Tony Curtis dead at 85

[Cowperson]

Thanks to Turner Classic, I became a belated fan of Tony Curtis in recent years . . . . so sad to see him go.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/394338...entertainment/

Probably best known for his hilarious drag turn with Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe in "Some Like It Hot" but I loved him in the darkly serious "The Sweet Smell Of Success" with an evil Burt Lancaster where Curtis played an overly ambitious press agent who probably never did discover any ethical boundaries.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sweet_smell_of_success/


He even had a Flinstones character named after him - Stony Curtis . . . . . and by the way, today is the 50th anniversary of the first airing of the Flintstones.

He was married to Janet Leigh of Psycho-fame, a babe herself, and was the father of Jamie Lee Curtis (who was smiling up a storm on Dancing With The Stars on Monday).

A great - and very frank - interview here with him, including the revelation that, at the age of 12, he had to identify the body of his nine-year-old brother for police after his abusive mother refused to.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...ng-Hitler.html

Curtis will always be associated most with the cross-dressing Billy Wilder masterpiece Some Like It Hot, which co-starred Marilyn Monroe. After filming that, he said, on being asked what it was like to kiss Monroe: "It was like kissing Hitler." This sentence has become part of movie lore.

Today, he says: "I said it as a joke. I mean, it was such a darn stupid question, so I gave a stupid answer."

Monroe and Curtis also had a history. When they were both struggling in Hollywood in the early Fifties, the two became lovers. Their brief liaison is described by Curtis with unabashed detail.

"She found it hard to reach orgasm. We were both inexperienced, 22 or something. It was a messy business." When they worked on Some Like It Hot, he says she had "gone funny. Her mind was all over the place. She had lost confidence".

In one scene, Curtis and Monroe romance each other on the sofa of a yacht. "It was awful," he says. "She nearly choked me to death by deliberately sticking her tongue down my throat into my windpipe."

In the film, Curtis parodied the voice of his idol and friend Cary Grant, while pretending to be an eligible millionaire. It was a brilliant piece of acting. "I was really proud of that," he says.

"They are all dead now. Cary, Jack Lemmon, Sinatra, all my Hollywood friends. Sometimes I feel so lonely."

Cowperson

[ken0042]

Thank you Tony for all your "Hollywood Memories" shorts on Superchannel in the early 90's.

I'm just glad most of your memories included women taking their shirts off.

[Cheese]

I agree with everything Cow posted...always liked him as an actor.
Sad to see that almost that entire generation of actors has passed on.

[Locke]

Who?

[SportsJunky]

R.I.P. Stony

[Cowperson]

Funniest LOL of the day . . . .

Starting out in 1949 as a contract player at Universal, Curtis broke out as a leading Hollywood actor in 1952 with "Son of Ali Baba." It was, however, a mixed blessing because the film also made Curtis the lifelong butt of a joke about his New York accent when he said: "Yonder lies the castle of my faddah." Rarely did his delivery of this line not come up during press interviews, but Curtis never saw the humor, saying it was "not just a put-down of New Yorkers but of Jews."

Cowperson

[flamesfever]

I got to see him in person in Vegas back in the 70's. We were attending a one night stand by Frank Sinatra, when he announced that an old friend of his, Bernie Schwartz (spelling?) was in the audience, and we would know him as Tony Curtis. He said Tony was giving up acting to write a book and wished him well. When Tony stood up, he was at the next table to us, and we hadn't even known he was there.

My wife and I really enjoy the TCM channel, and always enjoyed Tony's movies. He was extremely good looking in his youth, and a great actor.

R.I.P.

[transplant99]

He gave one of my favorite interviews of all time many years ago in Playboy IIRC. Very candid and really quite a funny guy. Terrific comedic actor but very good at the more serious stuff as well. Part of Hollywoods golden age, though certainly towards the end of it.

[icecube]

Originally Posted by ken0042

Thank you Tony for all your "Hollywood Memories" shorts on Superchannel in the early 90's.

I'm just glad most of your memories included women taking their shirts off.

Hollywood memories was solid. RIP Tony.

[icecube]

Originally Posted by Locke

Who?

Really man? Try reading the blurb cowperson posted. Do the math.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by SportsJunky

R.I.P. Stony

Bedrock's celebrities: "Cary Granite" (Cary Grant), "Stony Curtis" (Tony Curtis), "Ed Sulleyrock/Sulleystone" (Ed Sullivan), "Rock Pile/Quarry/Hudstone" (Rock Hudson), "Ann-Margrock" (Ann-Margret), "Jimmy Darrock" (James Darren), "Alvin Brickrock" (Alfred Hitchcock), "Perry Masonary/Masonite" (Perry Mason as played by Raymond Burr), "Mick Jadestone and The Rolling Boulders" (Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones), "Eppy Brianstone" (Brian Epstein) and "The Beau Brummelstones" (The Beau Brummels).

[Vulcan]

I liked him in the Boston Strangler. It took some guts to play a live villain.

[Ramsayfarian]

Esquire has a cool interview with him from 2005. Here's my favourite part:

When I left the Navy, I used the GI Bill to get into the Dramatic Workshop, which was located at the President Theatre on Forty-eighth Street. Walter Matthau and Harry Belafonte were students there, too. We were all just trying to make it. Later on, I went out to California, and good things started happening for me. When I came back to New York to do a promotion for City Across the River, they gave me a suite at the Sherry-Netherland and a huge black limo. I took it around to show my buddies in the Bronx and then went by the Dramatic Workshop. It was a terrible, rainy afternoon, and who do I see out in front? Walter Matthau. He's got a long, heavy coat on with a Racing Form sticking out of the pocket, and he's looking down at the gutter. Here I am in this nice, warm limo. And there he is, this grumpy guy surrounded by a cold, miserable world. The look on his face says, "What's ever going to happen for me? Nothin'!" So I tell the driver to pull alongside him and stop. Now Walter's watching the limo. I roll the window down, look at him, and say, "I f*&$ed Yvonne De Carlo!" Then I roll the window back up in a hurry and tell the driver to get the hell out of there.

Read more: http://www.esquire.com/features/what...#ixzz119GJLEDK