrow" and 1993's "Tony Curtis: The Autobiography." Curtis remained vigorous following heart bypass surgery in 1994, although his health declined in recent years. Jill Curtis said her husband had been hospitalized several times in recent weeks for lung problems she blamed on smoking 30 years ago. He recently returned home, where he died in his sleep, she said. Longtime friend and casino executive Gene Kilroy said memorial services would be held Monday in Las Vegas, with a reception at the Luxor hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Through his ups and downs, Curtis maintained a brash optimism. "One thing Tony always said: 'God is great. He won't hurt us, 'cause he looks like Tony Curtis,'" said wife Jill Curtis. "I guess now he knows how he looks." ___ Associated Press writers Bob Thomas in Los Angeles, Ken Ritter and Oskar Garcia in Las Vegas, AP entertainment editor Michael Weinfeld in Washington, and AP video producer Nicole Evatt in New York contributed to this report. ___________________________________________________________ The Associated Press, The Associated Press Highlights from Tony Curtis' career as a movie actor: — "Criss Cross," 1948 — "The Prince Who Was a Thief," 1951 — "Flesh and Fury," 1952 — "No Room for the Groom," 1952 — "Son of Ali Baba," 1952 — "Houdini," 1953 — "The Black Shield of Falworth," 1954 — "Trapeze," 1956 — "Sweet Smell of Success," 1957 — "The Vikings," 1958 — "Kings Go Forth," 1958 — "The Defiant Ones," 1958 — "The Perfect Furlough," 1958 — "Some Like It Hot," 1959 — "Operation Petticoat," 1959 — "Spartacus," 1960 — "Who Was That Lady?" 1960 — "The Great Impostor," 1961 — "The Outsider," 1961 — "40 Pounds of Trouble," 1962 — "Captain Newman, M.D.," 1963 — "Wild and Wonderful," 1964 — "Goodbye Charlie," 1964 — "Sex and the Single Girl," 1964 — "The Great Race," 1965 — "Boeing Boeing," 1965 — "The Boston Strangler," 1968 — "Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies," 1969 — "The Bad News Bears Go to Japan," 1978 — "Little Miss Marker," 1980 As a television actor: — "The Persuaders," 1971-72 — "Vegas," 1977-81 — "The Scarlett O'Hara War," 1980